Ashley, like so many of you, deals with emotional eating and the consequent rollercoaster it brings. Here’s her story from just one day:

“Heather, I've got to admit that today was a really stressful day. I've been dealing with kids and on top of it just running like crazy because of different things that were going on in the classroom. And so I was back and forth from work and school. And you know what made me feel really good? Food!”

“I ate two pieces of white bread toast for breakfast slathered in butter. And for lunch, I had about 20 little pieces of chocolate and I felt great… then there's a big crash.”

Heather’s “Yeah, you had a serious trigger.”

Ashley ”I know, I've always known that I'm an emotional eater.”

We are in a reactionary state when we're grabbing that cookie, you're reacting to a whole day, maybe even a whole lifetime of triggers. There's no rational thought ever put into it.

As kids we have a blankie or a stuffie who brings us comfort. It’s not as socially acceptable for a 40 year old mom to carry a blankie, so food becomes your blankie.

So how do you get out of it?! You have to walk it back and figure out what triggered it for you. Then decide what is under your control. You have more control than you realize. How was your mindset in the moment?

What if you got out of bed and you said, I am going to have a calm, peaceful day. Life is going to happen and I am going to be prepared every step of the way. I am prepared I'm on top of things.

If you know what is coming and you know you have a plan, when the speed bump in the road comes, you're not thrown completely out of whack. However, if you’re barely hanging on and you hit a speed bump, man, you're getting bucked off that bronco.

Some skills that will help are:

Meditation

Deep breathing

Prayer

Silent moment of peace.

Learning how to plan and set yourself up the night before

The solution becomes swapping out a healthier option for the natural tendencies.

We love the concept of just trading. So many times we get so overwhelmed. I mean, here we are still in January, with resolutions we get so overwhelmed with all the things that we have to add to our plate.

If we can just substitute and change those negative things for the positive things then it isn't something else that we have to do. It's just replacing. The same thing can happen in our homes. Have you ever looked at your house and said, “I would love to change but I don't even know where to start?”

But why?

Ashley says in all of her years of doing professional organizing, nobody has ever given her an excuse that falls outside of the boundaries of only a few emotional ties that we have to our stuff.

1. Time - “I don't have time.” “I'm so busy.” We tackle that by giving ourselves deadlines and saying, “I'm going to make the time”.

The other fork to that in a problem is you need time to process. After you've gone through a big change, a loss, a move at whatever, you have to take the time to process which means you can't shove everything in a box. Be careful because, nostalgia can be fake. 2. So something that's truly nostalgic, is going to do two things. It's going to make you happy. And it has it has to connect you to something greater. 3. Guilt - We feel guilty, both hanging on to it or getting rid of it. What we're going to do to combat that is to be grateful and show gratitude.

4. Perceived value - we project value on something that doesn't necessarily hold the value we think it does. The solution is to find the true value and proactively attain the value from the object.

5. Fear - “I'm afraid that if I let go, something bad is going to happen.” “I might not have it when I need it.” Unfortunately with this thought, you're setting yourself up for failure or setbacks.

Homework:

You already have your list from last week... now start swapping! Take one item that has a negative emotion association and find a replacement! Something functional and healthy.