Eating Disorders and Emotional Eating: Taming the Overactive Mind

by Tricia Greaves

If you are an emotional eater, chances are you’re well acquainted with a “spinning” head. Your mind races a hundred miles a minute and you can’t turn it off. The only respite you find is when you’re zoning out in front of the TV with a bag of chips or cookies.

You are not alone. Most emotional eaters are plagued with overactive minds. We worry, fret and “what if” ourselves practically to death! We also spend inordinate amounts of time fantasizing about how it could be, should be and what we’re going to make it be! Our elaborate plans for running our lives (and everyone else’s) keep us plenty busy and we wind up exhausted and ready for a self-justified binge at the end of the day. We turn to food as our preferred “drug” to sedate our minds and give us the sense of calm we so desperately need (that’s why we’re especially drawn to carbohydrates, which produce a seratonin boost and subsequent sedation). Of course the spinning begins again as soon as the food coma wears off and the hunger returns.

Emotional eaters are especially prone to fearful thoughts. I like to refer to us as “professional worriers”. We spend time rehearsing mistakes of the past and predicting all possible negative outcomes of the future. In an effort to achieve some measure of control, we worry about everything! When we try to control our world, however, we create more anxiety and trouble. This, of course, sends us back to the refrigerator for more comfort and calm.

The best solution I know for calming the mind is meditation. Have you ever tried it? If you have, it’s possible you abandoned it soon after you started, feeling that your mind was too busy to continue! Well, the truth is that it takes practice. And there’s no such thing as doing it perfectly. A friend of mine once said that meditation is really quite simple…all you have to do is “sit down and shut up”!

If you need some help to start a meditation practice, or if you want to take baby steps and begin with visualization (where your mind is actually doing something) I’ve created the 2-CD set: “Visualization and Meditation for the Overactive Mind”. It’s the best NO-CALORIE solution for calming your mind!

Another help is prayer. When we’re praying, we’re connecting with a higher consciousness which opens the door for healing. Einstein once said “the consciousness that created the problem can’t solve the problem”. This means you can’t think your way out of your thoughts. Open your mind to the spiritual realm and see if you don’t experience at least a few moments of calm and respite.

The third effective tool is writing. Get a pen and paper and settle into a cozy chair or nook and just let the thoughts spill out on paper. Allow every thought that is trapped in your mind flow out of your pen onto paper. (You can do this on the computer as well.) You will be amazed at the shift in your state as you write. When our thoughts are trapped inside our head and we chase them around and around, we end up dizzy and beaten by them; they’re in control. When we expose them by putting them on paper they lose their power over us. Try it, you have nothing to lose and only sanity to gain!

When we spend too much time in our heads, we miss out on the beauty of life around us. Give yourself the gift of slowing down and enjoying the present by using these tools of meditation, prayer and writing. The best benefit you’ll gain is more balance and freedom around food. You won’t need food to slow your mind down when you’ve chosen other healthier ways to achieve true peace of mind.

Tricia Greaves, who lost 50 lbs. and has overcome several addictions, is the founder of Be Totally Free!, a non-profit which helps people to break free from eating disorders, emotional eating, obesity and all addictions. Be Totally Free’s unique “Metasteps” process helps people address and heal the underlying causes of addiction. Tricia is also the creator of the popular “Heal Your Hunger” workshops. She is a contributing author of “101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health” published by SelfGrowth.com and “Thank God I Was Fat”. Tricia has been featured on numerous TV and radio shows, and has a contributing column in many publications. To learn more and to register for your free “BTF JumpStart Kit” visit www.betotallyfree.com.