how do you deal with raw emotions?

Ooh, I’m almost like an agony aunt aren’t I?   Ask Emma.  A bit like Just Joan from the Daily Record except I don’t look like someone has just shat in my handbag!  Poor Joan.  She is lovely.  Moving on.  I got a lovely email from a lady asking how to deal with emotional detox that can arise when you start eating more raw food.

This lightening the load of your physical body by eating a high raw food diet can have an impact on your emotional body.  Don’t ask me how, I’m not an emotional professor or a mad scientist.

Sometimes you’re not happy with what’s going on in your life whether that’s your job, your relationships, where you live, who you spend time with…the list goes on.  When you clean up one area of your life (like your diet) this can help you to see your situation more clearly.  Eating raw food means you’re no longer able to suppress those uneasy feelings with stodgy heavy food.

Whilst we are eating we are unable to feel emotion at the same time, which is why we have a lot of emotional eaters and overweight people desperately trying to make themselves feel better.

If you want to overcome this you’re going to have to face up to what you’re unhappy about.

Get to the root of what you’re really unhappy about and start thinking about positive steps to move in the direction you want to.  This second part is absolutely pivotal, it’s all very well knowing what’s making you unhappy but unless you take positive action to change things then what’s the point?

The irony is that once you’ve overcome these issues then eating this way actually helps to balance out how you feel about things.  I feel much calmer and carefree on a healthy diet full of raw foods and able to conquer what life throws my way.  That doesn’t mean you won’t have challenges, what’s the point of life if everything is handed to you on a plate haha! 😉

Here are some of the things that helped me (and continue to help me) with emotional detox.

The HOW TO: Top 6

1. Take solace in the fact that this is extremely common and nothing to be alarmed about.  The great news is it will pass.  The not as great news is that you have to go through it to come out the other side.  In my ebook Me Raw: You Cooked you can see first hand from my journal entries just what this might look like.  It goes without saying that if you have a history of mental illness you ought to seek some professional help…
2. Journal it out.  Pen and paper are your friends!  Write as deep and dark as you feel and cry, CRY GOD DAMN IT!  That’s what God invented tears for.  If you’re angry or upset then write it down and feeeeeeeel it.  Trying to supress your emotions will only make them fight back harder.  True!
3. Eat heavier and/or cooked foods. To slow down a detox whether it’s physical or emotional then heavier foods (think seeds and nuts (raw chocolate CAKE) and/or cooked foods (preferably not junk/fastfood although this might be what you’re inclined to go for) are gonna slow it down.  If you go for the junk you’re likely to feel physically crap as well as emotionally crap. Double bums.  Treat yourself to something healthy.  God knows you of all people on this planet deserve it!
4. Phone a friend. That’s what friends sign up for when they agree to be your friend.  Yep, listening to your shite about how your mother doesn’t understand you and your husband never snogs the face off you on the couch.  If you don’t have a friend make one up and have a conversation with him or her.  If nothing else they’ll agree with you on absolutely everything.  Don’t do this in public, it’s just going to complicate matters.
5. Observe it.  Yep, I’ve gone all spiritual on your ass.  It is quite possible to observe an emotion and remain unattached to it as it’s actually happening rather than become it.  So many people lose themselves in their emotions.  Sometmes that’s a good thing, sometimes it’s possible to move beyond it.  Sounds a bit mental I know (no pun intended there) but try it.  When you feel an emotion start to take over see if you can look at it from outside yourself.  Almost narrate it in your head.  Ok this one is harder for me to explain.  Read this
6. Lastly watch comedy. Lots of it.  Cry and journal then go immediately to Youtube or your dvd player and watch as much comedy as you can until you’ve forgotten your own name.  Any of the following will work very well: Blackadder, Bottom, The Young Ones, Dylan Moran, Black Books, Eddie Izzard…you get my drift!

Have you any tips you’d like to add?  Better still, enhance my agony aunt superhero ego and email me your questions at emma@rawfoodscotland.co.uk

I’ll need to get a photo taken of me holding a pen looking umm, pensive…hmm