by Linn Thorstensson | Mar 20, 2017 | blog, healing, healthy living, Lifestyle, mindfulness
For the Senses
“May the touch of your skin
Register the beauty
Of the otherness
That surrounds you.
May your listening be attuned
To the deeper silence
Where sound is honed
To bring distance home.
May the fragrance
Of a breathing meadow
Refresh your heart
And remind you, you are
A child of the earth.
And when you partake
Of food and drink,
May your taste quicken
To the gift and sweetness
That flows from the earth.
May your inner eye
See through the surfaces
And glean the real presence
Of everything that meets you.
May your soul beautify
The desire of your eyes
That you might glimpse
The infinity that hides
In the simple sights
That seem worn
To your usual eyes.
– John O’Donohue, Benedictus – A book of blessings
How do we cultivate body awareness?
The more I learn about health and healing, the more I am becoming aware of the mind-body connection. And the importance the we recognise and honour this connection.
Some of the understanding of how this connection works, seems to be emerging in new research, whereas in more ancient traditions this have long been recognised, even though the exact workings of the physiological mechanisms weren’t yet discovered.
We are all connection between our mind and body. A living Whole Person, even if it doesn’t always feel that way… Yet sometime we either feel like we are “living in our head”, or it is looked upon in medicine that any of the physical symptoms we are experiencing that doesn’t seem to have a clear cause is “just in our head.”
I think most of us have had the experience of driving somewhere, and yet when we arrive, having no recollection of how we got there.
So how do we bring our wandering mind back home to our body?
This week I had a gentle reminder of how to do this. When listening to a really interesting conversation over on my favourite podcast On Being about how trauma lodges in the body with Bessel van der Kolk, one sentence in particular stood out for me; “The core experience of ourselves is a somatic experience”.
So just like John O’Donohue so poetically shared it, opening our senses to experience the world, is how we orientate our human experience in the present moment. When we open up to our sensory experience we are in fact bringing our mind home to our body.
Bringing our attention to and cultivating this mindful awareness of our outer experience (sight, hearing, smell, touch) can indeed help us become better listeners to our own body’s faint whispers. To hear the more innate sensations such as feelings of hunger, fullness and satiety.
The better listeners we become, the better caretakers of our bodies and ourselves, we become.
In meditation, the breath is usually the focus of attention. Even though I have a little bit more experience with sitting meditation practice now then when I started out a few years ago, I still feel like I often struggle to catch when my wandering mind has drifted off, doing its own thing. However, this past week I was attending a virtual retreat (yes exactly as it sounds) and one of the practices we were doing was walking meditation. I have practiced walking meditation before, but it had been awhile and I had forgotten how grounding I find it.
In walking meditation the focus is on your feet rather than on your breath. You start off, standing still, placing your attention on your feet, noticing how they feel against the ground. If you can do it without shoes, or even barefoot (outdoors if weather allows) it is even better. To me it really feels like a home coming. When I place my attention and focus on the sensations of my feet, I know that I am HERE. And nowhere else.
Once you’ve taken a few moments of standing, you move slowly, moving one foot and then the other, paying attention to the movement of each foot as it lifts, moves through the space and then being placed back down again.
Funnily for me, when my focus is on something like my feet, then it becomes much easier to “see” what kind of thoughts my mind is engaging in. Like planning, projecting and remembering.
Maybe it is because when your attention is on your feet, it is kind of obvious that where they are is also where you are.
So now, perhaps this week, tune in and see where your feet really are? And let them softly kiss the earth with each step, with appreciation that you are in fact here.
by Linn Thorstensson | Jan 24, 2017 | blog, healing, healthy living, Lifestyle, mindful eating, mindfulness
I’ve been pondering all week, what to write about next. As I wass doing some research into the relationship between stress and digestion for our 1 day retreat this past weekend, I thought perhaps I should share some of those findings with you.
But then I thought, what about the stress around making the “right” food choices?
