I’m sure many of you notice all the commercials for weight loss this time of year. Mostly because many people are getting ready to start the new year with a weight loss program of some kind. I will be focusing on the ways hypnosis can address the many facets of overeating. In my last article I wrote about the “sugar monster” and addiction to sugar. This week we will explore something called “head hunger”. Google says, “head hunger” is about eating to distract yourself from uncomfortable feelings and craving specific foods, typically comfort foods.”
Head hunger is specifically related to emotional eating, vs. listening to your stomach to guide you. Head hunger can hit you at any time. When we listen to our tummy to guide us it comes on slowly and builds until we feel hunger pangs. Listening to our tummy it is more of a physical sensation and usually starts a few hours after we have eaten. Head hunger can come on at any time. If you have eaten within only an hour or two and think you are hungry you probably are experiencing head hunger.
With head hunger you can’t seem to wait to eat and usually crave those sweet, salty or comfort foods. When we listen to our tummy we can usually wait to eat and we eat because we need to fuel our body, completely unrelated to emotion.
Head hunger can also be related to an activity such as watching TV or sitting in front of a computer. How many of us relate to eating popcorn as part of our movie going experiences, or maybe having a beer or eating a hot dog at the ball park. It’s all about that feel good experience or positive memories of the past.
Self soothing techniques are key to to your success in managing head hunger. Let’s face it – we all have times of stress, boredom, anxiety, nervousness, and unexpected life events. That is the human condition: that’s what we call life. It is up to each of us to find healthy ways to cope with life – it is called PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for our actions and it involves COMMITMENT to change our behavior and reach our goals.
Self-soothing is a key response to those behaviors. Self-soothing include simply moving your body; take a walk, go for a run, head out hiking, go work in your garden, find some water and go fishing….whatever you enjoy doing. It may be as simple as a stroll on your work break, or listening to your favorite music. How about getting out of yourself? Stop thinking about yourself and focusing on helping someone else. Imagine your mind as a movie screen and watch pictures of things that bring you joy, happiness, and peace. The most important thing you can do is TAKE A BREATHER by learning some simple breathing techniques, such a yoga breath, to help you relax and focus on what you want vs what you don’t want.
Hypnosis is a great tool to use to learn to manage head hunger by managing stress and giving you positive personal suggestion to change your patterns of head hunger while learning to pay attention to how your tummy feels, allowing your tummy to guide you.
Happy Hanukkah to those of the Jewish faith and have a beautiful day – you deserve it.
