Happy & Healthy with Amy

What Your Urges Are Trying to Tell You

• Amy Lang • Season 2 • Episode 52

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0:00 | 24:33

Have you ever reached for a glass of wine, a bowl of ice cream, or another familiar comfort at the end of a stressful day—without feeling as though you consciously made the decision?

An urge can feel like a command. But it is actually information.

In Part 3 of the Name It to Navigate It series, Amy explains how emotions create urges and why your brain automatically reaches for familiar ways to find relief, comfort, distraction, or safety.

You’ll learn how to look beneath an urge and identify the need it may be trying to address. You’ll also discover why another urge often appears afterward: the urge to criticize, shame, or punish yourself for the choice you made.

Instead of treating urges as the enemy, Amy shows you how to use them to create a pause, understand what you need, and respond more intentionally.

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

  • [00:00]  Why urges can seem to bypass conscious choice
  • [03:10]  A recap of the Name It to Navigate It series
  • [04:20]  What an urge actually is
  • [06:05]  Your brain’s three main priorities
  • [08:05]  The payoff behind every behavior
  • [09:35]  When emotional eating works—but only temporarily
  • [11:10]  Primary and secondary emotions
  • [13:10]  The two urges that can keep you stuck
  • [15:10]  Why self-criticism is not accountability
  • [17:20]  Urge versus need
  • [19:00]  Treating an urge like a knock at the door
  • [20:35]  “I am anxious” versus “I feel anxious”
  • [22:30]   Using emotions to identify what you need

Your urges are not the enemy, and they do not have to make your decisions for you. An urge tells you that an emotion is active and a familiar loop is about to begin. When you pause, name what you are feeling, and identify the need beneath it, you create the space to choose what happens next.

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