Everyone has their personal reasons for why they eat the way they do and these will be determined by their beliefs and emotions. Perhaps your emotions are telling your body unconsciously that it needs to protect itself in some way. Maybe you’re not eating excessively and still putting on the pounds.
Many people who are overweight are not even aware of what the cause is but feel out of control. Most really want to lose weight but are just unable keep the momentum going and self-sabotage or give up when stressful events come along. EFT can be especially helpful for weight loss as it addresses unconscious beliefs and dissolves emotional issues that we all accumulate as we go through childhood and into life as an adult.
Negative emotions locked in our minds and body will express themselves at some stage eventually. It may be physical health that’s affected or mental or emotional problems (including behaviour) that emerge. Eating to tranquilise feelings is extraordinarily common. Often, the event(s) that started it all off are lost in the mists of time but the subconscious mind remembers everything and will adopt patterns of behaviour that it believes will in some way make you happy or less anxious in the short-term.
Once these issues are addressed, a new view of your life and increased self-worth begins to emerge. This in turn means that you start to want to look after yourself and new eating habits can be applied and accepted by the subconscious mind.
How can EFT help with weight control?
Food can have strong emotional connections for many people. How many of us associate a treat or sweet things with making us feel better? By asking questions such those below, a picture can be built up of what’s making an individual feel the need to avoid eating healthily:
“What emotions are you stuffing down when you eat?”
“What would you have to face if you were slim?”
“How do you feel if you can’t have your fix and what does that remind you of?”
“What are you gaining by being the weight you are currently?”
“Do you believe your weight problem is ‘genetic’ or caused by a slow metabolism and so it’s out of your control?”
“What would others say about you if you were slim?”
What would others say about you if you put on weight?
What are you starved of in your life?
These are just a few examples of the many questions that can be asked about emotions and eating. There may be limiting beliefs in the way such as “I can’t lose this weight because all the women in my family are the same”. There may be emotional issues such as “It’s not safe to be slim, men would be attracted to me” or "I get anxious if I don't keep eating". When they are identified, they can be neutralised with EFT and more helpful beliefs put in their place. As the work progresses, often more issues come up rather like peeling an onion layer by layer. What tends to happen is that the client begins to notice that they feel differently about themselves and their relationships. This leads to a desire to look after themselves more and more. As the momentum builds with continuing EFT sessions and support, they become encouraged and the belief that they can do it builds yet more momentum and so it goes. Every client is different however and comes with their unique way of operating in the world so how long it takes varies.
What about dieting?
Diets that perpetuate a constant feeling of denial or deprivation don’t work long term, end of story! They are not a sustainable way of life and leave the client fighting their food battle every single day. That’s an extraordinarily stressful way to live. Better to find what’s behind the need to eat unhealthily and sort it out. When the client is free from the anxiety, insecurity or other contributory factors, he or she naturally starts to want to take better care of themselves. They tend to naturally "diet" except this time there is no feeling of deprivation and so is sustainable.
What do I mean by “eating to tranquilise feelings”?
Many people who have a battle with their weight will concede that it’s because they are not eating healthily. Careful questioning and exploring their feelings will often reveal why they can’t stick to a healthy way of eating. Perhaps their will-power crumbles when life gets stressful (and it will at some time or other) and without thinking they reach for comfort food. That’s OK in itself, you can’t beat the odd treat and spoiling yourself but it can start a cycle of over-eating that takes some stopping.
Most of the time, there is an underlying emotional reason for not wanting to take better care of yourself. It is unresolved issues or inappropriate beliefs that will cause an anxiety or tension that needs to be regularly tranquilised to make you feel better for a while.
What if I'm not over-eating but still overweight?
The body is capable of maintaining excess weight despite a "normal healthy diet" and can be caused by a number of factors including the mind. Some of the physical or medical reasons behind the weight may also have emotional components to them and so can be influenced by EFT.
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“It’s Not About The Food”
I don't focus on what people are eating. That doesn't mean that eating too much or the wrong things are not what’s making you overweight. It means that when people come to me for weight loss help they have tried most things with limited or no success. It's possible that your eating habits are just that - a habit but I look for things that are keeping that eating behaviour in place.
Phil Grant - EFT Practitioner (Adv.)& Trainer
Based in Henfield, West Sussex, UK .