Eating with Awareness
May, 2009
by Morella Devost
Have you ever observed an animal in nature instinctively eating one plant vs. another? Have you ever noticed your dog or cat eating grass or leaves? Have you ever seen a baby eat dirt, or a little kid suck on a metal swing set?
They all have one thing in common - they operate on their instinctive drive to eat what their body needs. It is hard-wired in their intuition.
So if we all had this wisdom as little kids, where did it go? How is it that we do not know what to eat and have forgotten how to heal ourselves?
We forgot because we stopped paying attention. We grew up eating increasingly artificial foods. Some of us were fortunate enough to begin our lives nourished with breast milk and pureed vegetables and fruits, others received formula and baby food from a jar. Regardless, the majority of us graduated to sugar, candy, sodas, mac n'cheese, hotdogs, fries, chicken nuggets and microwave dinners. Later came alcohol and even more junk. We slowly disconnected ourselves from natural foods and from our body's natural interaction with food.
Now, even if you grew up in a household where real food was served, as was my case, you probably also experienced the increasingly "medicalized" view of your body's feedback. If you got a stomachache or a headache there was typically a quickie pill to take it away. We grew out of the habit of interpreting the body's message as an attempt to get our attention, and instead "took care of it" by eliminating the symptom.
So as we increasingly ate processed foods and became used to "curing" our body's ailments with pills, we forgot how to interpret the body's signals as a way to naturally regain our healthy equilibrium. If we paid attention to our body's constant feedback, we would master the secret to life-long health, longevity and vitality.
The key to regaining mastery over your health is AWARENESS.
One very important way you can regain awareness of your body and how you create health or disease for yourself is by paying attention to what you eat and how you eat it. When you give your full attention to your food - its taste, texture, temperature, and its effect on your digestion, mental clarity, energy levels, etc. you begin to know what foods support you and what foods make you ill.
The next step is to act on it. Once you become aware of a food having a negative effect on your body, honoring that recognition and abstaining from or minimizing the food, strengthens your body's antenna making it increasingly easy to discern what effects other foods may have. All too often, we ignore the heaviness, discomfort, lethargy or downright pain that eating some foods produce. This typically leads to a continued pattern of eating that food and not paying attention. Pretty soon you are feeling constantly yucky and don't even know where to begin.
So here are a few questions you can ask yourself to help you gain greater awareness:
- Where do you typically eat your meals?
- Are you fully present with your meal or are you multi-tasking?
- Are you busier watching TV, reading your email or driving rather than observing the taste and texture of your food?
- How much do you chew your food?
- Are you enjoying the company you keep while you eat?
- Do you notice how your food affects your digestion?
- Do you notice how your food affects your mood? Your mental clarity?
You can use a simple journal to record at the end of the day what you ate and how your body felt, as well as what your moods and thoughts were like during the day. This simple exercise will begin to show you how different foods affect you for the better or worse.
Bring more awareness into your meals and you will begin to tap into the most powerful source of wisdom: your own body's natural ability to heal itself.
I like to remind people that until the day you die, your body will work to heal itself. That's what it's meant to do. Are you supporting your body in that process or are you making it harder for your body to heal?
We are always happy to support you if you need help on this journey. If you would like to learn more, feel free to email us, check out our programs or call for a free consultation.