What about the “being-a-good-girl inner voice”, which in my experience can have a pretty nasty condescending tone? And the judgement that often follow when we don’t make that “right” choice…
For some reason, I’ve struggled emotionally in the past week or so with “being good enough”. I think it may be related to a recent opportunity that presented itself and that I’ve been wanting to be part of for a very long time. So when I finally got the chance, of course I was ecstatic, which then followed by self-doubt. Can I actually deliver on what I say that I can? What if I can’t?
Oh the beauty of the turbulence of emotions! I even caught myself thinking that, perhaps I should just throw in the towel and quit and say that I’m no longer interested. If you quit you can’t technically fail, right? This “quitting” pattern is one of my old protective mechanisms for when things get stretched a little toooo far outside that famous comfort zone. So I’m totally aware of the lure of taking the “easy” option out.
Thing is, there’s a distinct difference about quitting without even trying, or to pivot and try something different because what you are currently doing isn’t working.
The fear of the unknown is what’s playing out here, together with some self-judgment, which can all to easily lead to self-sabotage.
Each and everytime we try something new, we can never be certain of the outcome. Well come to think of it, each and every morning we open our eyes we cannot even be certain of what the day will bring… We can have hopes and expectations, but we can never be sure. Hindsight is as they say “a wonderful thing”.
Whether you’re embarking on a journey of self-discovery and spiritual growth, a new way of eating or even something as simple (yet sometimes challenging) as trying a new recipe, embracing the uncertainty of it actually means that anything is possible!
But it is scary. There’s certainly many times in my life I’ve wished for a crystal ball…
And then we decide to take the leap anyway, and before we know it, this voice of self-doubt and judgement creeps in.
Self-reflection can be a wonderful gift to gift yourself. I’ve seen both for myself and with clients the leaps and bounds that happens in a transformational way when we start looking in the mirror and begin to question what we believe, think and do. But… And this is a BIG but, if we bring judgement into the picture, it becomes a big hindrance in the process of change.
Why? Because when I am busy lambasting my own actions with my own self-righteousness, THIS is where my focus is at. If I’m so busy getting down on myself and my actions, I can’t actually see the reality for what it is.
Maybe the decision I made seemed to be the right one at that particular time, with the information that was available to me. And if it turned out afterwards that it actually wasn’t the wisest move, I am missing a valuable opportunity to learn why it turned out it wasn’t the wisest one, if I’m caught going around in a mental circle of self-ridicule.
Take for example the common thing of having a “bad” food. Perhaps something that’s not the most nutritious thing you could ever ingest. But eating any kind of food doesn’t indicate that we ourselves are “bad” in any way.
Now, if I start judging myself for this one particular food choice and place some of my self worth based on these choices, I completely miss out on the information of how this food actually makes me feel.
Does it make me feel satisfied, or more hungry, or perhaps it may even cause me physical discomfort. Or maybe it turns out I didn’t enjoy the taste as much as I initially thought I would? All vital clues and cues for how I might choose next time I am presented with a choice of having this food or not. But if I’m caught in a spiral of judgement, all I’ll hear is how “bad” I am, and that I should know better, etc. Which will just leave me with guilt, shame and a stress response that my body now also have to digest…
Judgement simply gets in my way of learning from my experiences, experiencing life as it is as well as preventing me from perhaps making a different choice that may serve me better next time.
I love this great poem by Portia Nelson, which I first was introduces to by a client last year, but that we also shared at our recent retreat. It pretty much sums it up.
Autobiography in Five Chapters
I
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in.
I am lost…
I am hopeless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
II
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I’m in the same place.
But it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
III
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in…it’s a habit
My eyes are open; I know where I am;
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
IV
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
V
I walk down another street.
So open your mind, get curious and look at any and all of your experiences as valuable learning opportunities.
And most of all, be kind to yourself.
by Linn Thorstensson | Oct 23, 2016 | blog, healthy living, Lifestyle, mindfulness
Do you ever feel like your life is spinning out of control? Or like you are suffering with sensory overload?
