Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn’t more complicated than that. It is opening to or receiving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.
– Sylvia Boorstein
Note: This is Part 3 of a series on mindfulness. To access Part 1 click here.
To access Part 2 click
here.
Many people are interested in mindful eating these days but mindful eating is only one aspect of mindfulness. If your beliefs, thoughts and emotions drive you to overeat or restrict food, then simply focusing on mindful eating is
putting the cart before the horse. You really need to look at and question your thoughts and beliefs around food and other areas of your life for it to really be successful. This requires practicing observing your thinking, listening to your inner dialogue and stories and questioning the truth of these stories. Most people need some professional guidance and support in order to do this.
Liberation begins to dawn when we discover that we aren’t our thoughts, we are the thinker of our thoughts, and just because we have a thought or feeling doesn’t mean it’s true, nor do we need to act on it. As we become aware of our thoughts and stories, we begin to realize that much of it is based on the past, is illogical and/or untrue. We can then let go of old past
stories and beliefs and adopt new, more empowering beliefs that serve who we presently are.
Mindfulness also requires that we learn to hang out with difficult emotions without trying to push them away or stuff them down with food. This means exploring and welcoming these feelings with acceptance, curiosity, and from a
place of nonjudgmental awareness. Our feelings are messengers and have much to teach us. When we allow ourselves to fully feel our feelings they pass quickly.
Many people who turn to food to cope with life are unaware of what their true needs are. The only way to find out is to pay attention to yourself when you are
feeling stressed or uncomfortable and ask yourself: “What do I really need in this moment?” Then, instead of turning to food when you’re not really hungry, try to attend to your need in a compassionate and appropriate manner.
A big part of unhooking from self-defeating patterns around food and weight is to
become mindfully aware of the underlying thoughts and beliefs that are driving the eating and dieting cycle.
Some common ones I encounter are:
- I need to be perfect.
- I must eat perfectly.
- I must lose weight in order to be happy.
- I can’t go after my larger life goals until I lose weight.
- I need others’ approval, attention, and/or acceptance in order to feel good about myself or to be loved.
- I have to be a certain weight (thin) to be acceptable.
Unless you address the underlying thoughts
and beliefs that drive your eating and restricting, it will be difficult to be successful with mindful eating. This is really the heart of the work I do. I work on the core beliefs that keep you stuck and that ultimately frees you so that practicing mindful eating and other self-care practices are truly possible and then weight loss happens naturally as a result of taking better yourself.
To sum it all up:
Mindfulness is present moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, senses, our breath and bodily sensations. It means waking up and being fully present to our life as we inhabit it
moment by moment. When we are living mindfully, our whole life becomes a meditation.
I hope you have enjoyed this series, which is a brief overview of mindfulness.
My wish for you is that you enjoy and make the most of the moments
you’ve been given. Life is short and impermanent. At the end, you want to be able to look back at your life and feel you truly savored your moments, and not live with the pain of regret. So seize the moment!
Many Blessings,
Catherine
P. S. If this series has inspired you to live more mindfully and you would like more direction and guidance on how to make that happen in your life, I offer a free consultation. Contact Me! How you do food is how you do life! ® 
