Member-only story

How to Overcome Emotional Eating Using Mindfulness Meditation

Science confirms the surprising result of my mindfulness meditation practice — it can be a powerful tool for getting a more rational relationship with the food you eat

Stefy Uotani
Better Humans
15 min readJan 10, 2019

--

Photo by Aleza via Pixabay.

As a teenager, I struggled with bulimia. Not only did I eat to manage my emotional states, but I also binged and then tried to compensate for my dietary transgressions. This never-ending cycle was so draining that I could not think of anything else but food.

Stopping binge eating required a shift in my beliefs about my worthiness and my ability to cope with stressful situations. I used food to suppress three negative emotions in particular: powerlessness, anxiety, and emptiness. Fortunately, with the assistance of a psychiatrist who helped me change some aspects of my negative and restrictive mindset, I beat bulimia. This was a turning point in my life.

I made remarkable improvements. But emotions such as loneliness, boredom, unhappiness and even excitement still triggered my appetite. I still made bad choices for my mental and physical wellbeing and was prone to emotional overeating. I still used food to avoid unpleasant emotions.

--

--

Better Humans
Better Humans

Published in Better Humans

Better Humans is one of the largest and oldest Medium’s publications on self-improvement and personal development. Our goal is to bring you the world’s most helpful writing on human potential.

Stefy Uotani
Stefy Uotani

Responses (16)