I sure do. Sometimes more often than I would care to admit, even…. Lately it seems to manifest as “social media fatigue”. Like when I scroll through Facebook or my Instagram feed, it is just that, scrolling, without really taking anything in. Kind of like my brain says “Enough, I can’t take any more in. I am full”. A bit like the same way our stomach says “I am full” after eating a certain amount. Or like the way our cells can become desensitised to insulin, because they’ve become overloaded.
In today’s society it seems like almost EVERYTHING is available ALL the time.
Many of us can get access to information, news, or foods in abundance, yet it seems like we are never satisfied… It’s like there’s a huge big gaping void. A hole that we need to fill in order to become whole.
Then of course we that inner voice (let’s call this particular one the Inner Critic) which is adding to this “not enough” chatter. It tends to go on and on about the fact that we are not doing enough, as in working hard enough to achieve our goals or further our careers, or that we are not smart enough / slim enough / fit enough / rich enough / outgoing enough. Just take your pick!
For me “not enough” often manifests as “I am not working hard enough”. And what make this thought even more ridiculous is that I discovered that the more I do, the less I sometime feel like I have achieved. Go figure!
I’ve even had to sit back, take stock and look back on my old to-do lists to see that this idea is simply a limiting belief that I’m holding and not true at all…
The other add on to “not doing enough” is a fear of missing out. (Or should that be FOMO???) Which means, I buy books, sign up to courses and email lists, beyond what is realistic to ever keep up with. I’m not even sure how it got to this. Perhaps this is why I am currently suffering with this brain fatigue.
More is not more and too much is way beyond enough.
A few months ago I interviewed, together with a dear friend, a whole bunch of exciting and interesting people from around the world for a project on Selfcare, that is soon to launch. A couple of our interviewees spoke into the topic of decluttering, both our physical environment as well as our minds. This really spoke to me.
In fact, I think if we start with our outer space it will soon reflect back on to our inner one.
So I have slowly started on this kind of detox. I’ve been through my wardrobe and my storage space, but I still have much left to sort through. However, whenever I do this kind of clearing out work, it almost always brings me back to abundance and the fact that I have enough. And if I do need something, I can be much more intentional about getting it.
And here’s the thing, by taking action and start doing some decluttering, I gained some awareness which lead me to the insight that I have enough stuff and don’t necessarily need to fill my life with more in order to fill any void inside.
Insights, revelations and an appreciation for the small things often come when we are present in the here and now. Which is one of the challenges in our 21st Century fast-paced lifestyle.
With this in mind, I wanted to share with you some really simple, yet powerful tools that I have come across in the past few years and months, which are helpful for taking “life pauses”.
Sometimes it’s not practical or even doable to do what I did some years ago when my life felt like a vortex, and took time out and went to a Vipassana retreat. (But that’s a story for another day)
So instead, there are some simple practical things we can do, in order to take a little time out to “be”. Which funnily enough can make us more productive… Because with some recharging we will be more efficient. Who would have thought?!
I basically see this “being” as plugging our batteries in for some recharging. With this kind of selfcare practice, finding that elusive state of balance, can just get a little bit easier. Just notice that I said practice though, which is verb, not a noun(!)
by Linn Thorstensson | Sep 18, 2016 | blog, healing, healthy living, mindful eating, mindfulness
I really wanted to explore the topic(s) of Mindful Eating vs. Intuitive Eating. And this is by no means and exhaustive blog post about it either… Albeit still a bit of a lengthy one.
What is the difference between mindfulness and intuition? And what’s the difference between eating mindfully and eating intuitively?
Let’s get clear first of all, that this is not an “either or” thing, and also for me there is no “doing it wrong” when it comes to either bringing mindfulness to the table or using your intuition when making food choices. Because isn’t it this “right or wrong”, “good or bad” mentality and way of thinking that gets us into trouble in the first place?
In this great article Sharon Salzberg, one of the first people to bring mindfulness to the west, asks the question “What is mindfulness anyway?”.
