Day One Hundred and Sixty Seven!!!!

Releasing the feeling of emptiness. 


The feelings of emptiness can also be described as loneliness or the feeling of being lost. Emptiness, is when a person actually literally feels empty, they need something to fill the void, and when there is a filling of the void it actually allows the person to feel connected. When we think about food consumption, we think about being in relationship, it provides us a feeling of safety, importance, and a part of being a part of the group. It says to us that we are okay. 


So, what happens in regard to food consumption and being a part of the group, is, we actually link those feelings that we get when we are eating in relationship with a positive feeling and those positive feelings can create different types of food compulsion. The problems with food consumption, such as overeating and especially, overeating while watching TV, can be an avoidance behaviour, the avoidance of feeling lost, lonely, or empty. 


Other eating issues can be the result of feeling overwhelmed or the need to avoid feelings of either anger or anxiety. Food can also be used to avoid traumatic memory. The use of food that can result with problems with food, can be complicated and multilayered. These problems with food can be to do with both current and or past events. There may be many feelings that go along with over eating that can result in a negative self image. A negative self image can be as a result of feelings such as; self disgust, shame and/or guilt, which can be related to the inability of controlled food intake.


Negative self-images can be in conjunction with negative self talk, such as; ‘I’m ugly, I’m lazy, I’m unlovable’. This becomes the persons core belief in how they see themselves, as well as how other people see them, as well as how they see the world. The combination of both the belief system and the self image causes an inner fight, because, both the inner self image and negative belief system have an extreme amount of unconscious power. This unconscious power creates intense inner conflict. There are both the feelings that created the eating behaviour in the first place and added to this, are often failures of previous attempts to lose weight, also contributing to a negative self image. 


We associate food with how it is that we feel and we create an image in our mind that represents that feeling, for e.g. the words ‘I am starving’ might evoke the image of a you literally starving which then gives permission to eat ravenously without end. The feeling of emptiness has been linked back to inadequate mirroring. We have mirror neutrons in our brain and when other people mirror us the mirroring tells us that we are okay. If we are not mirrored but, instead rejected, this leads to experiences of feeling empty, which in turn, can be triggered by events later in life. That is why through the over-intake of food, a person can immerse themselves in that world, in order to feel connected. In this case it is the world of food. 


In order to identify and resolve the food issues a person has, a good starting point is to draw out, and investigate your timeline. The target that reveals emptiness will quickly reveal itself.