DEAR FRIENDS,
Good morning!
Lori and I are very excited to be exploring Mindful Nutrition and Mindful Eating for the next few weeks.
The following is an excerpt from Harvard University’s Heart Health Letter, July 2018:
Why mindfulness matters
One of the main benefits of mindfulness approaches for weight loss is to help people recognize emotional eating, says mindfulness expert Dr. Ronald D. Siegel, assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School. "Very few of us eat solely based on hunger cues. We also eat to soothe anxiety, sadness, or irritation," he says. That's a recipe for mindless eating: you're operating on automatic pilot, without paying attention to how you really feel, emotionally or physically.
Mindfulness practices help you notice these common patterns, which are similar to what happens with many types of addiction, says Dr. Siegel. Most human behaviors are based on conditioned patterns of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. Those behaviors we refer to as addictions have good short-term consequences (the pleasure of eating a piece of chocolate cake) but bad long-term consequences (becoming overweight).
Whether weight is an issue or not for you, we believe Mindful Eating is important to talk about during these days of quarantine. For the following reasons:
Many of us are closer to our refrigerators 24/7 - more often than ever before, as we are working/playing/living/teaching while Staying at Home or Sheltering in Place.
In these days of potentially increased perceived stress in each of our lives, we may find ourselves with increased sensitivity, and experiencing many old and new emotions.
As we continue to explore awareness of our feelings and emotions, we may begin to notice patterns and habits that we are forming around food. We can learn to embrace it all as part of our experience. We learn to recognize, reframe, and redirect our negative habits. We can begin to celebrate our many wonderful choices of food and our ability to buy, prepare, and savor our favorite meals.
Embedded in the following meditation is a strategy called Stop-Breathe-Be. This technique will help us notice when we are being pulled into an uncomfortable situation (heated conversation, newscast, craving, etc.); and learn the next steps to free us from our captivation.
Meditation Practice - Week of 5/11
Enjoy your week,