The Power of Mindfulness

Module 3:

Using Meditation to Overcome Emotional Eating

     Mindfulness is the practice of being present in the moment and paying attention to your thoughts and feelings without judgment. It’s about being aware of what’s happening in your body and mind without trying to change it. When it comes to emotional eating, mindfulness can help you become more aware of your emotions and how they affect your eating habits.

     One way that mindfulness can help with emotional eating is by helping you identify your triggers. Triggers are objects, sensory markers, events or situations that cause you to eat emotionally. By becoming more aware of your triggers, you can learn to avoid them or find healthier ways to cope with them.

     Another way that mindfulness can help with emotional eating is by helping you become more aware of your hunger and fullness cues.

     Many people who eat emotionally have lost touch with their body’s natural signals for hunger and fullness. Mindfulness can help you become more aware of these signals so that you can eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full.

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     For example, Stefy Uotani, a life and health coach, struggled with bulimia as a teenager. She used food to manage her emotional states and binged frequently.

     Stopping binge eating required a shift in her beliefs about her worthiness and her ability to cope with stressful situations. She used food to suppress three negative emotions in particular: powerlessness, anxiety, and emptiness.

     With the assistance of a psychiatrist who helped her change some aspects of her negative and restrictive mindset, she beat bulimia.

     However, emotions such as loneliness, boredom, unhappiness and even excitement still triggered her appetite. She still made bad choices for her mental and physical wellbeing and was prone to emotional overeating.

     Ultimately, however, the real solution to overcoming emotional eating is not to avoid but to accept a variety of emotions, including negative ones, because they are a healthy part of life. So how did she finally break her emotional eating habits?

     With mindfulness meditation.

     Uotani started mindfulness meditation with the idea that it would help her embrace whatever emotion arose without using food or anything else to suffocate it. Mindfulness meditation helped her acknowledge behaviors that were otherwise automatic.

     Mindfulness meditation promotes a nonjudgmental observation of reality.

     A nonjudgmental (and even compassionate) mindset helps people embrace a variety of emotions, including negative feelings, without actively trying to suppress or change them with food.

     A systematic review published in Eating Behaviors in 2014 confirms that mindfulness meditation can help individuals scale down emotional eating and decrease binge eating episodes.

     Mindfulness is a powerful ally in the fight to break this cycle and bring awareness back into the equation. When an event triggers an emotion, emotional eaters can learn to stop, observe the situation, and choose to react in a different way.

     Meditation is one way to practice mindfulness. Meditation involves sitting quietly and focusing on your breath or a specific object for a period of time. It’s a way to train your mind to be more present and focused. Research has shown that meditation can be an effective tool for reducing emotional eating.

     Here are 6 steps you can take to use meditation to overcome emotional eating:

1. Find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed.
2. Sit comfortably with your back straight and your feet flat on the floor.
3. Close your eyes and take 5 deep breaths.
4. Focus on your breath as it enters and leaves your body.
5. If your mind starts to wander, gently bring it back to your breath.
6. Continue this practice for 5 minutes.

     It’s important to note that meditation is not a quick fix for emotional eating. It takes time, repetition, and practice to develop the skills necessary to use meditation effectively.

     However, with regular practice, meditation can help you become more aware of your emotions and how they affect your eating habits.

     In addition to meditation, there are other ways to practice mindfulness that can help with emotional eating. For example, you can try mindful eating. Mindful eating involves paying attention to the taste, texture, and smell of your food as you eat it. It’s about being present in the moment and savoring each bite.

     Another way to practice mindfulness is through yoga. Yoga combines physical postures with breathing exercises and meditation. It’s a way to connect your mind and body and become more aware of how they work together.

To sum up…

     Mindfulness is a powerful tool that can be used to overcome emotional eating. By becoming more aware of your emotions and how they affect your eating habits, you can learn to make healthier choices when it comes to food. Meditation is one way to practice mindfulness, but there are other ways as well such as mindful eating or yoga. Whatever method you choose, remember that it takes time, repetition, and practice to develop the skills necessary to use mindfulness effectively.

Here's a fun quiz to test your knowledge about the power of mindfulness and its impact on emotional eating:

1. What is emotional eating?

    a. Eating in response to emotions rather than hunger.

    b. Eating only when you're hungry.

    c. Eating when you're bored.

2. What is mindfulness?

    a. Being present in the moment and paying attention to your thoughts and feelings without judgment.

    b. Being aware of what's happening in your body and mind without trying to change it.

    c. Both a and b.

3. How can mindfulness help with emotional eating?

    a. By helping you identify your triggers.

    b. By helping you become more aware of your hunger and fullness cues.

    c. Both a and b.

4. What are triggers?

    a. Objects, sensory markers, events or situations that cause you to eat emotionally.

    b. Foods that cause you to eat emotionally.

    c. None of the above.

5. How can mindfulness help you become more aware of your hunger and fullness cues?

    a. By helping you pay attention to your body's natural signals for hunger and fullness.

    b. By helping you ignore your body's natural signals for hunger and fullness.

    c. None of the above.

6. What is Stefy Uotani's story?

    a. She struggled with bulimia as a teenager and used food to manage her emotional states and binged frequently.

    b. She struggled with anorexia as a teenager and used food to manage her emotional states and binged frequently.

    c. She struggled with binge eating as a teenager and used food to manage her emotional states.

Answers:

1. a

2. c

3. c

4. a

5. a

6. a

I hope you enjoyed taking this quiz!

Coming up Lesson 4…

4-The Role of Nutrition: How Eating the Right Foods Can Help You Heal from Trauma

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