Less Stressed Life: Helping You Heal Yourself

#426 Why it’s so hard for us to change with Eliza Kingsford, MA, LPC

Nov 5, 2025
Guest
Eliza Kingsford
In this engaging discussion, Eliza Kingsford, a licensed therapist and bestselling author known for her expertise in behavior change, explores how our nervous system influences habits and relationships with food. She breaks down the three nervous system states—safe, activated, and shutdown—and their effect on eating behaviors. Eliza emphasizes that true change requires feeling safe, urging listeners to build capacity through daily 'deposits' like nourishment and connection. Discover why willpower isn’t the answer and how to cultivate resilience for lasting transformation.
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INSIGHT

Numbing Eating Reflects Shutdown

  • Shutdown eating is dissociative and numbing, aimed at avoiding or evoking feeling.
  • The behavior fills an emotional void rather than satisfying hunger alone.
INSIGHT

Physiology Doesn't Distinguish Emotion vs. Hunger

  • The body gives the same physiological signals whether hunger is emotional or metabolic.
  • Learn the cues; the origin (emotion vs. physiology) matters less than attending to the state.
INSIGHT

Brain Defaults To Predictive Safety

  • The brain is a predictive organ that defaults to past behavior to keep you 'safe'.
  • Change registers as danger, so the brain actively resists deviations from habit.
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