Begin to “trust your gut” with your eating habits and the act of physically and mentally observing your body’s needs. Eating in balance requires a whole-body approach. To make this daily practice a part of your life, you’ll need to learn what your body needs, overcome habits that don’t help you, and strengthen the connection between your body and mind.
Your Body Knows What It Needs
Do you have a good relationship with your body? Mindful eating is listening to and being aware of physical and emotional cues. This is an essential way to practice self-care. Learning the patterns of your body will help you understand how to balance your eating habits and lifestyle altogether. Eating with the needs of your body in mind can improve your health and the connection with your body.
Understanding What Doesn’t Work
Have you tried diets or food trends that didn’t work out for you? This can be frustrating if you prioritize your health and can lead you to feel you don’t have control over your body. But what if there’s something else that might work better for you? It has to do with unlearning patterns that don’t satisfy your body. Continuing habits that don’t align with the flow of your body can be harmful over time. If you practice mindful eating, it’ll encourage you to trust your body’s physical cues.
Making the Connection
You can start to change your thoughts and habits by practicing to slow down and shift your mind and body into a relaxed state. Exploring the gut-mind connection has shown that the brain can directly affect the digestive system. Your gut communicates with your brain and then your mind sends messages about what happens and its needs. Becoming aware of these feelings and cues leads to eating with mindfulness and helps you follow your body’s intuition by eating intuitively.
Take Time to Build a Balance
Think about what kind of relationship you want with your body. Decide on a mindful goal and make a plan to follow it with this motivation.
- Bays, Jan Chozen. (2009). Mindful Eating: a guide to rediscovering a healthy and joyful relationship with food. Shambhala Publications.
- Schauster, Heidi. (2018). Nourish: how to heal your relationship with food, body, and self. Hummbird Press.
Dalila Mumic
Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics
Very valuable topic to cover and dive deep into, love it!