Hello and welcome.
I am Lisa Schlossberg and I will be your guide for today.
Now when it comes to emotional eating,
Stress eating,
Or just a generally out-of-control relationship with food,
I think the first step is knowing that you are not the problem.
You are not broken and it's not your fault.
Food is something that can bring our mood up and bring our stress down.
We are biologically designed to actually be emotional eaters because it's something that we survive on.
But once you have released the stories that you are the problem and you are broken and that it's all your fault,
Sometimes the question comes up that is,
Well what am I supposed to do about it?
If you stop shaming and blaming yourself,
You might find that you still don't want to be using food as your primary way of coping and that's valid.
So there are two things that I want to tell you.
The first is that if the biggest problem you have with food is that you're an emotional eater,
It's not a problem you have with food.
It's a question about how you're coping with your emotions.
The other thing is that if you find yourself eating when you're not physically hungry,
It doesn't mean the hunger isn't real.
It just means the hunger isn't physical.
So ultimately the question becomes,
What are you hungry for?
What is it that you are seeking that you're using food and eating to fill?
What is the need that needs to be met that can't be met with food because the hunger isn't physical?
The hunger is physical.
Eating food serves the purpose.
But when eating is emotional,
We can't get that need met with food.
So what is it that we need?
Now very often the reason that we will turn to something like food and eating or drugs and alcohol and other things that will help us numb and suppress is because it feels like the emotional energy of what we're experiencing is too overwhelming or too scary.
And since our brain is brilliantly designed to help us move away from discomfort,
When we start feeling emotions that are uncomfortable,
We very often try to find ways out of feeling them.
So what I find very often is that we don't need more external things outside of us for a hit of safety.
What we really need as a root,
To address it at the root,
Is to feel safe internally.
To feel safe with ourselves,
To feel safe with our thoughts,
With our feelings,
With our sensations,
And ultimately safe to be in the body while we are feeling them.
So that's what this practice is for.
This is what this will help support you with.
So having said all of that,
What I would like to do is just begin with inviting you to close your eyes or drop your gaze,
Whatever feels comfortable and safe for you right now.
And first just start to notice your breath and your breathing.
And for a few rounds of breath,
Just filling yourself up with an inhale very mindfully.
And then an audible exhale on the way out.
I'll just do that again a couple more times.
Big mindful inhale,
Fill yourself up.
And exhale,
Sigh it out,
Hum it out.
And then last one,
Make this the biggest breath of your day so far.
So feel the expansion of your breath all the way to the top.
And then big exhale,
Let it all go.
And then keeping your eyes closed here,
Staying focused on your breath for the next few rounds.
What you're doing right now is just grounding yourself into this moment and so feeling your feet on the ground if that's where they are.
Even maybe pressing your feet into the ground for a little bit more of that felt sense of connection.
And then if you're in a chair or a couch,
Maybe just feeling that beneath you and behind you.
And then bringing the awareness to any clothes that might be touching your skin,
Glasses if they're resting on your nose,
And maybe any sounds that you might be hearing in addition to my voice right now.
So just activating your senses as a way of bringing yourself here into this moment.
And if you need a little bit more time to feel settled here,
I want to invite you to just pause this and then come back to it whenever you're ready.
And then once you're feeling still and settled,
I want to invite you to think of a time recently where you found yourself turning to food emotionally.
So you were maybe clear that you weren't physically hungry,
You weren't eating out of hunger,
But maybe you were feeling bored or lonely or sad or anxious and food was there for you as a coping mechanism.
So just identifying a time where that may be true for you and just calling in that memory,
That experience,
And starting to fill out some of the details in your mind's eye.
So where were you?
What were you doing?
What were you eating?
And just start bringing that alive in your in your mind.
And then just remembering as you do that,
That this is normal,
This is human,
This is brain science,
Turning to food.
It is not your fault and you are not doing anything wrong.
And so we're bringing this memory up not as a way to shame you or judge you or criticize you for using this behavior,
But actually to learn more about what was going on inside so that you can choose differently in the future.
And once that experience feels alive for you,
Just starting to identify what was going through your head at the time.
What were you thinking,
If you can remember?
What are the thoughts that were present?
What was going on in your mind before or maybe during you found yourself turning to food?
