I’m revisiting emotional eating this week because of a statement I ran across that’s worth exploring further. Amanda Trusty shares an interesting take on the topic from her experience: “Eating…would get me from one event to another when I was experiencing an overwhelming feeling of not knowing what to do. I ate to fill the void of confusion inside.”
My stomach tied itself up into a huge knot when I read that…and it had nothing whatsoever to do with food. What it did have to do with was an old, awful, very familiar, and “overwhelming feeling of not knowing what to do.” Confusion doesn’t seem like it would kick up such a strong reaction, but get this. Wrapped up in the Old French origins of the word is the idea of “overthrow and ruin…carrying a sense of being put to shame…a sort of mental overthrow.”
There’s something to this…so stick with me here. I find it especially interesting that the etymology of the word “war” includes the phrase, “bringing into confusion.” Can you see it? Confusion and chaos are classic war tactics…and when emotional pain from the past stays locked inside, confusion about what we should do threatens to overthrow us.
Some of you may have a knot in your stomach, too, right now. You know exactly what I’m talking about, and I’m here to tell you, because I’ve been there, that without exploring what caused the pain and confusion in the first place, you will continue to live with that awful “overwhelming feeling of not knowing what to do.”
BUT…here’s the good news. The same tactics of war that work against us can be the very strategies we use to overthrow whatever threatens to overthrow us. Now that’s something else worth exploring…so stay tuned.
And keep this in mind: “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity… and {sometimes} our greatest victory requires no battle.”
Woo hoo!
