The important key to realizing just where our hungers arise is to begin to recognize their origins, tuning in to their position in the body. 

In a musical symphony the “orchestra pit” is below the stage and from this position leads the “on stage” action and emotion. 

In the physical areana, our stomach is like the “orchestra pit” which is positioned below the center stage. Our head we will compare to the “upper or center stage”.

The orchestra pit should lead the action in this show, not the upper stage. To bring things back into proper order we must ask ourselves, who is directing this performance anyway…is our instruction to eat coming from the orchestra pit or from center stage? 

Undertones: Physical hunger pangs come from the “stomach pit”. They could be described as musical “undertones” playing softly in the background. Physical hunger builds gradually and is felt as a growling in the stomach. This hunger is not accompanied by a sense of compulsion. These hunger pangs will occur several hours after we have eaten a meal. Like background music, physical hunger softly dissipates when we have eaten and leads to feelings of satisfaction and contentment. 

Overtones: Emotional hunger could be described as overtones, which tend to get our attention with loud, overpowering and sudden screaming in our heads to eat. Emotional hunger strikes suddenly and hits in the mind. It result is an urgent impulse or urge to eat a particular food and is insensitive to time or level of fullness from your last meal. Emotional hunger is distractive with its demands to be heard and results in shame and guilt. 

Until a few years ago, I didn't even know there was such a thing as "nutritional" hunger. But no matter how I tried, I just couldn't seem to get satisfied with the food I was eating, although I was eating a healthy and balanced diet. I discovered I needed to add a little more nutrition to my diet. (for more about this: search milestogoblog for superfood). Adding a little more nutrition to my everyday meals, and the problem cleared. (My book, Out of Obesity and into the Promised Land, covers a whole chapter on our many different kinds of hunger.)

We may receive our instructions from the “pit” but we don’t have to live in one. Its time for us to take center stage, acting out our life in wholeness, using our “head” to make wise decision and assume control of our actions only after receiving our signals to eat from our physical body’s place of hunger. With a little practice, we’ll be making our debut in no time.