I’ve written before that people with digestive issues tend to be highly sensitive.
My own sensitivity has been my biggest gift and my biggest challenge in life.
I feel and know things that non sensitive types are oblivious to. It’s like I’m privy to secret information. But I also face challenges that non sensitive types have no problem with.
I get easily bothered by subtle things. Like the unpleasant energy of a person or a room, my own emotions, loud noises and crowds.
We sensitive types are so much more effected by our environment and since we are the minority (15 to 20 percent of the population) we often see our sensitivity as a flaw. This causes shame and the desire to hide what makes us so special and different.
Being sensitive also means that we are far more connected to the sensations in our bodies. We just FEEL so much more. Our emotions effect us physically. And we feel our emotions most strongly in the gut.
To protect ourselves we retreat into our minds, we distract ourselves with comforts, we try to blend in and deny our nature.
I believe that understanding, accepting and working with our sensitivity is an important part of digestive healing.
Yes, food is important, but knowing yourself and how to feel your emotions and connect to your body is equally as important.
I decided to interview Kate Stepans because she’s a sensitive soul who coaches other sensitive types to heal issues with emotional eating.
We all suffer with emotional eating to a degree, using food to comfort ourselves when uncomfortable feelings arise.
That’s why changing our diet is not as easy as it may seem. There are emotional barriers to eating how we think we should.
For me, I experience emotional eating when I feel bored and trapped. Like on an airplane. I will eat whatever is put in front of me because I’m frustrated by being trapped in a tiny seat.
I’ve addressed my sensitivity through Chi Gong, but there are other ways to tackle it. All the methods have one thing in common, connecting to your body’s sensations and learning how to safely feel into your emotions. Much easier said than done.
Emotions originate in the body, not in the mind. The mind simply tries to make sense and create stories about what we’re feeling. It tries to deny, analyze, blame and soothe.
Kate Stephans has a really interesting approach to helping sensitive types heal emotional eating issues. She helps them understand themselves, and get in touch with their true desires. She uses a lot of the principles I’ve been learning in Chi Gong, but explains them in a way that anyone can practice and understand.
Healing her own emotional eating issues has given her an authentic perspective on what it’s like to suffer with this issue.
I’m so happy Kate took time to shed light on the challenges of sensitivity and how to work with them.
It’s not about healing your relationship with food. It’s about healing your relationship with yourself and your emotions. Which is absolutely priceless and worthwhile. It’s a gift that will serve you for the rest of your life, improving your health and happiness level exponentially.
This is what Chi Gong has done for me. That is why I sing it’s praises, it is healing me emotionally. And that is improving my life boundlessly.
Press the orange arrow at the top left hand corner to listen to our 23 minute conversation. The first 30 seconds will be silence and then the recording will begin. You can read more about Kate’s story here.
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