Muting Your Cravings

One lesser-known aspect of brainwork that Julie helps people with is reducing cravings. Whether your cravings are food or drink related, social media, using electronics, TV, or are tied to something else, she can help you to mute those cravings and to find strength to move past the cravings that have been getting in the way of your progress.

Turns out that cravings are all in our head, literally. Our brains are responsible for the craving signals that we experience. We experience cravings due to emotion and desire. A bulk of food cravings comes from a response to satisfy emotional needs, to reduce stress, or to reduce anxiety. Our cravings for things usually amp up when we are stressed or anxious. When it comes to food cravings, those with a more varied and nutritious diet are less likely to experience cravings. Some of our cravings are our bodies telling us they need a specific nutrient, mineral, or vitamin. Basically anything that gives us hits of dopamine can turn into cravings. As it turns out, trying to ignore your cravings can often increase those cravings. This is where some brainwork with Julie comes in handy. 

What is the process?

Essentially, during a brainwork session, Julie will ask you what cravings and desires you want muted. She will not remove the desire for things from your life but will help you to mute them and remove the triggers that they evoke in your body. 

For example, let’s say you have strong cravings for potato chips and you feel like that craving is getting in the way of you eating better or having a healthier life. She will have you close your eyes and guide you to imagine buying the chips, the sounds and feel of the bag, the sensation and smells of opening the bag, how that first chip tastes, how chewing and swallowing them feels, and helps you to focus on eating the Hell out of that bag of chips. She may guide you to imagine yourself in all the situations where you end up eating chips and the sensations that go along with those moments. 

Essentially you are guided to follow your craving into the depths of your sensations. Your dopamine center is muted, which then mutes your cravings. After this exercise, believe it or not, your cravings for potato chips will be greatly diminished, if not completely muted. 

What will it do?

This type of guided exercise works great for sweets, savories, overeating, electronics use, TV use, and works on drinks and substances as well. If you want to stop the cravings, they will stop when Julie helps to mute the dopamine center, if you do not want to stop the cravings, then the craving may be lessened but won’t be as firmly muted and likely will remain. By muting the cravings and desires for these things, we are better able to focus on replacing them with better habits and alternatives, if we so choose.. 

Do you get cravings at certain times of the day or around certain people? Those situations can be moderated as well! Many times we crave certain foods or things that help to bring us specific feelings or to numb other feelings. Some of our less desirable behaviors emerge when we try to kill time or pass time. We distract ourselves with things that may not be super productive.  By addressing the roots to why we do what we do, we are better able to change our behaviors, as long as we have the desire to change them. 

Muting cravings and desires is one way of helping our brain and body to make space for us to do other things. We live in a busy world which offers a million different things that we can do with our time. Pressing mute on the things that are not serving us anymore can help us to redirect that energy and time elsewhere.

Wanna give it a try? Consider having Julie walk you through reducing cravings in your next session or remote session with Posture Massage!