Sensitive Spirit

If you tend to turn to food as a way to cope with stress, sadness, anger, or boredom...

You’re a Sensitive Spirit. You feel deeply but are unsure how to cope and feel uncomfortable sitting with emotions. You keep Ben and Jerry on speed dial for when you’ve had a bad day and crave an instant fix for uncomfortable emotions.

You’re not alone.

It's so much easier just to eat something we know will make us feel better in the moment than to actually sit with our “negative” emotions. But after we’ve eaten the jar of peanut butter or pint of ice cream, the issue that drove us to emotionally eat is likely still unresolved; plus, we feel guilty and ashamed for overeating, leaving us feeling worse than we did before.

Sound familiar?

Don’t worry. The first step to overcoming emotional overeating is simply awareness. So just by taking this quiz, you’re one step closer to your goals. ♡

try these tips:

1. Keep a food journal. Write down what, when, and where you ate, and how you felt before and after your meal or snack. This will help you connect the dots and pinpoint when you’re most susceptible to emotionally overeat. If you’re snacking at work, you might be stress eating. If you’re eating alone at night, you may be eating as a way to distract yourself from loneliness or boredom. Take some time to reflect on your findings and write down some alternate coping strategies, activities, and habits you can turn to instead of food the next time you’re in a similar situation.
   Pssst… I created the Eat Freely Food Journal and Daily Food Journal Notepad for women just like you who are struggling with emotional overeating and wanting to eat more mindfully.

2. Build a solid support group. This could include close friends, family members, a significant other, or even co-workers. It’s helpful to have someone to turn to when you’re feeling sad, frustrated, lonely, or stressed. It’s also important to have people who bring joy and fun into your life!

3. Seek outside help. Find a therapist or other professional who can help you sit with and work through your emotions.

4. Try breathwork. Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly), breathing can help release many emotions like sadness, frustration, stress, anger, and anxiety. There are many different breathing techniques out there, but a very basic one is called box breathing. Simply inhale for a count of four, hold full for a count of four, exhale for a count of four, hold empty for a count of four, and repeat.