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Emotions and Weight Loss
You’ve probably heard that losing weight has an emotional component. For instance, we eat because we’re sad, lonely or depressed. However, do you know that emotions, even from childhood events, can be trapped in your organ systems and could be sabotaging your weight loss goals?
Emotions are one important reason why we have difficulty losing weight. In some cases, when we become upset, angry, fearful, or some other strong emotion we tend to look for comfort. We’ve been trained to think of food as comfort. And those yummy “comfort foods” are not typically healthy for our body or helpful for weight loss. But, it’s more than those comfort foods that could be stopping you from meeting your weight loss goal.
Eastern Medicine teaches us that every emotion we have relates to an organ system. When we have unpleasant emotions those emotions create stress on the organ to which they relate. So, which emotions and thoughts and their related actions are connected to which organs?
Sadness, grief, and crying relates to large intestine and lung; muddled thinking and inability to make decisions relate to thyroid and adrenal; low self esteem and being over sympathetic relates to our stomach, spleen and pancreas; anger, resentment and depression relate to liver and gall bladder; lack of emotions and feeling depleted relates to our sexual organs; feelings of loss, vulnerability and abandonment are linked to the small intestine and heart; false pride and arrogance are related to the governing vessel; and shame, humiliation and embarrassment relate to the conception vessel.
For example, if you find you are getting angry over little things, or becoming angry often, you may have a trapped emotion that is connected to your liver. The liver is the organ that makes and breaks down fat. So the trapped emotion means the liver cannot do its job effectively and is compromising your weight loss goals.
If you experience low self esteem on a regular basis you may have a trapped emotion related to the pancreas and spleen, so you find yourself eating foods that you normally might not eat even thought you know that they are not conducive to weight loss (i.e., sugary foods or foods high in rancid trans fat). You are looking for comfort foods to feel better but you need to clear the block to help you eliminate those cravings.
In reference to the large intestine and lung system, you could be experiencing grief or sadness and the trapped emotion could be keeping you from eliminating waste in your body properly; creating an environment that makes it difficult to lose weight.
Each organ plays an important part in weight loss so each organ needs to be functioning properly. It’s more than calories in and calories out. Restricting your calories may create an initial weight loss but when the emotion flares back up, the weight returns and you begin the dreaded Yo-Yo process.
Here’s the GREAT NEWS! Dr. Trybus can test your body’s organ system and find the trapped emotions, release those emotions, strengthen your organ system and support you in your weight loss goals. Appointments are available by phone/video chat and in person.