We think of mindfulness as slowing down, paying attention to what we are actually doing. Or we think it is when we sit still on a cushion (trying to)focusing and pay attention to our breath.
But in the article Salzberg goes on to put her definition of mindfulness as this;
“Mindfulness isn’t just about knowing that you’re hearing something, seeing something, or even observing that you’re having a particular feeling. It’s about doing so in a certain way — with balance and equanimity, and without judgment. Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention in a way that creates space for insight.”
What becomes important, whether we are talking about life in general or about food and eating in particular is this that we pay attention in an open, curious way with no judgment. When we start paying attention like this, especially to our thoughts, it gets very interesting. It also my own personal experience that “mindfulness is the practice of paying attention in a way that creates space for insight”, is truth.
So if our aim is to get off the “dieting treadmill”, and finding our way back to a less restrictive way of eating, which may not just open us up to more food choices but also to a whole new world of space for possibilities, we need to tap into our insight.
The definition of Insight is; the capacity to gain an accurate and deep understanding of something. Some of the synonyms are: intuition, perception, awareness and discernment.
To bring this back around to intuition and intuitive eating, my personal definition for intuitive eating would be; to let our body guides us in making the food choices to support it needs. With the consideration that the definition of intuition is; “ the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning”.
But I wasn’t the one who coined the term Intuitive Eating. It originally comes from Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD and Elyse Resch, MS, RDN who wrote the book with the same name.
When I started out on my own journey to heal my body and my relationship with food, the first thing was to ditch the scales and surrender to the fact that my happiness did not and would never depend on whatever number it would show. I also had to make peace with the fact that I maybe I would or maybe I wouldn’t lose any weigh. However, at the time weighing myself wasn’t making me lose weight either, it was only making me feel more miserable…
The other thing I did was to give myself full permission to eat whatever I wanted, no restrictions whatsoever. With just the simple guidelines of focusing on just eating when I was hungry and learning to tune into stop when just comfortably full. At this time I had never heard of Intuitive Eating, but I had read countless dieting books… It wasn’t actually till a few years ago that I came across Evelyn and Elyse’s work.
Yet somehow my own intuition told me that this was the next logical step.
In the book Intuitive Eating, there are 10 guidelines to help you eat intuitively. They are the following:
10 Principles of Intuitive Eating
1. Reject the Diet Mentality Throw out the diet books and magazine articles that offer you false hope of losing weight quickly, easily, and permanently. Get angry at the lies that have led you to feel as if you were a failure every time a new diet stopped working and you gained back all of the weight. If you allow even one small hope to linger that a new and better diet might be lurking around the corner, it will prevent you from being free to rediscover Intuitive Eating.
2. Honor Your Hunger Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy and carbohydrates. Otherwise you can trigger a primal drive to overeat. Once you reach the moment of excessive hunger, all intentions of moderate, conscious eating are fleeting and irrelevant. Learning to honor this first biological signal sets the stage for re-building trust with yourself and food.
3. Make Peace with Food Call a truce, stop the food fight! Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. If you tell yourself that you can’t or shouldn’t have a particular food, it can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that build into uncontrollable cravings and, often, binging When you finally “give-in” to your forbidden food, eating will be experienced with such intensity, it usually results in Last Supper overeating, and overwhelming guilt.
4. Challenge the Food Police .Scream a loud “NO” to thoughts in your head that declare you’re “good” for eating minimal calories or “bad” because you ate a piece of chocolate cake. The Food Police monitor the unreasonable rules that dieting has created . The police station is housed deep in your psyche, and its loud speaker shouts negative barbs, hopeless phrases, and guilt-provoking indictments. Chasing the Food Police away is a critical step in returning to Intuitive Eating.
5. Respect Your Fullness Listen for the body signals that tell you that you are no longer hungry. Observe the signs that show that you’re comfortably full. Pause in the middle of a meal or food and ask yourself how the food tastes, and what is your current fullness level?
