Our mind is intrinsically linked to our body and our body is constantly communicating within its cells.
This can be problematic because our subconscious (animalistic) old brain does not differentiate between what is happening right now and what happened 15 years ago. Hence if we automatically link real time experiences with past upsetting traumatic experiences we continuously trigger our sympathetic “fight, flight or fear” nervous system response. This stimulates the brain and body to release stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol.
There are eight main emotions that can trigger our stress response – helplessness, anger, confusion, rejection, grief, shame, guilt and betrayal.
Past experiences – such as abandonment – can naturally trigger feelings of hurt, sadness, anger and grief depending on the experience and self-limiting beliefs about ourselves created from these. The more attached we are to past unresolved negative experiences, the more our subconscious drives our behavioural patterns of “I can’t cope if I don’t have the “chocolate“ (food of choice).
Let’s take a look at a cycle of behaviour where stress induced by perceived fear negatively impacts triggers to reach for food:
- We experience a stressful situation.
- Our old brain links this with a past frightening experience.
- We react with negative self-talk such as “I am not okay”, “I cannot cope”.
- We default to food to distract from emotions surging through the body.
- We suppress or abandon the emotion for food because the perceived agony is too hard to face.
When we cannot be curious about our fear, we hide from it. In doing so we continue with old triggers, behavioural patterns and perceived rewards of food – we prevent our transformation. Our beliefs if allowed to go unquestioned can become our reality.
The more we activate our stress response, the more prone we become to severe stress, which has a physical impact on the body. This can result in:
-Depression, high blood pressure, inflammation –a pre-cursor to disease, to name a few affects.
-Elevated cortisol impacts our metabolic rate, which slows down.
-Slow metabolic rate induces abdominal fat accumulation and enlargement of individual fat cells. This is known as “diseased fat”.
We can transform our experience by consciously bringing awareness to it. Consciousness is defined as “awareness especially of something within oneself”. By bringing conscious awareness to what we are thinking, feeling and identifying with, we give ourselves a fundamental form of conscious “mind body” healing. We can discern logic; bring calmness and perspective to our decisions and sense of will power.
If you would like to work with me to improve your relationship with food get in touch by email evie@evieflynn.com or phone 087 2301342