Humans are really complex beings.
We have a lot of, for lack of a better word, “stuff” going on.
Internally, we each have our thoughts and our emotions. They work together (and sometimes separately) help us perceive the outside world.
The more “self aware” we are, the more we are able to “hear” our thoughts and “feel” our emotions.
Sometimes, though, we get out of tune with what’s happening inside, and our thoughts and emotions start getting louder. They will start breaking through into our dreams, and if we continue ignoring them, other things happen.
For this example, let us say the result is stress eating. It could just as easily manifest in any number of other ways, but this is an extremely common behavior.
Just like in Newtonian Law, for every action, there is a reaction. In this case, however, it’s an unending cycle.
In my experience (and training), the cycle usually starts by an initial third-party action, which results in an internal thought/behavioral change and the feelings that go along with it.
Once this trauma has occurred, a new action manifests (in this case, stress eating).
Now, the stress eating also results in another thought/behavioral change, however, this one leads increased feelings (usually in the realm of anger/sadness/shame) and onto more of the same action.
The subject is now locked into this cycle indefinitely until they break the pattern in one of three ways:
- Changing their underlying belief about the behavior
- Processing their emotions about the underlying situation
- Replacing the harmful action with one that is not, or entirely refusing to act.
A combination of all three is the most likely to be successful.
To permanently break this cycle, seek out a trained coach who can help guide them through the process.