6. Discover the Satisfaction Factor The Japanese have the wisdom to promote pleasure as one of their goals of healthy living In our fury to be thin and healthy, we often overlook one of the most basic gifts of existence–the pleasure and satisfaction that can be found in the eating experience. When you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting and conducive, the pleasure you derive will be a powerful force in helping you feel satisfied and content. By providing this experience for yourself, you will find that it takes much less food to decide you’ve had “enough”.
7. Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food Find ways to comfort , nurture, distract, and resolve your issues without using food. Anxiety, loneliness, boredom, anger are emotions we all experience throughout life. Each has its own trigger, and each has its own appeasement. Food won’t fix any of these feelings. It may comfort for the short term, distract from the pain, or even numb you into a food hangover. But food won’t solve the problem. If anything, eating for an emotional hunger will only make you feel worse in the long run. You’ll ultimately have to deal with the source of the emotion, as well as the discomfort of overeating.
8. Respect Your Body Accept your genetic blueprint. Just as a person with a shoe size of eight would not expect to realistically squeeze into a size six, it is equally as futile (and uncomfortable) to have the same expectation with body size. But mostly, respect your body, so you can feel better about who you are. It’s hard to reject the diet mentality if you are unrealistic and overly critical about your body shape.
9. Exercise–Feel the Difference Forget militant exercise. Just get active and feel the difference. Shift your focus to how it feels to move your body, rather than the calorie burning effect of exercise. If you focus on how you feel from working out, such as energized, it can make the difference between rolling out of bed for a brisk morning walk or hitting the snooze alarm. If when you wake up, your only goal is to lose weight, it’s usually not a motivating factor in that moment of time.
10. Honor Your Health–Gentle Nutrition Make food choices that honor your health and tastebuds while making you feel well. Remember that you don’t have to eat a perfect diet to be healthy. You will not suddenly get a nutrient deficiency or gain weight from one snack, one meal, or one day of eating. It’s what you eat consistently over time that matters, progress not perfection is what counts.
(from https://www.intuitiveeating.com/content/10-principles-intuitive-eating)
I love all of these. And if we can find our way to embrace food and eating like this, we are well on our way to have a healthy relationship with both.
However, one of the things that seems to be so challenging when it comes to start out on a path to eat intuitively is to give ourselves permission to trust our bodies. This is where I see mindfulness coming in, because if we are to place trust in our bodies we need to begin to listen to them. Not to the thoughts and the merry go around conversation in our heads, but instead tuning back into our internal wisdom, our intuition, which we all have. And it is the space created by mindfulness that we find that inner voice.
Mindfulness starts with awareness. Like I heard someone say the other day “You can’t tell people to be here now, because they are not aware that they are not present.” Which is kind of true…!
So if perhaps way before we even get to a place of listening into what hunger and satiety feels like, or are aware of the negative conversation that plays on repeat in our head, or even the universal truth that we are not our thoughts, we may need to go back to simply noticing.
We are pretty use to consuming and take in information from the external world, so this can be a pretty good place to start, as a way leading on to cultivate the information that comes from within. Just take note that this way of taking “information in” is more as a sensory experience than an intellectual one.
With this in mind, I want to leave you with my three favourite ways to help you on your way to increase your awareness, cultivate mindfulness and nourish your intuition.
1. Start by simply noticing. Take mental notes of how things like how the sun (or the rain) feel against your skin, how the next bite of food tastes in your mouth, how your feet feel against the ground as you are walking, any sound you are and so on. When you pay attention in this way, you are present. You are here now.
2. Find some time, at least a few times a week, for silence and stillness. Imagine what it is like to hear someone else trying to tell you something in a busy pub or at a concert, where the noise level is really high. You have to shout at each other to be heard, and even at that some vital info may get lost in the process. The same goes for trying to tune in to that silent voice within. If you are to hear it, lessening the outside noise and distractions are a must.
