More About Important Emotions Are and How an Emotions Chart Can Help…

Did you talk about emotions when you were young? If so, where – was it at home, at school, at church maybe? We’re guessing that talking about emotions was limited after the initial lessons we often get – usually around 5, 6, or 7 years old. How to “control” our anger is common. How to be kind. That it’s ok to be sad. How being happy is good. After that, you’re on your own.

Oh, and forgot to add – we live(d) in a world where talking about emotions can get you in trouble with your friends, teachers, job, and maybe even your significant other. No wonder many of us struggle to understand our emotions.

How Social Are Emotions?

We say “live(d)”, because we want to acknowledge that while we can’t change the past, the world we live in – society at large – is generally putter higher value on emotional intelligence, getting smarter and more able to understand the value of emotions and emotional awareness. How emotions really and truly are behind and precedent to what we do (like Aaron Beck noted in the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) framework, more than 100 years ago), and social standards are working to create space for us to all to have more compassion in our self-talk and self-care, expressing our emotions with courage and respect.

However, we still have a long way to go. Many of us feel isolated and lonely when dealing with our feelings. By suppressing or repressing our feelings (yes, there’s a difference), we hinder our ability to understand and compassionately engage with them. This affects how they influence our relationships with food and body image.

Exploring Emotions – The Emotional Eats Pathway in Way

At Way, our goal is to ensure you feel safe, acknowledging that emotions influence eating habits.

Our Emotional Eats Pathway is designed to foster body compassion, self-acceptance, and curiosity about the root of your emotions. Emotional eating isn’t something to ‘stop’ or ‘fight’, nor are cravings to be ‘ditched’. Instead, think differently to find harmony in your relationship with food.

When you embrace self-awareness and self-acceptance, allowing emotions to exist as they are, you unlock insights. This helps you see the root of your emotions, eat intuitively, and make conscious decisions aligned with your values.

Why the Emotions Chart?

One of the tools that can be helpful in this process is the Emotions Chart – also called a Feelings Wheel – because it gives you nearly 100 different emotions and goes from basic emotions like happiness or sadness, into specific emotions like the difference of feeling “playful” versus “powerful” (both are happy emotions), or the difference between feeling “hurt” or being “lonely” (both are sad emotions).

We do the same thing in Way, with slightly different tools – we help people find more clarity about the spectrum of their emotions through Word Pools, which are collections of emotions that are easily selectable, and of course you can choose more than one at a time because emotions often come together.

I’m Curious – How Can I Explore My Emotions More Deeply?

So, if becoming aware of your feelings and emotions sounds like something you’re curious about, our blog(s) can be super helpful and a great place to start. They are written by some of the best Intuitive Eating experts and Dietitians in the nation and they’re always free.

If you’re ready to explore a little deeper – the Way app is easy to download and our Emotional Eats Pathways was designed to help you flip the connotation of emotional eating as something you need to “fight” or “stop”, so you can explore how emotions influence eating, and that by being aware of your emotions, accepting your emotions, you can gain more harmony in your relationship with food and your relationship with you body.

Join 10,000+ people who’ve started their journey. We’ve made it affordable at less than $10/month, because our mission is to make your health and happiness, and Way was named the 2023 Best Non Diet App by Healthline, the biggest health website on the internet. And, use code “Bentley20” to get the price of the annual plan down to just $3.33/month. Enjoy!