Week 47 | Eat Mindfully | Take Longer to Chew Your Food

Well, since eating has been on my mind excessively for exactly 15 weeks now, and with Thanksgiving coming up this week, I figured it would be good to focus a weekly intention on eating. I have long been aware of the concept of "mindful eating," and I sometimes (inconsistently) do my own version of mindful eating, stopping to pay attention to the food that I'm putting in my mouth - thinking about where it came from, how it tastes, what the texture is.. But I only just now stopped to read information on the website for the Center for Mindful Eating. They say it way better than I would, so I will leave it at that. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! :)

Principles  |  Philosophy  |  Authors

The Center for Mindful Eating has created the Principles of Mindful Eating. These principles are intended to guide professionals who are interested in mindful eating. The Principles of Mindful Eating are free to reproduce and distribute for educational purposes.

The Principles are also available as a PDF to download and print. (The Principles of Mindful Eating - PDF 110kb)

Principles of Mindfulness:
• Mindfulness is deliberately paying attention, non-judgmentally.
• Mindfulness encompasses both internal processes and external environments.
• Mindfulness is being aware of what is present for you mentally, emotionally and physically in each moment.
• With practice, mindfulness cultivates the possibility of freeing yourself of reactive, habitual patterns of thinking, feeling and acting.
• Mindfulness promotes balance, choice, wisdom and acceptance of what is.

Mindful Eating is:
• Allowing yourself to become aware of the positive and nurturing
opportunities that are available through food preparation and consumption by respecting your own inner wisdom.
• Choosing to eat food that is both pleasing to you and nourishing to your body by using all your senses to explore, savor and taste.
• Acknowledging responses to food (likes, neutral or dislikes) without judgment.
• Learning to be aware of physical hunger and satiety cues to guide your decision to begin eating and to stop eating.

Someone Who Eats Mindfully:
• Acknowledges that there is no right or wrong way to eat but varying degrees of awareness surrounding the experience of food.
• Accepts that his/her eating experiences are unique.
• Is an individual who by choice, directs his/her awareness to all aspects of food and eating on a moment-by-moment basis.
• Is an individual who looks at the immediate choices and direct experiences associated with food and eating: not to the distant health outcome of that choice.
• Is aware of and reflects on the effects caused by unmindful eating.
• Experiences insight about how he/she can act to achieve specific health goals as he/she becomes more attuned to the direct experience of eating and feelings of health.
• Becomes aware of the interconnection of earth, living beings, and cultural practices and the impact of his/ her food choices has on those systems. 

Week 47 

Mantra | Eat Mindfully 

Action | Take Longer to Chew Your Food

Week 45 | It is Better to Light a Candle than Curse the Darkness

Short but sweet:

The clocks have fallen back. It's dark early. I've heard a lot of complaining, and have participated in some myself. Then I went to my 12 week OB appointment and my doctor was dressed in a beautiful green shalwar and was celebrating Diwali, the "Festival of Lights," which she described as a celebration of lighting up the dark. This takes me back to the wonderful Chinese proverb I have had under the heading of this blog since Week 1.

It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

And so it is.

Week 45

Mantra:

It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

Action:

Light a candle every night this week and write one positive thought.

Week 44 | Dream On | Write Down Your Dreams When You Wake Up

 OK. This image is another throw-back to my adolescent decor. I borrowed Shel Silverstein's words from the opening of Where the Sidewalk Ends and hung them on my bedroom door.

I recently participated in a workshop about dreaming and it's got me thinking. As an art therapist, I have studied dream analysis and I use dream work in my sessions with clients. I LOVE and believe in this work! But, I have gone back and forth in my personal life with paying close attention to my own dreams, which I usually remember. The night before the workshop, lying in bed, I wondered if I would have especially vivid dreams, knowing I would be going to the workshop in the morning. Having that conscious thought was all it took, and I woke up having had a very complex and meaningful dream that I, of course, shared with the workshop group, gaining invaluable feedback that I continue to mull over during my quiet moments of self-discovery.

In the days before the sleep deprivation that comes from night nursings, and the groggy start to the day with a screaming toddler as an alarm clock, I actually used to jot my dreams down every morning. If you can, I suggest doing this. I miss the practice, and will attempt to write my dreams down every morning this week before getting Gavin out of bed. (He's been pretty content in the mornings lately to play with his "friends,"the 30 stuffed animals he sleeps with.)

Here's a shortcut to the dream process I learned at the recent workshop. (I'll give due credit, but just can't manage to get up and find the folder at this hour.)

1. Give your dream a title.
2. List the feelings that you had about the dream in your waking mind.
3. List any parts of the dream that mirror reality, or that could really happen.
4. List the questions that you have about the dream.
5. Share your dream with a friend and have them offer questions that they have about the dream.. "If it were my dream..."
6. After pondering the dream a little more, come up with a bumper sticker style message.

I'll try to post about one of my dreams this week so you can see how this works, in case this doesn't make sense.

Week 44
Mantra | Dream On
Action | Write Down Your Dreams When You Wake Up


ps - GO VOTE!!!!