I have been asked to write an article about comfort eating after several well respected publications have questioned the obesity crisis and suggested perhaps these unconscious patterns of over eating are a form of mental illness.
As a life coach who deals with this problem on a daily basis I can tell you right now, comfort eating has nothing to do with being mentally ill. The act of subconscious over eating, i.e. that one biscuit which turns into bingeing the whole packet, is nothing more than a bit of addiction to sugar, fat or salt, a bit of boredom an addiction and a lot of filling a hole in an empty soul. The truth is, if you are living your purpose, working hard, have a busy filled productive day and you are not looking outward for an instant fix to feel better, comfort eating does not existexist.
Comfort eating and over indulging, which ultimately ends up as a physical illness, i.e. heart disease, obesity, is all caused by irresponsible, greedy big business supermarkets who have prayed on the weakness and sadness of people desperately unhappy in our sad materially driven obsessed society, always under massive pressure to keep up with the Jones even when broke and broken. It is this feeling of emptiness we often deny that compels us to fill up in other ways.
Filling that massive empty hole in the soul is all about self-belief, self-preservation and confidence which in reality stops people feeling sad, depressed, inadequate and not good enough. If comfort eating, like every other status anxiety dysfunction in the human mind is being put down to mental illness, we are at risk of eventually killing off human beings altogether in the name of greedy capitalism and making the odd few rich cats at the top even richer.
To fill the hole in the soul we don't need biscuits, booze or chocolate, we need to understand we are what we eat and remember it is a fact, what is from the earth is the greatest of worth with health benefits that bring the mind to life that fill you up and make you feel happy, satisfied and fuller for much longer.
So take comfort in the fact you are filling your body, your mind and ultimately your soul with all the goodness it needs to reach your absolute maximum potential - which translates to feeling incredible every day.
Photo by: Social Cut Unsplash