3. Practice asking yourself the question “What do I really need?” When you stare into the pantry or the fridge for the umpteenth time, ask yourself this. Is it food you need, or is it rest, sleep, company or even play? And even when it comes to food choices, ask yourself the same question. What do I really want or need? I bet, as you get better and better at practicing and listening, you will find that there is no need to worry about always wanting chocolate cake, sometimes the body actually wants green salads and colourful fresh food.
Putting these steps into practice will over time, not just increase your awareness and your presence of being present, they will also offer you the space to make more compassionate and empowered choices, may it be with food and eating or in your life at large.
A way of, with courage, moving from fear of losing control, to a place of embracing uncertainty with compassion, curiosity and love.
Do you long to let go of obsession around food, eating and weight? Would you like to feel freedom and peace around meals and beyond, but need some help and support to get there?
It would be an honour to walk with you on this path. Please email me HERE to set up a free 30 min consultation to explore how this may be possible for you too.
by Linn Thorstensson | Aug 21, 2016 | blog, healthy living, Lifestyle, mindful eating, mindfulness
I am going to introduce some more non-recipe blog posts, from now on. Because let’s face it, food and nutrition is only ONE part of the healing equation. And it’s only ONE simple way to help us feel amazing. How we eat and how we live also have an impact on how we feel as much as what we eat and do. So I thought it was about time that I started writing about this too!
I really hope you will enjoy this new twist and addition to this space as much as I love sharing my musings and insights with you all. Again, thanks for being here and taking the time to read what I write.
Now let’s dive into this week’s topic!
HOW CAN MINDFUL EATING HELP US UP-LEVEL OUR LIVES?
My dear mentor Dr. Deanna Minich always says “How we eat is how we live and how we live is how we eat.”
But what does this really mean? Can our lifestyle really influence what we choose to eat? And can the food we eat affect how we feel?
I’m a big believer that it does work like this, and also that it is a two way dynamic dance between the two.
When we start looking at our relationship with food and eating in a more non-judgmental and curious way, keeping these words top of mind can serve as a guiding light to get us asking deeper questions.
What if you started asking yourself these questions?
Like, how does my living and lifestyle influence my food choices? And do these choices say something about how I care and value myself?
What if you were to start making your food choices from a new place, one out of selfcare and self love, rather than self judgment and self criticism? Because let’s face it, this is where often our desire to change comes from…
So what if you then start from where you are right now, using the symbology of how the food you eat represents how you live and let the curiosity of your answers become the beginning of a new journey of self discovery.
Perhaps you are fuelling yourself with fast food, take-aways, coffee and chocolate? Foods that are easy to access, quick to eat and provides us with short lived energy.
Perhaps you are living your life in the fast lane?
Or maybe you are struggling with lots of sugar cravings and it may not just be your blood sugar being out of balance causing these cravings, it may actually be an indication of a lack of “sweetness” in your life.
You may have heard of Mindfulness by now, and all the benefits of practicing mindfulness brings. But what is Mindful Eating? Mindful eating is when we bring the art of mindfulness to the table and use this practice with how we engage in the entire eating experience. And I’m a huge fan, as it can open so many doors of awareness, compassion and healing.
The Principles of Mindfulness are;
Deliberately paying attention, non-judgmentally, in the present moment, and it is being aware of your thoughts, emotions and physical sensations, right here and now.
Mindfulness promotes balance, choice, wisdom and acceptance of what is.
Many of us are caught up in a never ending battle between body and mind when it comes to food and eating. This may be as a result of body dissatisfaction, numerous diets and other external influences on what we should and shouldn’t eat. Throwing in further nutritional information in to the equation can make knowing what to eat more confusing than ever.
How did this simple act, a total necessity, become so overwhelming and confusing?
This is where mindfulness and mindful eating comes in really handy, because with practice, mindfulness cultivates the possibility of freeing ourselves of reactive, habitual patterns of thinking, feeling and acting. A very liberating thought… Just imagine that! And this is something you can practice with each and every bite you take!
The language we use can be a strong indicator of not only our relationship with food, but also ultimately a messenger to how we relate to ourselves and life. Listen in. How do you speak to yourself?
