Winter Cravings & how a Highly Sensitive Person can handle them

Do you have a strong sense of intuition?

Do you also have a problem with eating- like strong cravings, compulsive or over-eating... especially during the winter months?

Believe it or not... (and I'm sure you will at some level)  these two questions are linked.  And if you answered "yes" to both, you're definitely not alone.  

"As a flight attendant, before I realised I was "picking up" all my passengers' worries of flying, I would come home from a shift and eat a whole box of breakfast cereal.  I found the sweetness and crunchiness soothed the angst I was feeling, seemingly from nowhere. "

Our six senses pick up on the extra information in the world around us that less sensitive individuals remain unaware of- information including premonitions, hunches, or emotions from others around us.

This information isn't easily processed by our rational brains.  We're not wired in the way that interprets touching a hot stove as- ouch!  danger!  burnies!  

It's like we are babies again who don't know why they are upset.  When we pick up information we subconsciously realise as important, but don't have the ability to "translate"- it, as babies we cried.  As adults, we just feel bad, or sad.

Often, people turn to food when they are feeling depressed.  Why?  Mental health professionals say we want to "squash down" our emotions or "fill the emotional emptiness".  There's also a biochemical reason.  Eating, especially eating carbohydrates, raises the seratonin levels in our body.  

Seratonin is the feel-good hormone produced by the consumption of carbohydrates.  What is it you crave when you're feeling down?  Chips?  Bread?  Cakes?  Cookies?  Donuts?  Sweets?  If so, you're responding to your body's natural desire to feel good.

So, why more in winter?  Sunlight also stimulates the production of seratonin in the brain- which is why going outside in the sunshine is a valuable remedy to feeling sad.  If we've not got the sunshine, we may try to elevate our body's seratonin levels by over-eating starchy carbs like those above.

It helps to realise that the feelings you can't communicate when you head to the cookie jar may not have anything to do with you at all.  Perhaps your sister or husband are in a glum mood or worried about something, ad you've just picked up on it.  As a flight attendant, before I realise I was "picking up" all my passengers worries of flying, I would come home from a shift and eat a whole box of breakfast cereal.  I found the sweetness and crunchiness soothed the angst I was feeling, seemingly from nowhere.  I'd had a great day flying, so why the sadness?  It was all the energy of others still clinging to me like psychic rubbish that it was, bringing me down.

'There are many supportive practices healthy, successful artists and intuitives weave into their every day to keep happy and helpful...'

How to handle winter cravings.

If you eat to feel better, and if you consistently do feel bad or sad for no good reason, I recommend you do two things. 

1.  You can't back out of your high level of intuition.  Each gift is a curse in a way!  So you must use techniques to get rid of the psychic rubbish you will inevitably pick up.  Try one or all of these:

• Change or brush down your clothes and brush your hair after you have been in contact with someone who is in an extreme negative mood- such as anger, worry, fear or depression.  This is so important if you come home from a day at work surrounded by such people.  Have a bath or shower and change your clothes BEFORE  putting any food in your mouth!!
• Spritz the room or around yourself with a blend of essential oils mixed with spring water.  Lavender + lemon + cedarwood are my favourites for the calming, refreshing and change-manifest qualities they represent.
• Carry a quartz crystal and use it as a touchstone- hold it and ask it to take any energy you have picked up on that you do not need, from you. 

2.  Do your body and health a favour by naturally raising your seratonin levels healthfully, without the negative effects (sugar highs and lows, weight gain, increased risk of disease and mood swings) of stodgy carbohydrates- here's how! 

• Eat coriander, eggs, turkey, and avocados regularly- these contain the amino acid tryptophan used by the body to make seratonin
• Expose yourself daily to sunshine, especially in the winter.  Ten minutes a day is enough!
• Chew your food slowly (increases seratonin)
• Vitamin B and B6 supplements can be helpful
• Avoid artificial sweeetners which slow the production of seratonin 

(1.)

You CAN be a sensitive, intuitive soul without taking it out on your body.  There are many supportive practices healthy, successful artists and intuitives weave into their every day to keep happy and helpful.  Underpinning it all is the nourishing diet that is just right for you.  Have you found it yet?  Contact me and let's get started.

1.  Marisa Peer's 'You can be thin', Sphere 2008.

belongs to the beautiful artist Yee Von Chan