Why Emotional Health Increases Physical Health

Once you begin to become more mindful of how you feel physically, you will naturally become aware of how you feel emotionally. Learning to deal with emotions such as anger, stress and frustration positively, without turning to food, all starts with emotional awareness.

Often times, when we spend a lot of time in our heads to avoid experiencing feelings, our "monkey mind" or "noisy roomate" , as it's sometimes called can lead us to mindlessly overeat or make food choices that don't honor our bodies and health. And yet the noisy roomate is not our friend. It tells stories that we believe to be true when so often, these imaginings are nonsense.

Moving forward, I want you to start checking in with yourself regularly, throughout the day, by being aware of and identifying specific thoughts you may be having. Ask yourself "how are these thoughts are making me feel?"  This practice, when performed every 30 minutes, will help you catch yourself, and identify your underlying need before you reach for the bag of potaoe chips.

You may need a powernap, a ten minute break and a cup of hot tea or a walk in the fresh air. You may just need a hug, a neck rub or a big glass of water. Maybe you just need to phone a friend and vent a little to let off steam. Whatever it is, there is usually a healthier way of dealing with unpleasant feelings, rather than eating food you don't need and its a way healthier for you.

As you get emotionally healthier, you will become acutely aware of how certain people and situations make you feel. If, everytime you speak to your sister, you end up trying to please her, while she belittles you in front of others and then pretends it was a joke, you may need to choose not to care a lot about her words.

Oftentimes, when people are mean towards us, it has more to do with them and their troubles than it has to do with us. Now, we can choose to be hurt by such comments, or, alternatively, we can recognize the motive and simply walk away, hang up or choose not to care a lot about the relationship.

You see, when you choose how you want to feel emotionally, which, I presume, is fabulous, then there is no point tolerating someone bringing you down. Especially when this type of emotional abuse can lead you to eat as a way of coping.

With awareness and mindfulness, practiced in the moment, you are better able to identify these trigger situations and either limit them, or simply brace yourself for them mentally, so that being around certain people doesn't always result in you wanting to eat.

Try this next time you walk into a potentially triggering situation. With awareness you'll be amazed at how you can set an intention of the perfect unfolding (ie. you don't feel the need to reach for food to calm anxiety). Practice this and you will see how it puts you back in charge of situations that were previously detrimental to your morale.

As you get emotionally more aware and healthier, you will naturally feel the need to numb youyrself with food diminish as well, which is wonderful progress!