Cravings: A Call To Feed The Emotion

Are we addicted to our emotions?  I believe we are. Emotions mirror our food, drug and alcohol addictions. When we take responsibility for our substance abuses, we can understand how our addictions are connected to our emotional body. We cannot heal one without healing the other. 

Food in the form of addictions is used to feed emotional pain. Emotional energy cannot exist without being fed.  So why would we choose to feed the pain? Feeding an emotion allows us to deny our feelings one more time. If we don’t feel it, we don’t have to deal with it. Hence, the energy remains painfully hidden.

Those in the midst of a craving MUST HAVE that food, drink or drug. They hold a belief that they cannot exist without it. The truth is cravings are a call to feed the emotion so we can remain in our unhealthy patterns of behaviors. To stay hidden, the emotion needs to be fed again, and again, and again.

I constantly hear from clients, “I can’t change that choice; I have to ... !”  Nothing is further from the truth. No matter what our beliefs may be, we are free to change a choice at any time; we are choosing not to.  Once we own our choices, we now have the power to change them, one thought at a time.

Changing our thought from “I MUST have that” to “I am choosing to feed my emotion” allows us to take the first step in healing - being accountable for our choices. From there, we can see how the physical body becomes a barometer that connects us to our emotional pains. 

Our physical body gets our attention in a number of ways.  Sometimes it speaks through muscular or skeletal pains, rashes, or infections.  All of these symptoms share the same language: “I need attention now!”  If we refuse to give our body the attention it needs, the language intensifies until denial becomes impossible.  Eventually, the physical body may shut us down.  Now it has our attention!  I prefer not to wait so long.

Learning the language of our physical symptoms before they become extreme, may help us avoid some of this pain; and if pain is the absence of love (which I believe it is) then the language is quite clear: “I am not loving me!”  This means that our choices are no longer making us happy, in which case, it is time to change our choices until we can truthfully say,  “I love that choice!”  Loving one’s choices is equal to loving one’s self, and love heals pain.

Choices made from obsessive thoughts, distorted truths or addictive food will never bring us to joy, and yet we continue to attach ourselves to them for fear of who we might be without them. It is the energy from these behaviors that become stored in our physical body and that painfully speak to us when we cannot hear otherwise. 

Facing and honoring our addictions is part of the healing process.  Choosing foods that say, “I am loving me” will stop feeding the energy of emotional pain. Or we can choose to continue our abuse by choosing foods that feed the emotions.  

How do we begin? Healing is much like a game of hide and seek. As soon as we feel a craving emerge, instead of feeding the emotion, we can speak to it by saying: “I am done feeding my emotions; I am ready to heal.”  These words allow the energy attached to the emotion to recognize it has been found. This in turn allows us the opportunity to change and change helps us move through the emotion. 

Next, we must show the physical body that we mean what we say. The way to do that is by choosing to eat healthy foods and drink pure spring water.  These two choices will energetically confirm that we are ready and willing to begin loving our ‘self.’ 

Certain foods feed certain emotions, so learning what to avoid to stop feeding the emotion is the next step in healing.  Next week I will share with you which foods feed which emotions.  Until then, pay attention to the foods you crave.