Facing Down Scary Cravings

Are you anything like me and struggle with food cravings? They usually come to haunt me after dinner. I will have just eaten a full and healthy dinner when a gnawing desire for peanut butter overwhelms me. I don’t know why. I’m not hungry, I just want it. The offending food can often be cookies, too! My only theory is that, perhaps, I want more of the feelings that eating food can provide. Fun, joy, relaxation, escape.

For many years I would do one of two things. Either fight or surrender. And I would either lose or win; a binary approach that stymyied a deeper, more subtle understanding of what’s going on.

Until one day I realized that this habitual thought that comes into my head, ”I want more food,” is really just that…a thought that has become a habit. It’s not real, it’s not literal hunger. This awareness ushered in a chance to react in a different way and choose a new path. Of course it opened me up to some deeper questions like “what is the root of all this craving anyway.”

So next time a food craving floods your brain, take a moment and ask yourself, “Is this an actual need or just a perceived need?” Therein lies your tremendous beginning to freedom from the forces of internal craving.