Mindless Eating

 Look at all the times you automatically put food in your mouth. All the times you mindlessly wander into the kitchen and grab a biscuit or chocolate bar, fix yourself a sandwich and just add a packet of crisps for good measure. 

This happens a lot when people are carrying excess weight. It is one of the mysterious ways that food gets eaten and we don't even notice it.  It is mindless eating, it is unconscious eating. It is eating out of habit without putting any conscious awareness into the act we are indulging in. 

So ask yourself - What would my life look like if I took a closer look at those times I unconsciously eat? What if I caught myself wandering into the kitchen, seemingly aimlessly, and stopped myself and asked myself  - Am I actually, genuinely, physically hungry? Could I go another half hour before eating? 

What if I am full and I really just don't like how I feel emotionally right now? What if I became more aware of my emotions? What if I were to 'sit with' those emotions and even probe into them a little? What would happen? Would I become more aware of all the 'excess eating' I do for emotional reasons? Would I come face to face with emotional issues that bother me, that upset me, that I really have no idea how to handle other than to ignore them as best I can?

What would my life look like if I were to be more aware of my eating patterns to the extent that I could change them? 

What would my life look like if I were to become more aware of my emotions and what if I actually asked myself - Given the fact I feel this way, what would I like to do now?

What if I realised that my asking myself - What would I like to do? - that a whole new world would open up for me. A different world, maybe a better world, an interesting world. Not necessarily all in one fell swoop but bit by bit, area by area, moment by moment, a change here and job application there, a training course here, a little less time spent with Agnes there and more time spent with James. A request for a few less hours in the working week, a bit of on-line dating, you get the picture. You will know the changes you would like to make in your life and the decisions you can make. 

This is very much linked with our eating patterns and any addiction tendency, for the answers to the questions, the bringing in of more and more conscious awareness, along with new healthy habits and emotional resolving, you are creatively involved in propelling yourself out and away from addiction.

None of us needs addiction in our life to stay alive. None of us needs to overeat in our life to stay alive. None of us needs to drink or smoke in order to stay alive. Then why is it so widespread to see people overweight, addicted, drinking and smoking like their lives depended on it? 

That is because it snuck in on them when they were unconscious. It told them - ''Here this is the way you live.'' It told them - ''There is no other way.'' It told them  - ''This is the answer.'' And they believed it.

Now you can find the 'other way' - the way out of overeating and addiction to anything through bringing in 'Awareness' - Awareness and then change from within out, by asking the above questions.