End Emotional Eating by Jennifer Taitz

Author:Jennifer Taitz
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781608821235
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications

Half-smiling is a way to act opposite in difficult situations. You may experiment with bringing to mind a person you dislike while half-smiling. You may notice differences in your feelings as you sit with the person, before you or in your mind, while assuming an expression of acceptance.

When you suppress an emotion, you are restraining the feeling and not practicing acceptance. When you change an emotional expression, you are accepting your emotion, relaxing your body, and modifying your experience and expression of the emotion. There’s a difference between the two strategies, and it has to do with acceptance. Acting opposite is not faking; rather it’s noticing urges to act in a certain way, then deliberately choosing to change your thoughts and behavior, all with a quality of acceptance. Half-smiling is not insincere; it’s noticing when your face conveys nonacceptance and changing your expression to a more accepting one. Imagine when someone asks you to smile for a photograph. I’d bet your face feels quite tense and uncomfortable, especially if you hold it for a while. Try that for a moment if you will: adopt a big, toothy, inauthentic camera smile. When you release the face, take a few moments to let go of any tension you may experience in your face. Then, deliberately release any tension in your forehead, bring your attention to this moment, and ever so slightly raise the corners of your mouth. Notice the difference?

Changing your emotional response is a commitment to engage in a behavior that relates to what matters. Avoiding or suppressing is committing to trying to feel less. The distinction is subtle. For example, if you feel anxious at a party, you may accept your anxiety and choose to act opposite by lifting your head up, making eye contact, introducing yourself, and half-smiling, even if a thought arises that makes you anxious and you don’t feel perfectly comfortable. Suppressing is going to the party and trying to look cool and calm. Acting opposite may actually increase your anxiety initially, though over time, opposite action will change the way you feel.

Exercise: Bringing It All Together

Consider an emotion you experienced or anticipate experiencing and consider ways to use some emotion regulation skills to identify and reduce your vulnerabilities, modify the situation if necessary, practice mindful awareness, change your interpretations, and act opposite.

What is the emotion, and in what situation did you (or will you) experience it?

Notice your vulnerabilities: what are (were) they? What are some ways to reduce these vulnerabilities?

Would it be helpful to be mindful of the situation? How might you cope ahead or problem solve?

How might you practice mindful awareness around your emotion and the situation?

What are (were) your interpretations? Is there another way to think about your interpretations or, in other words, to reappraise them?

What is (was) your response? What urges does (did) this emotion pull you toward? Would doing the opposite be appropriate? How might you do the opposite?

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.