Happy Meditation Day readers! In honour of this named day, I write about how the art of meditation or, more simply, just being ‘mindful’ is acutely relevant to mealtimes and healthy living.
The goal of mindful meditation is to purposefully be in the present moment, right? It’s crazy really – our bodies actively live in the present moment at all times, but our mind spends most of its time either in the past or the future! We are either mulling over past events or anticipating what’s to come; constantly thinking about that long list of Things To Do for today, tomorrow, next week… We are rarely just ‘in the moment’. Here, now. When we do manage to be mindful and check in with our breath, noticing our ribcage moving in and out, in and out, in and out, our stress levels are lowered and we experience a degree of calm and control. Sometimes clarity peeps through and says a warm hello!
Now let’s apply the above to our eating habits. The way we eat is a major part of my philosophy as a Nutritional Therapist. How many of us wolf down a couple of pieces of toast in the morning in the rush to leave the house, or scoff our lunch so that we can squeeze in some lunch break shopping? We can be so cruel to ourselves and deny our bodies over and over again the opportunity of taking in the enticing aroma of whatever we are eating, let alone properly chewing our food! IBS sufferers and those with other digestion related issues start to see real changes when they go back to basics and learn to slow down and be ‘mindful when eating’.
Our digestion is happiest when we sit comfortably at a table and just take that bit longer to munch through our meal. When we take a few deep, slow breaths, linger over the colours, textures and smell of our chosen meal and then really chew each bite, appreciating the flavours released, our bodies can then, literally, ‘digest’ it all.
The process of optimum digestion starts in our minds, in our senses. Then the appropriate enzymes can be triggered, the stomach muscles relax and have time to prepare for the complex job of digestion. Our bodies work so hard for us, why not be kind to yourself today and, slowly now,
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