Emotional health comes from the awareness that emotions are simply fluid energy sensations, states or patterns that arise and flow through the body, all of which signify wonderful states—gifts—that make up our aliveness. We must learn to accept and allow the emotional energy to flow in a peaceful manner, all the while observing the energies and not engaging in any of the mind’s stories that the emotions engender.
All emotions must be fully felt, accepted and mindfully observed, with the knowledge that the energies will come and shift to different energy qualities. With awareness, presence, full breathing and disengagement from the stories that go along with the emotions, we can maintain poise and allow the energies to come to peaceful resolution.
When our emotions are pleasant (happiness, joy, love, contentment), we can choose to enjoy them and stay poised. When our emotions are unpleasant (fear, sadness, grief, loneliness, deficiency, frustration, anger, hate), we can choose to be still, breathe fully, be present with the energy and patiently take the time to fully feel it and allow it to shift and dissipate. This takes practice. The more you get into it, the more you intuit!
A primary reason why people overeat is because they do not want to feel particular emotions. We binge when we are not calm and present with ourselves. When we are emotionally upset, fearful or lonely, we tend to want to do something to feel different or fill up the “emptiness” within. With regard to overcoming emotional overeating and other unhealthful habits, we can choose to practice body awareness and emotional inquiry. Emotional inquiry is a great tool that can help us accept certain emotions.
Emotional inquiry entails becoming still, tuning within, locating the place in the body where emotional energy or “emptiness” is most noticeable, and inquiring into it to glean any messages and meanings that might be there. This helps us delve into reasons for overeating, which is typically a resistance to feeling certain emotions and a quest to fill an “emptiness” or a “deficiency” within. When we become present and patiently “be with” with particular emotions, this allows the emotional energies to dissipate, or to expand and to flow through the body and beyond, allowing for the most completely nourishing energy to come in and fill us up: love. Love is always present within and waiting to flood in and “nourish” our emotional body.
Fruitarian eating is the lightest of all diets and gives us our “lightest” body, and we become most sensitive on fruit. Emotional armoring melts away as the body becomes pure on fruit, and that can be unsettling and make life more challenging on such an energizing diet. Fruits and fatty raw foods have pleasure-inducing hormones (precursors to neurotransmitters), which make us feel better. Although raw nourishment improves our ability to cope with stress, it can never solve an emotional issue. No matter how well-fed we are, the emotional issues will always come back unless we do some kinds of emotional awareness, acceptance and disengagement work.
Some people feel “ungrounded” on energizing fruit. In regard to that, learning how to live with conscious awareness via yoga, meditation and the emotional inquiry helps us develop emotional balance and mental composure. “Grounding” ourselves with heavier foods really just makes us duller and less conscious, healthy and alive. It takes courage to “lighten up” and face our emotions. The work is well worth it!
Keeping physically fit with a strong spine and fit body translates into a strong nervous system, self-esteem, will-power and keener physical awareness so that we can discern our true needs for nourishment. When we are not physically fit, we can be at the mercy of our sympathetic emotions, and this typically leads to overeating.
Love your emotions—all of them! Avoid using food to change difficult emotions; rather, fill your tummy up with the love that is always present within and waiting to nourish you perfectly!
More with Dr. David Klein in Fruit-Powered Magazine
