Sweet Ayurveda Treatment to Stop Emotional Eating & Lose Weight
Summary: More often than not, being over weight has to do with eating too much. According to Ayurveda, over eating is often due to emotional eating, which is a direct result of a lack of self-love. In this article, a very sweet Ayurvedic treatment is prescribed to increase self-love, which will help curb emotional eating, thus helping you lose weight and get fit.
In the first part of this series 5 Healthy Weight Loss Tips from Ayurveda for the Physical Dimension we explored Ayurveda’s recommendations for healthy weight loss from the physical perspective and in this article we will explore what Ayurveda has to say about the emotions and weight. Essentially, the most important factor in weight gain is excessive eating and Ayurveda states that one of the main reasons for over eating is to compensate for a lack of love in one’s life. Compensating for love with food is emotional eating and below is how Ayurveda hopes to alleviate this problem and thus curb unhealthy weight gain.
The famous old song, “All You Need is Love”, in the case of ending emotional eating could not be more true. Ayurveda suggests that often times self-love is lacking in those who are overweight and this compounds the problem of emotional eating. In other words, lacking self-love one turns to eating as a substitute, which leads to a negative body image as one gains excess weight, which makes it even harder to love oneself. This downward spiral can be stopped by cultivating self-love and the exercise below does just that.
Background of Ayurvedic Treatment for Emotional Eating
The following exercise can be done as part of a Yoga series for the Heart Center (Anahata Chakra) or it can be done independently as it is detailed here. The design of this particular technique is based on the following 2 concepts:
- Spirit follows form and form follows spirit. In other words if you love someone (spirit) you may gently caress them (form) and the other side of this relationship is that, if you gently caress them (form) you will start to feel some love (spirit).
- In the Ayurvedic and Yogic Chakra system, the center of the palms relates to the heart center (Anahata Chakra) and this chakra is the seat of love and compassion.
Practice Details of Ayurvedic Treatment for Emotional Eating
So here is the very sweet Ayurvedic/Yogic technique to increase self-love, end emotional eating and get your weight gain under control.
- Lie on you back with arm straight out to the sides (like you are on a cross).
- Now close your eyes, gently raise your left arm and bring your left palm towards your face. Then gently kiss the center of your left palm and whisper “I Love You” to yourself.
- Now lower your left arm and bring your right arm up and kiss the center of your right palm again whispering “I Love You” to yourself.
- Continue for about 5 minutes.
- To end inhale deeply hold your breath and visualize your body exactly as you want it to be, slim and trim, then get up with a smile feeling good about yourself.
Summary of Self-Love to End Emotional Eating
So excess weight, which is often related to emotional eating, according to Ayurveda is due to a lack of love and in many cases a lack of self-love. So an additional tip from Ayurveda in order to increase self-love is to stop criticizing, judging and being harsh with yourself. Treat yourself kindly and with love and you will notice a change in your eating habits, for as the soul is fed, there is less need to over feed the body.
Internet Resources Below
Ayurveda Resources:
The Ayurvedic Institute
American Institude of Vedic Studies
Other Weight Loss Resources:
FDA Nutrition & Weight Loss Q&A
How to Use Fruits & Vegetables to Manage Your Weight (Center for Disease Control & Prevention)
Tips for Exercise Success (American Heart Association)
How to Stop Emotional Eating (Mayo Clinic)
Anmol…..all these sites are wonderful and healthy suggestions to improve or develop healthy eating life practice. In order to lose one pound a week, a person needs to have a 3500 calorie deficit. The best way to lose weight and keep it off is monitoring calories and eating natural healthy foods. The food should be fresh and preferably organic fruits and vegetables. Herbs are medicinal and can harm kidneys, liver, heart, and most definitely can and do affect certain medications that a person may be taking. Also and most importantly is that manufacturers of these substances are not regulated by USP or Food and Drug Administration.
Pat khan RN,BS, CYT, LMT
Women’s Holistic Practitioner
How often should I do this practice?
Thank you!
Ayurvedic Medicine is valuable to people of all ages because of the holistic nature and philosophy of treating the root cause of symptoms. It is sensible to perform some research and choose a therapist who is either a member of, or accredited by, an association or professional body. Ayurvedic practitioners are constrained to a code of ethics and process that finds out the therapy is carried out in a appropriate and safe environment.
hi anmol – you couldnt have chosen a better title – ive put on some weight which, as you aptly described above as due to emotional eating – so looking forward to trying this technique out – many thanks for all your hard work – regards yajni
Hi Carol,
The best way to break this habit of emotional eating is to develop the witnessing consciousness. The awareness will correct your habits and dissolve your deep seated patterns. It will also help you achieve emotional balance.
Please try the following meditation and build up to 20 minutes 2/day if possible. It helped me a great deal with my imbalances and might do the same for you as well.
Zen Meditation Technique
All Good Wishes,
Anmol
I have been an emotional eater all my life. I am seeking nuturance and I know what my problem is but it seems like I can’t stop, it really has escalated now, since I got into my forties, seems like I just can’t get the wait off, or stay interested in a diet, I weigh too much and need to loose weight help. I think that the fact that I have been in and out of work has a lot to do with it. HELP
Hi Srividya,
I responded to your previous comment with some details about where to get the information on the Free Online Yoga and Meditation for Weight Loss Class. Let me know if you need any more info.
Best,
Anmol
please email me the latest article in weightloss. thank you
Thomas,
Great to hear you are going to practice this self-love Ayurvedic Technique. Am sure it will change the way you see yourself.
Best,
Anmol
lots of thanks.I am not overweight but over criticised beiing.today in your first lesson taught me ,it is necessary to love self and how to do it . thanks.daily i will follow your advice