We all have our favorite comfort food. For me it’s Jack in the Box tacos and Wheat Thins. I am guessing you crave your comfort food or snack when you are tired, lonely sad or even happy. I know I do! If you had tasted this food as an adult, you most likely would never eat it again, but still you find yourself drawn to it. I know, it’s just not logical.

The logic is simple, you have an emotional attachment to the food you are craving. I can justify eating it because I think it will make me feel happy, content or calm, I am guessing you feel the same way. You may know it is not good for you, but subconsciously you think it will. After a while you start to believe the food will make you feel better and because our mind believes this, you do feel better, but the effect is not long lasting.

Guilt kicks in after only a few bites. However this does not stop me from eating one taco, or even my second one! I am sure you know this feeling, it is very frustrating. I know I should not be eating the oddly textured, greasy taco but I really feel like eating it. I have the same cravings, longing and urge to devour that taco, the same as you.

Inhaling the taco is a habit and the habit was learned through different ways. For me, I remember being seven or eight years old maybe. I was with my family on the way to the beach in Southern California. We were talking about Jack in the Box tacos. My mom and aunt talked about how good and greasy they are. We talked about how perfect the tacos would be to have at the beach. All of us were all happy and having a good time. It was a warm, sunny day at the beach, and we were going to play and enjoy ourselves, it would be a good day. We reached Jack in the Box and ordered the tacos, they were amazing! Some sand got into one of my tacos, but I did not care, we were having a fantastic day. Memories which are important are typically vivid and more influential than everyday random memories.

Today, just the anticipation of getting the tacos triggers good feelings which are associated with this memory. Sometimes the memory comes with it and sometimes not. It is important to understand how we relate feelings to different things in our lives, things like food, music or a voice.

For example, I used to love Aerosmith. I would listen to their songs over and over again, but never get sick of them. All this changed in the early 90’s when I took my then girlfriend to an Aerosmith concert. Things did not get well and since then I don’t care for Aerosmith much, each song reminds me of her.

It’s SoCal, the 70’s, my family has a van with pin stripes, and the interior was tangerine orange with matching carpet. Yes it makes me laugh too! I was about six years old and encountered a large black widow spider in this van. My parents made me and my brothers’ get out of the van quickly. For years I had an embarrassing fear of spiders. I was able to link it to this memory. I am now able to kill spiders, but if I see a big one I still get nervous, but nothing like it use to be.

I don’t know about you, but whenever I hear a stern voice, like my wife saying, Patrick Michael Glancy, I know I have either done something wrong or need to find something to do like hide in the garage. Most people feel like a child when they hear this tone of voice. Especially when someone uses your first, middle and last name!

Enough about me. The point of all this is to show you common sense examples of learned behaviors. Emotions associated with memories trigger very powerful, behind the scenes reactions and decisions in our minds.