Feeling Tool #1 Be Willing to Feel and Not Run from Your Feelings A s children, we sometimes experience things that cause intolerable emotions. We learn at a very young age how to cope by not feeling. Many of us distract ourselves by eating. Some of us obsess about our weight instead of feeling terrified of our life. As adults, we are now able to feel our emo- tions. We have the emotional maturity to feel and know that we have some control over the feelings and we understand the cause of them. As adults, we know that feelings do end and that they don’t have the power to kill us. Or do we? Many of us haven’t made this step into adulthood. We spend our lives stressing, eating, and obsessing about our bodies instead of just feeling our feelings. We run and run and run because we think we might not sur- vive them. The truth is that we won’t survive them if we keep on running away from them. We need to learn how to feel. Emotional adulthood requires that we live in the now and face our present emotional condition whatever it 82 • If IAm So Smart, Why Can’t I Lose Weight?