We all have a subconscious mind………and it contains thousands of beliefs.
Beliefs are statements that we believe are facts.
These beliefs determine our behaviour.
Ever felt absolutely compelled to do something? Yep, that compulsion will be driven by beliefs in your subconscious mind. Whatever you felt compelled to do, somewhere in your subconscious mind, there was a part of you that believed that that behaviour was beneficial for you, at that particular time. Even if it didn’t feel like it afterwards.
Ever tried to do something and despite every effort, you just couldn’t bring yourself to do it? Yep, again, that block will have been created by beliefs in your subconscious mind.
How Does This Relate To Eating Weight Increasing Foods & Drink?
Ever felt absolutely compelled to eat chocolate, biscuits, ice cream or yet another glass of wine?
Ever been in a situation where you have just eaten half your body weight in the food you vowed that you would avoid to save your waistline and now you’re surrounded by several empty wrappers?
Have you ever looked down at those empty wrappers and started to experience “eating after shock”, where you’re dazed and confused about what came over you?
Have you ever asked yourself “what happened there?”.
Did it feel like you were possessed by something within you and you were powerless to resist!
Well, the reason why this happened is because for a few moments a certain part of your subconscious mind was running the show and this part of you believed that in this situation, it was beneficial for you to eat/drink that food/drink and that amount of it.
Here’s a couple of examples to illustrate how your beliefs can influence your eating and drinking behaviour…….
1) You have a belief in your subconscious mind that doughnuts will help you feel better if you are lonely or bored……
Scenario……you are sitting in on a Saturday night, on your own with nothing interesting to do. You feel bored and lonely and start asking yourself what you can do to feel better/give you something to do. Next thing you’ve wolfed down two doughnuts, with an ice cream chaser!
2) You have a belief that you deserve a “treat” if you work hard……
Scenario……after a hard and stressful day’s work, you’ve cracked open the Prosecco and you’re on glass number two, within 15 minutes of entering your home. You feel the stress drain from you and you tell yourself that this is what you deserve after what you’ve been through today.
As you can see, the beliefs that you have affect your eating and drinking habits.
Most people are unaware that they have these subconscious beliefs, and this is why people struggle to understand why they behave the way that they do. They feel that they can’t help themselves and because they don’t understand why it’s happening, they feel that they will be stuck with this behaviour/problem forever!
What Can You Do About It?
The bad news is that your eating and drinking habits are not going to change until your subconscious beliefs change. This is why willpower doesn’t work long term. Willpower can help for a while but eventually the subconscious beleifs will reappear and take over!
The good news is that beliefs can change and once this happens behaviour will change too!
How you can start to do this on your own:
1) listing what thoughts and feelings you have that lead you to eat
2) finding ways to change those thoughts/beliefs and feelings. You can start to do this by changing how you perceive food. List all of the negatives/consequences of consuming the food and drink that you are.
However……
The even better news is that there are psychological methods that can be used to help people to change their subconscious beliefs and the subsequent feelings pretty effortlessly.
My preferred methods to help people to do this is EFT tapping, Matrix Reimprinting (a form of EFT) and Havening®️. For those who find it difficult to change feelings and beliefs themselves, these methods are definitely worth checking out.
If you want to know more about how Havening and EFT can help you to stop eating certain foods, email me at emma@themindmermaid.com