Food Addiction Recovery – #15
In food addiction you need to develop a healthy suspicion for your gut feelings. Many people make decisions based on how they feel – nothing wrong with that of course. Trusting your feelings can lead to good or bad outcomes is the bottom line. Even trusting your feelings can lead to just different outcomes in life than say following your rational thinking in making your decisions. All I am saying here is that as a food addict in early to middle food addiction recovery this can become problematic in many cases when it comes to managing your compulsive overeating. I recommend you create a new “mantra” for yourself that goes something close to the following: “Feelings come from thoughts. I can control my feelings if I work on it.”
Human beings have the capacity for rational thought. Because feelings come from thoughts, you need to look at feelings as something that occurs AFTER you have had some sort of “activating event” or “stimulus” in the environment. The thought may have happened so fast you may not have noticed it—this is often called automaticity—but there is always a thought that comes before feelings although you may not be aware of the thought. You need to learn to reason with your brain rather than rely on your “gut feelings” as a food addict. So make a commitment to let rational thinking guide your behavior, not your emotional reactions – at least be suspicious of your feelings. Feelings are not the “holy grail” in life although some would say I am totally wrong in this regard I am sure. I suggest you take my statement and see for yourself how this impacts your compulsive overeating. When feelings come up ask yourself what you must be thinking to feel that way. Be willing to examine every emotion or feeling that comes up in life in the cold light of reason. Sort of like the old saying “think before you act.” More on this as we move forward in this series.
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