What is Your Secret Chocolate Stash Actually Saying about You?
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Chocolate can indeed be a woman’s best friend- a perfect companion for moments of celebration and consolation. Your waistline may not always agree, but your heart knows its love for chocolate and the joy it brings to your day. But just how healthy is your relationship with your cocoa dusted friend? Definitions may vary and boundaries may shift from person to person, but if you are the proud (or not so proud) owner of a secret stash of chocolate, then it’s safe to assume that your relationship may well be beyond the remits of what’s clearly good for you! So what is your secret chocolate stash actually saying about you? The answer lies not in the gorgeous rich selections of chocolate you reach out for, but when you reach out for them. If your craving for chocolate is a harmless after dinner tick, then you may not have much to worry about. Chocolate can in moderate doses be part of a healthy and balanced diet, bringing a generous dose of antioxidants to your plate. However if you express yourself through chocolate, and reach out for it the moment you are sad, anxious or even happy, you might want to pause and take stock of the situation. It all starts when we are kids for many of us. We are rewarded with chocolate every time we encounter victory and every time we need to buck up after a setback. Candies and chocolate almost become synonymous with both achievement and failure, integrating themselves permanently into our approach and processing of the emotions and thoughts we experience. Before you know, you are a couple of decades older and reaching out for your favorite slab of chocolate every time the tears roll or the laughs are unleashed. The effect is more than just psychological. Chocolate gives you that surge in blood sugar levels that boosts your mood and lifts your spirits. But that is also exactly why it is hard to stop at just one
bite- the sweeter your chocolate the sweeter your boost, but by the same equation the greater the crash and the more intense your craving for more! No, chocolate is no longer an indulgence; in many ways it is now an emotional crutch. Taming your chocolate cravings is thus a matter of reining in more than just your mind and will power; you need to work with your body as well! But getting there needs you to start observing the stimuli and feelings that trigger your craving for it. When do you use chocolate to make yourself feel better? Do you raid your secret stash when you are angry or when you are sad; are you feeling low on confidence or just utterly lonely? Observe your thoughts and feelings before you get to that bar, and while you gorge on it. The answers lie in the quietest and subtlest, as well as the loudest of your inner chatter. Don’t judge what you find! Just listen. What your secret stash of chocolate is saying holds the key to not just taming your chocolate cravings, but also your deepest insecurities and challenges.