Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume - 4, issue 9 1 March 2020 | Page 25

They may also need to examine and challenge their beliefs about the
need to be polite, and the obligations they feel they must fulfill.
If their spouse or a friend insists that they eat, they must be
prepared to refuse firmly and to ask for his or her support in their
weight-management efforts. If they know their office mates will be
bringing a cake to celebrate their birthday, they could make it known
they would prefer flowers or some other small gift instead.
Emotional
Eating is a way some people cope with unpleasant emotions, such
as depression, anxiety, anger and loneliness, or with negative physical
states, such as fatigue, tension or pain.
Food is also used to celebrate and is part of many rituals. As a
result, it is strongly paired with positive emotions as well as negative
ones. Eating is often paired with relaxing. Food and feeling good
naturally go hand-in-hand, and so it is emotionally logical to use food to
cope with feeling bad. Because eating has a sedating effect, it is often
used to dampen the physical arousal that accompanies many emotions.
Emotions, both negative and positive, are important triggers for
many people. These people need to develop skills in coping more
effectively with emotions. This may mean learning to avoid situations
that produce emotions and to react differently to upsetting events that do
happen. They may need to learn new ways to respond to old situations.
Developing skills in stress management, time management,
communication and cognitive thinking can be beneficial.
The first step in managing emotions better is for them to avoid the
people or situations that upset them. If they cannot, then they must
decide not to take everything so seriously, or at least not to let it get to
you. Being able to laugh at oneself and at a situation helps a lot.