Life has thrown a lot of curveballs at me this last week and I sat down on the couch yesterday and thought…

…I REALLY want a gooey, soft, warm chocolate chip cookie or 4.

Our AC unit stopped working (a 7k fix), the dishwasher broke, our Airbnb had the garage smashed & a water line break.

It hailed & stormed almost our entire camping trip and all of my social media accounts got disabled.

That was what sent me over the edge.

For no known reason, all of my social media accounts and ads got disabled.

10 years of memories/photos.

4 years of business content.

6 years of successful ad campaigns.

Gone in the blink of an eye.

I’ve done everything I can think of and just felt so powerless.

And well… food sounded really easy.

It sounded so tempting to just go out and get some cookies or muffins from a local shop to soothe my anxiety and numb down my anger.

“I really want nachos”, I told my husband.

“Do you think you’re emotionally eating?” He asked gently.

(**I guess he DOES read my blog 😉)

I didn’t go out and get anything to eat but I did get PISSED.

I was angry that sometimes being an adult dealing with life sucks.

That life continues to throw us curveballs simply because we’re in the school of being a human on this earth.

I was annoyed that I had 45 other things to deal with and figuring out how to restore my social media accounts to Big Tech companies that have no customer service line was NOT on my list of things to do that day.

Sometimes emotions are just HARD. 

 

I talk to women all the time about emotional eating.

It’s like we’ve come to believe this myth that life should always be fun, happy, and “good” and there’s something wrong with us if we feel down or aren’t “grateful for what we have”. 

 

I also hear all the time some version of “But I shouldn’t feel this way; other people have it so much worse than me, I should be grateful I have _______”

I remember when I was first healing from my “food issues”, the woman I worked with told me…

“You know, you can feel 27 different emotions at once. You can be gloriously happy on a sad day and achingly sad on a happy day. There is no right way to be an emotional human being.”

That hit me hard.

I guess I always thought I was “supposed to be happy” and that if I felt anything else, I needed to fix it immediately.

I forget this often.

Sometimes, learning to cope with emotions without eating means understanding that there may not be a fix.

 

There is no fix (right now) for restoring my social media accounts.

It’s a waiting and following up game.

There is no immediate solution to the fact that we had to wait a week in 120 degree Arizona when Airbnb guests were coming to fix the AC.

There is no answer to the amount of money we have to spend on fixing things that broke (other than spending it and dealing).

Feelings are messy.

Being a complex emotional being is…well, complex!

It can be a hard pill to swallow to allow things to unfold and not have a fix…

In our society, we’re used to instant gratification and results based solutions.

So to allow emotions, feelings or situations to run their course?

It can be challenging.

But what if when life throws a curveball, we learn to dance with it? 

 

What if we allow it to be there and give ourselves permission to feel (and take action if it calls for it).

Can we give ourselves grace to be an emotional complex being?

Can we have compassion and be easy ourselves when we cry, have a meltdown and just need to “escape” life for a bit?

This is hard to do when we don’t turn to food.

For so long, when we use food for emotions, it can feel jarring when we feel something (and are trying not to eat).

What if you allowed it to be messy and complex?

What if we accepted that life was sometimes amazing, beautiful and filled with joy…

AND at other times, life was filled with sadness, angst, heartbreak and loneliness.

 

There is no “exact steps to follow” for allowing yourself to be an emotional being that doesn’t eat.

But it DOES start with grace and compassion with ourselves.

And to know, you are not alone.

Many women I talk to feel lonely, unappreciated, sad in a loveless marriage, and/or overwhelmed with life.

The path to allowing yourself to feel feelings without eating starts with letting that one truth sink in:

There is nothing wrong with you. You are allowed to feel 27 different things at once. And whatever you DO feel is a part of your emotional lessons while here on this earth. ♥️♥️♥️

More on emotional eating:

• Emotional Eating Quiz
• How to Stop Emotional Eating
• Break Free from Emotional Eating Challenge
• The One Thing to Know About Ending Emotional Eating

What’s your experience with moving through emotional eating? Share what’s helped you below 🙂