Emotional and Stress-Eating

Everyday stress can drive emotional and stress-eating. And tweaking something you do every day – breathing – can help you combat it.

A bit of background first…

** When you’re stressed, your brain tells your body that you’re under threat and it reacts automatically by producing adrenaline. Adrenaline tells your body to use up your glucose stores to get out of ‘danger’. Then your body wants that glucose restored, so off you go to the pantry.

Unfortunately, your body’s approach hasn’t caught up with the stresses we face today. It’s designed to react to the occasional predator and intermittent raids by outside tribes. But we now bombard it with constant work and relationship stress. We have way too much adrenaline for our design. No wonder you’re reaching for sugar.

You’re actually designed to spend most of your time in calm, with the occasional stress spike that you recover from quickly.

How can you get into that calm state? The stress response is automatic, but there is one element of that system you can control: breathing.

Breathing intentionally deeply and slowly sends a signal to your brain that you’re safe. After all, if a sabre-tooth tiger had you in its sights, you wouldn’t be sitting around breathing calmly.

There are lots of different approaches to breathing intentionally so I’m going to keep it simple.

1.     Inhale and let your whole chest expand and your belly too. (Yup, let your belly expand. 😲)
2.     Then exhale for longer than you inhaled. Your belly and chest will return to their normal position.
3.     Do this five times each morning and night for the rest of your life.
4.     Also do it before you reach for the emotional dampener of your choice: cakes, pies, chips…

Your nervous system has likely been stressed for a significant amount of time. This breathing practice can take a while to become effective.

But, look at it this way, you’re already breathing. Take it one step further to help yourself deal with your stress.

**This is a very simplified explanation of what happens. If you want more details, ask me.

Photo by Sean Thomas on Unsplash