Meditation for Overeating During the Holidays

Overeating is due to too much stress, anger, and nervousness. This stress increases during the holidays and increases more tension when you cannot manage your emotions. Eating makes you feel better even when you are not feeling hungry. However, overeating can also be caused by feeling boredom, anxiety, and too much pressure to complete job tasks or household chores. During the holidays, the demand to finish shopping, wrapping, and cooking can make anyone eat too much due to a cluster of emotions.

Yet, overeating because of emotions also has other internal reasons that cause the impulse to eat more. Often emotional eating can be rooted in hurtful childhood experiences, trauma, painful breakups, painful divorces, or other experiences that make you feel blamed. Furthermore, overeating makes you feel guilty and makes you have lower self-esteem Therefore, emotional eating requires checking on your thoughts and feelings more often. It is recommended to have a good support system from family, friends, and people who know you.

Meditation, mindfulness, and yoga can help you be more attuned with your thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Practice mindfulness when you are eating with your family and with your friends. Mindful eating makes you slow down. You can also eat in silence with your family and friends to help you calm down while you are eating at the dinner table. Additionally, you can use your cell phone as a food journal or an application for your food diary.

Emotional eating can be managed with a food journal to process your emotions. Avoid participating in pessimistic conversations with your family and friends. Instead, practice a breathing exercise to help you remain calm and to feel less nervousness. This can lessen your stress and anxiety. Furthermore, practicing positive affirmations can permit you to control your emotions and help you feel relaxed during the family gathering. 

Keep your mind busy by joining in optimistic conversations with them. Take a walk before eating and after eating. The holidays can make you feel sadness, anger, loneliness, and nervousness all at the same time. Therefore, it is recommended to put paper clips of your emotions and go through each emotion one by one on pieces of paper. Keep a chart or a list of what you eat in your food journal.

Do yoga poses by listening to classical music or other instrumental music. Focus on the yoga poses and the classical music. Yoga poses such as the Plank pose, Wide-legged Forward Bend, Half Boat pose, Chair pose, Warrior Lunge Twist, Tree pose, and other poses can help you move your body and help your de-stress. In addition to yoga, you can use guided meditations that can be found on cell phone applications to help you feel less nervous. Here is a brief list of positive affirmations:

1. I am in control of my body.
2. My negative emotions can flow out as I breathe.
3. Negativity might be like thunder, but my optimism is like a rainbow.
4. I am more than emotion and I eat when I am hungry.
5. I listen to my stomach signals for hunger.
6. I love myself and food is my nourishment.
7. My emotions bounce and go but I am full of strength.
8. I am unique and love my body.
9. My negative emotions wash out and my optimistic emotions stay.
10. I am in control and ignore negativity.

Positive affirmations can help with negative thoughts before binge eating, overeating, or eating due to emotions. Focus on your conversations and concentrate on mingling with your family and friends. Practice forgiveness by meditating and change your thoughts about food. Build a positive mindset with food and separate your emotions with food over time. Here are websites with more information about meditating for overeating.

Affirmations for Forgiving Yourself for Binge Eating-Recovery Warriors: 

Affirmations for Forgiving Yourself For Binge Eating - Recovery Warriors

Best Yoga Poses for Appetite Control and Weight Loss-Prevention:

Best Yoga Poses For Appetite Control And Weight Loss | Prevention

 

Emotional Eating with a Mindful Approach-Mindful:

Emotional Eating With A Mindful Approach - Mindful

How to Overcome Emotional Eating Using Mindfulness Meditation-Better Humans:

How to Overcome Emotional Eating Using Mindfulness Meditation | Better Humans

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