If you have an emotional relationship with food e.g.
Using food for comfort
Using food to change your state (how you feel)
Binge-eating to feel in control
And the list goes on
It's vital to begin to reframe the way you view emotions and personally, I think it's so important to have a tool to help you move up to higher feeling emotions instead of suppressing them or turning to food for relief & fulfillment. The tool I used when I began to repair my relationship with food and the tool I suggest to most of my clients is the Emotional Guidance Scale created by Abraham-Hicks.
It has helped me to understand the range of emotions I have, it allowed me to be more accepting of the emotions I was feeling and it lead me to understand that if I was feeling 'powerless' or 'insecure' that immediately wanting to forcefully change my state to feel 'love' or 'appreciation' wasn't going to happen. And possibly, it was going to keep me in the more 'negative' emotions for longer.
This method made changing my emotional state almost like an art to me. It helped take the sting out of emotions I was taught were 'bad to feel', 'wrong' or 'sinful' and it helped me move through my emotions with ease, grace and flow.
What does this have to do with your relationship with food? EVERYTHING!
Your emotional state at any given moment will determine the foods you choose to eat or not, especially if you have an unhealthy relationship with food or some sort of disordered eating pattern like I, and so many of my clients, had.
What Is The Emotional Guidance Scale?
The emotional scale is a list of emotions ranging from love, appreciation, joy and empowerment to despair, desperation, grief, and insecurity, created by Abraham-Hicks.
I love using this scale as a way to 'work my way up' to better feeling emotions again. Emotions can be seen as guidance. The thoughts you think and the meaning you give those thoughts will lead to the emotions you experience in the mind & body.
The emotions you feel at any given moment will be a determining factor of the choices you will make and the actions you will take. That's why when you're on a healing journey it's so important to learn how to work with your 'emotional guidance system' instead of against it.
When we try to ignore or suppress our emotions they tend to show up in other ways whether we overeat or binge eat, yell at our family members, restrict food or numb out in front of the TV.
Remember: The better you feel, the easier it is for you to make the healthiest choices for you and your body.
The more fulfilled you are the easier it is to take action on the health and wellness you know you deserve.
Understanding that emotions are simply energy in motion and that you can change the energy by:
Allowing the emotions (sensation in your body) to be there e.g. I am so mad!
Acknowledging what caused the emotion e.g. I am so mad at my co-worker for speaking to me like that.
Guiding yourself up the emotional scale by allowing yourself to go to neutral e.g. to feel differently or letting yourself experience the range of emotions up towards the state you prefer to be in e.g. love, excitement or joy, without taking unnecessary action like binge-eating or having a drink.
As you start using the Emotional Guidance Scale to feel better and better, you’ll find great relief knowing that you don’t have to force yourself back to joy to start feeling relief. You just have to be honest about how you’re feeling and choose the next best thought for you.
Simply acknowledging the emotion can be the start of 'moving up the scale' to neutral or to more positive emotions that will naturally lead to more positive choices and actions.
Emotions aren't weakness, they don't have power over you, they are just an indicator you have to see whether your current thoughts, beliefs, meanings and feelings are serving you towards the Highest Version of you or not.
So, get to know this 'tool' and begin to use it to guide yourself into better feeling emotions by choosing thoughts that bring you relief and by allowing yourself to be human, to feel and experience this world in all of it's contrasting ways. This will allow you to let go of so many of the 'coping mechanisms' that you may have used in the past to numb, control or change how you feel temporarily.
Remember, healing your relationship with food is really healing your relationship with you!
Here’s the emotional scale as described by Abraham-Hicks:
Joy/Appreciation/Empowerment/Freedom/Love
Passion
Enthusiasm/Eagerness/Happiness
Positive Expectation/Belief
Optimism
Hopefulness
Contentment
Boredom
Pessimism
Frustration/Irritation/Impatience
Overwhelment (feeling overwhelmed)
Disappointment
Doubt
Worry
Blame
Discouragement
Anger
Revenge
Hatred/Rage
Jealousy
Insecurity/Guilt/Unworthiness
Fear/Grief/Desperation/Despair/Powerlessness
*Learn more about the emotional guidance scale by reading 'Ask and it is Given' by Abraham-Hicks.
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