And again,
You're just observing,
You're witnessing,
You're not here to judge anything,
You are just collecting data about your own experience.
This is what I was thinking about.
And then with that,
Starting to just draw the awareness of what was going on for you emotionally.
What were you feeling?
And maybe you noticed this is where you were experiencing some loneliness or boredom,
Sadness,
Fear,
Anger,
Grief.
What is it that was showing up for you emotionally?
And again,
You're just observing,
There is no right or wrong answer here.
You are just getting curious and compassionate to learn more about your experience.
And then once you have identified some of these emotions,
I want to invite you to imagine that you are taking a step back and creating space for them to be here now.
And you might do that a few times if there are a few different emotions that came up.
Just imagine that you are pulling up a seat at the table for each of them and all of them.
And as you are doing that,
Just inviting them in.
Notice how it feels in your body.
Are there any sensations that come with the energy of these emotions?
So maybe you start noticing tightness or contraction,
Tingling,
Hot,
Cold,
Tightness in your back or your belly,
Pain in your head.
Could be anywhere in your body,
But just doing a gentle scan,
Noticing what shows up when these feelings are present.
And then once you've identified where this lives in your body,
Come back to your breath and fill yourself up again mindfully with an inhale.
And then send your exhale to that space in your body,
Send your exhale to the sensation directly.
And then do that again,
Big inhale,
Just mindfully filling yourself up.
And exhale,
Send your breath to the sensations that you're experiencing.
And while you're doing this,
What you are inviting is this sensation to be here exactly as it is.
Nothing needs to change,
Nothing needs to be different.
You don't need it to go away.
And you also don't need to go away.
So just noticing as you practice this,
That there is potentially an uncomfortable energy in your body,
And that you are safe to be here right now.
And repeating that another few times,
If it resonates,
This is uncomfortable,
Maybe,
But it is not unsafe.
Your anger,
Your fear,
Your jealousy,
Your grief,
Your sadness,
It is uncomfortable.
It is not unsafe.
So staying with your breath and filling yourself up again.
And on your exhale,
Sending your awareness and your connection to the sensations in your body and the emotions that are here.
And staying here for a moment,
Acknowledging that maybe you don't like it.
And maybe you don't want it.
And you can practice tolerating it.
You can practice accepting it.
Because these thoughts and feelings,
They come up sometimes.
That's okay.
What you're practicing right here right now is not resisting them.
Not running away and not trying to control them.
What you're doing here is taking your power back from them by creating space for all of it to be here.
When you need an anchor of safety,
You can find your breath,
Reconnect to that chair or couch beneath you and behind you.
And maybe if it resonates or feels good,
Placing a hand on your heart.
Again,
Not to make anything go away,
But with the intention of feeling your own presence,
Feeling the connection you have to yourself.
And the way that you are here.
When your feelings come up,
You are practicing staying present with them rather than turning to food to cope with them.
Just coming again back to your breath and staying in your body and with yourself.
Because you do not need food to survive the discomfort of your emotional experience.
You need you,
Your presence,
Your connection,
To feel safe in your body,
As it is right now.
So just noticing again,
Observing how your body feels,
How those sensations,
Maybe shift at all,
They might move around,
Sometimes it will get more intense or less intense.
But your job is to just keep practicing staying with it.
So just noticing how things are shifting or moving,
If at all.
And then very slowly,
Very gently,
Whenever you are ready,
Just starting to think about shifting out of this,
Thinking about opening your eyes soon.
But really staying present and staying gentle with yourself.
If you need a little bit more time here,
I invite you to take that.
There is no rush,
There is no urgency to move out of this.
And when you are ready,
And feel called,
Maybe just start to flutter your eyes open,
Moving really slowly.
Keeping your gaze low until you feel ready to bring it back up again.
And then if you feel called,
If there's anything that came up for you here,
Maybe grabbing something to write with,
Taking some notes about anything that was present for you,
Or just anything that maybe you want to remember or hold on to as a reminder.
Something along the lines of,
If you're eating when you're not hungry,
It doesn't mean it's not real,
It just means it's not physical.
Or maybe you want to remember that your feelings can sometimes be uncomfortable,
But they're not unsafe.
And that you have the courage,
You have what you need to stay present with yourself and in your body.
And if you need support and you need help with that,
When you feel like turning to food,
You can come back to this.
