Emotions are energy in motion, it’s your body’s way of telling you how you should be feeling. They come and go, in fact they only last 90 seconds. Yes, just a measly 90 seconds – so why do we feel rubbish for so much longer?
If you’re still experiencing the emotion after 90 seconds, it’s because you’re attaching your thoughts to that initial experience of the emotion, and you’re extending it with your thought patterns.
There is actually a neurological surge of chemicals that courses through your body when you have an intense emotional trigger and reaction, but this passes after 90 seconds – so any further emotion is all your doing, by holding on to your thoughts and the way they are making you feel, crazy right?!
Action step:
So, your action step today is to take that moment when you have an intense emotional trigger, and pause, remove yourself from the situation and slow down your breathing, yes, just breathe.
Breathe and try to focus all of your mental energy on the sensation in your body. Feel the physical sensations of that surge of chemicals moving through your body. Name out loud the sensation that you’re feeling as they change. If you can focus on the sensation of the emotion, instead of on the emotional story, then you can keep yourself from turning to food whenever you experience emotional upset. Instead you can feel what you are feeling, and let it move through and not eat about it – a bit like a surfer riding the wave, you want to ride the wave rather than be swallowed up by it!
I didn’t find this easy to do at first, so may take time and effort, but it is worth it, I promise.
Lisa xx
Photocredit: Tengyart