One of the many resources in Your Intuitive Life Journal is the Vibrational Emotional Scale. This is an essential tool when learning to Love Your Food, Love Yourself, and Love Your Life. You will discover that when you utilize this tool you can more easily find what it is you need to manage what you likely consider emotional eating or anything else you are struggling with.
Before we dive into the use of the scale, let’s break down what emotions are…
Many have believed in the past that emotions are merely amorphous “feelings” or that they have no order, logic, or rationality. However, this could not be further from the truth. Emotions are quite real, and could simply be defined as “energy in motion”. Energy is what we are made up of and how we function as humans. Emotions are the movement of that energy. Emotions are the beautiful ways our bodies talk to us.
There are several ways our bodies talk to us and how emotions play a role in our experience. While we can break these down independently; they are interconnected, correlated, and quite dynamic to each other.
Why care about emotions?
Have you ever felt powerlessness, fear, grief, or depression? Or do you know someone in your life that is currently experiencing these emotions? All of us have likely either felt this way or have had a close loved one feel like this at one time in our life or another. I know I have been there and I have seen others there as well.
Do not worry though…this is super normal, because we are human. We are meant to experience all of these emotions.
It is also super normal that as you start to peel back the layers to learn how to love your food & love yourself, you may expose emotions that have been buried, which may result in going down on the emotional scale.
Sometimes we want to stop feeling a certain way, but the conservation law of energy states “energy can be neither created nor destroyed but only changed from one form to another”. And since emotions are energy, this is true for emotions as well.
We do not just instantly say “stop being mad” and boom, it happens just like that. Those less desirable emotions need to be shifted. Cultivating self-awareness to recognize where we are at with our emotions, recognizing how our body is talking to us, and having tools for what to do is where the real transformation comes in. Our emotions (aka energy in motion) are powerful and can be a driving source of our satisfaction in life.
What is the Vibrational Emotional Scale?
The Emotional Guidance Scale, as explained by Abraham Hicks is a scale of our feelings and emotions, in sequence from our highest vibrational feelings to our lowest. It is broken down into 22 of the most common emotions.
How do you use the Scale?
First off it is important to recognize, all emotions are completely ok to have! If we didn’t have contrasting emotions, we would not be human and we would not be able to know what it is we want (from knowing what it is we do not want). And because IT IS OK to have these emotions as a human, we owe our explanation of emotions to no one!
You will be able to use this scale as it relates to how you feel when eating, when thinking about your body, and really for anything in your life.
We live in a society where there seems to be this stigma that says you need to be on the corner of happy and healthy at all times and if you are not that, you are not good enough. But that is just not reality. We are all worthy and we are all good enough. What we need is to:
Be able to cultivate self-awareness to recognize where we are at,
Be honest with ourselves about where we are at in order to be able to lean into self-compassion, and
Then lean into support.
Emotions are fluid...
Emotions are ever-evolving, shifting, and can change from moment to moment. This again is normal. What you also may notice is that lower vibration emotions often lead to even worse emotions. But higher vibration emotions generally create better feelings. Emotions build momentum in whichever direction they are going, but it does mean they can’t change.
Think about it… have you seen a sad person smile? Or a generally joyful person cry? As humans, we experience all of our emotions.
With that said, when you are experiencing lower vibration emotions, they can feel heavy and by nature, we don't want to feel this way (even though the momentum is spinning us that way). We as humans have an internal desire to survive, which means feeling good because let’s face it… feeling better, feels better!
We may feel like we are stuck in these emotions and there is no hope, but we are so capable of anything, the possibilities are literally endless. With that said, it may not be possible or even plausible to go from the depths of despair all the way to complete joy, but what we can do is crawl our way out, one little step at a time, when we are ready.
Move up the scale when you are ready
As previously mentioned, we live in a society where there seems to be this stigma that says you need to be on the corner of happy and healthy at all times and if you are not that, you are not good enough. But you are already good enough. You are ok where you are. You are allowed to feel and experience negative emotions.
You can sit in those feelings, just don’t get stuck in them. There is a difference. There is no rush to move up the scale. Go at your pace. Follow the lead of your body. Honor your needs.
Key 1 - Self-Awareness
The first step to moving up the vibrational emotional scale is through cultivating self-awareness to recognize where you are at. You may know instantly what emotion you are experiencing or you may need to notice physical symptoms, behaviors, or observe your thought. It can also be helpful to look at The Emotional Guidance Scale to recognize where you are at on it. Once you identify where you are at on this scale, you can then lean into the utilization of the other helpful keys.
It’s important to note here that feelings can be simple and complex. It is possible to have several feelings all at the same time. If you are experiencing several at the same time, take note of all of them. Complex negative feelings need to be broken up into simple ones so that you can start to understand what you can do to make yourself feel better.
Key 2 - Self-Compassion
Before we dive into having compassion for ourselves, let’s think about what it means to have compassion for others. Compassion is the concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. Compassion is heart-centered and motivates people to go out of their way to help the physical, mental, or emotional pains of another. In order to have compassion for others, you must first observe their suffering. Otherwise, how would you know to have compassion?
The same goes for self-compassion, which is why self-awareness is first. Having compassion also means that you offer understanding and kindness to others or to yourself and most notably, this compassion would be no different whether you are talking to a friend or yourself.
So how can you be kind to yourself in this situation? It may even be just accepting where you are currently. That in of itself is compassionate.
Key 3 - Support
Support can come in many forms. It can include seeking guidance from a mental health therapist, a counselor, and/or a psychiatrist. Or it could be finding some peer-to-peer support. I know when I am struggling with XYZ, I like to talk to someone else who truly understands XYZ. For example: if I am seeking support for what to do with one of my kiddos, I lean towards asking someone else with kiddos about the same age. So this is no different. Support from family and friends is also generally nice since we often occupy space and time with them; however, it can be helpful to let them know where you are at and what specifically helps you and what doesn’t. And then, most importantly, it is important to support yourself.
Support for yourself can feel challenging, especially when feeling at the lowest vibrational level; however, it is possible! One method for leaning into supporting yourself is through self-compassion and asking yourself what do you need in this moment?
Maybe you need more rest, time with a friend, to take some intentional breaths, to journal, to take a walk, to play with a pet, etc. The possibilities are quite endless. If you find that you are not able to support yourself in moving up the vibrational emotional scale, it is important and totally acceptable to ask for outside support. Asking for support is actually supporting yourself.
Summary
In summary, self-awareness can lead us to self-compassion, which can lead us to support, and altogether this will help us move up the vibrational emotional scale. You may be wondering… why is a dietitian’s blog writing about emotional vibrations. The answer is easy… our food holds energy, our relationship with our food holds energy, our relationship with ourselves holds energy, and we are with ourselves all day every day and since nourishing our bodies is a daily practice (hopefully), we can impact every other aspect of our life when we cultivate awareness and compassion in our eating framework. The practice of moving up the vibrational emotional scale as it relates to our relationship with food and body, can and does ripple into all other aspects of your life.