Ever wonder what mindfulness can really do for your health and wellness? I sure did! I was fascinated to learn how amazing mindfulness is and how it can help us heal and even reach all of our health and wellness goals. Mindfulness is the most important key to help us create a healthy relationship with mind, body & food.
WHAT IS MINDFULNESS
Mindfulness is deliberately paying attention, being fully aware of what is happening both inside yourself - in your body, heart, and mind -and outside yourself, in your environment. Mindfulness is awareness without judgment or criticism.
Mindfulness is an ability that all of us possess and can cultivate. The art of mindfulness is increasingly accepted nowadays and it has shown to be so powerful that it is studied in the world of science, healthcare, and education.
When mindfulness is learned and used, it can become a very powerful tool for us to awaken to the full potential of our life. In mindfulness we are not comparing or judging, we are simply paying attention and witnessing the many sensations, thoughts, and emotions that come up around us, including eating.
Some proven benefits of mindfulness:
Boost energy levels.
Improves sleep.
Reduces anxiety.
Relieves stress.
Improves mood & happiness.
Reduce chronic pain.
Boost concentration & focus.
Improves heart function.
Helps with digestive problems.
Improves self-esteem.
Helps to change bad habits.
PRACTICING MINDFUL EATING
Paying attention to the moment-to-moment experience of eating can help you improve your diet, manage food cravings, and even lose weight. Here’s how to start eating mindfully. When you eat without comparing or judging and do it with kindness, curiosity, and love, you feel more happy and satisfied.
If you eat while watching television, distracted and not really tasting the food you eat, it will go down without noticing it resulting in us feeling somehow hungry and unsatisfied, and we go to search for something more to nourish us.
Practicing mindfulness while we eat, we will be present while we do so, reawakening the way we eat, the feelings we have while and after we eat. We can transform our eating habits and as a result our health.
Eating mindfully can help you to:
- Slow down and take a break from the hustle and bustle of your day, easing stress and anxiety.
- Examine and change your relationship with food—helping you, for example, to notice when you turn to food for reasons other than hunger.
- Derive greater pleasure from the food you eat, as you learn to slow down and more fully appreciate your meals and snacks.
- Make healthier choices about what you eat by focusing on how each type of food makes you feel after eating it.
- Improve your digestion by eating slower. Feel fuller sooner and by eating less food.
- Make a greater connection to where your food comes from, how it’s produced, and the journey it’s taken to your plate.
- Eat in a healthier, and more balanced way.
How To Practice Mindful Eating
To practice mindfulness, you need to participate in an activity with total awareness. In the case of mindful eating, it’s important to eat with all your attention rather than on “automatic pilot” or while you’re reading, looking at your phone, watching TV, daydreaming, or planning what you’re doing later. When your attention strays, gently bring it back to your food and the experience of cooking, serving, and eating.
1. You can start by practicing mindful eating for short, five-minute periods at first and then gradually build up from there. And remember: you can begin mindful eating when you’re making your shopping list or browsing the menu at a restaurant. Carefully assess each item you add to your list or choose from the menu.
2. Start by taking a few deep breaths and considering the health value of each different piece of food. While nutrition experts continually debate exactly which foods are “healthy” and which are not, the best rule of thumb is to eat food that is as close as possible to the way nature made it.
3. Employ all your senses while you’re shopping, cooking, serving, and eating your food.
How do different foods look, smell, and feel as you chop? How do they sound as they’re being cooked? How do they taste as you eat?
4. Be curious and make observations about yourself, as well as the food you’re about to eat. Notice how you’re sitting, sit with good posture but remain relaxed. Acknowledge your surroundings but learn to tune them out. Focusing on what’s going on around you may distract from your process of eating and take away from the experience.
5. Tune into your hunger: How hungry are you?
You want to come to the table when you’re hungry, but not ravenous after skipping meals. Know what your intentions are in eating this specific meal.
Are you eating because you’re actually hungry or is it that you’re bored, need a distraction, or think it’s what you should be doing?
6. With the food in front of you, take a moment to appreciate it—and any people you’re sharing the meal with—before eating. Pay attention to the textures, shapes, colors, and smells of the food.
What reactions do you have to the food, and how do the smells make you feel?
7. Take a bite, and notice how it feels in your mouth.
How would you describe the texture now?
Try to identify all the ingredients, all the different flavors. Chew thoroughly and notice how you chew and what that feels like.
8. Focus on how your experience shifts moment to moment.
Do you feel yourself getting full? Are you satisfied?
Take your time, stay present, and don’t rush the experience.
9. Put your utensils down between bites. Take time to consider how you feel—hungry, satiated—before picking up your utensils again. Listen to your stomach, not your plate. Know when you’re full and stop eating.
10. Give gratitude and reflect on where this food came from, the plants or animals involved, and all the people it took to transport the food and bring it onto your plate. Being more mindful about the origins of our food can help us all make wiser and more sustainable choices.
11. Continue to eat slowly as you talk with your dining companions, paying close attention to your body’s signals of fullness. If eating alone, try to stay present to the experience of consuming the meal.
Want to learn how to create a healthy relationship with mind, body, and food?Then “How To Start A Mindful Healthy Living” is for you!
This is a free masterclass where I will share with you what your nutritionist and fitness coach will not teach you with my signature framework the “Stephanie’s Wellness Framework”. Here I will teach you how to create a healthy relationship with mind, body & food mindfully by creating a mindful healthy living lifestyle that will be here for the long term.
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