One I tend to hear all the time is “I was so good all week”. And then the last few days “I was bad and had x,y,z…” If we are speaking about ourselves as good and bad what we might find when looking a little closer is that shame and a lack of self worth could be lurking underneath.
When we bring mindful eating to the table, with awareness, compassion and curiosity we can let go of the judging of ourselves for the food choices we make.
This will allow us to see that the food we eat is just as it is. We are not morally better or worse than anyone else, depending of the food choices we make, nor are we less worthy of love and belonging based on what goes into our mouths.
With awareness we also get the space to see why we might eat the way we do. Maybe I’m not as addicted to sugar as I think? Maybe my cravings are a symptom of something else missing in my life and by directing my attention to fill this void with something that’s not food, it will not only diminish my cravings, it will also fill me with joy in a way a chocolate bar can never do.
When we bring non-judgmental presence to our eating experience, we give ourselves permission to return back to our root. To go back with trust and awareness of the inner knowing we all have, the inner wisdom of what we need to fuel our bodies with, to feel at our very best. But so many of us may have forgotten what this feels and sounds like, after being so accustomed to listen to external cues for most of our lives.
When we cultivate awareness around How and Why we eat, choosing the best food for fueling our bodies and desires, becomes so much easier.
I truly believe that by doing so we change our perception altogether and start making decisions from an entirely different place.
My own story with food and eating has been complex and complicated at times but it eventually lead me to a career change, a deeper appreciation for my inner wisdom and a closer connection with the Earth that nourish us all.
It took me ten years, traveling and living in three different countries before I finally found my way back to a peaceful relationship with food, eating and my body. From counting calories and bingeing, to learning and understanding how food and nutrition effects us both mentally and physically, to eventually using the kitchen as my creative outlet and growing some vegetables of my own. And now I am here writing about it, as well as working with people in a professional capacity to heal their own body and relationship with food and eating.
It’s been a journey, and it is a process. One that makes my life richer, more colourful and definitely less stressful!
So with this I want to leave you with five ways you can integrate mindful eating in your everyday life and experience all the benefits for yourself!
Don’t forget that if you don’t fuel your body, you’ll have no vehicle to drive your desires! So feed yourself with love in every way.
Five ways to use Mindful Eating up-level your life:
- Look at the symbology of your food choices. What are your food choices telling you about your living?
Are you consuming yellow, brown or fried foods? Are you craving sugar? Are you eating lots of colourful fruits and vegetables, fresh “live” foods?
- Use eating as your mediation practice
You eat many times every day, which means you get ample opportunities and time to practice. Staying with each bite, noticing the sensation of the food in your mouth, paying attention to your surroundings and even noting when your mind wanders off on a tangent, taking you away on a tangent, is all mindfulness practice.
- When you eat, be all there. (Or all here!)
Being fully present with the eating experience allows you to not only to easier notice if you are hungry, or full. It also gives you the opportunity to actually taste the food you are eating! Which will (hopefully!) bring more pleasure to the experience.
Plus, being present and slowing down when you are eating gives your digestive system a chance to deal with the food properly. Which in turn means less bloating and more energy.
- Get into the habit of asking yourself what it is you really need.
Sometimes we eat for a whole host of other reasons than hunger. When you catch yourself reaching for the biscuit tin, or the fifth cup of coffee, pause and ask yourself if it is food you need, or if it is something else? Perhaps you need comfort in a different way to deal with the emotions that you are experience. Maybe you are just tired and need a rest?
- Make food choices out of care and compassion for yourself.
Ponder this one and journal on what it may look like for you…
To get you started on your mindful eating journey I’m gifting you with a free copy of a guided mindful eating exercise.
Simply sign up below 🙂
Do you long to let go of obsession around food, eating and weight? Would you like to feel freedom and peace around meals and beyond, but need some help and support to get there?
It would be an honour to walk with you on this path. Please email me HERE to set up a free 30 min consultation to explore how this may be possible for you too.
