Mindful Eating may not seem like a realistic option to many of us, especially with our jobs, families, and ample distractions around us. Not to mention our friends and family members do not have the patience to sit if we take more time to finish our meals.
If you want to know what mindful eating is and how you can exercise it, this post will be helpful for you.
What is Mindful Eating?
Mindful eating is a Buddhist concept based on mindfulness. It is a form of meditation that helps the person recognize and cope with physical and emotional sensations.
Mindful Eating can help in treating various conditions like depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and other food-related behaviors.
This concept revolves around using mindfulness to reach a state of full attention to your physical cues, experiences, and cravings when you eat.
How To Practice Mindful Eating?
Here are some simple ways to practice mindfulness when eating and bring back the minds and bodies together.
Match Your body to your brain
The best way to get our mind and body to come together is by eating slowly. The body needs at least 20 minutes to satiate signals to the brain; this is the main reason why we end up overeating unconsciously.
Slowing down will give your body a chance to catch up with the brain and listen to the signals. Chew every bite at least 20 times, keep down the fork between every bite and follow all those old manners that our grandma used to tell us. They may seem pointless then, but they are very useful.
Understand personal hunger signals
We often listen to our mind first, but like any other mindfulness practice, we need to tune into our bodies first. Do not eat when you get emotional signals like stress, frustration, boredom, etc. Instead, listen to your bodies. Is your stomach growling? Do you feel low on energy or lightheaded? Eat when your body gives signals of hunger.
Cultivate a mindful kitchen
Having a mindful kitchen means you organize the kitchen space to encourage healthy eating habits. The most common way by which we eat mindlessly is by looking around the cabinets and eating at random places and times. This prevents us from developing healthy environmental cues about how much and what to eat. To help your mood, you should have a fixed sleeping and eating schedule and consistent places. This means putting your food on a plate, using utensils to eat, and sitting down at a table. You can also eat your meals with others to develop healthy connections and slow down the whole process of eating food.
Understand your motivations
Understand the motivation factor behind eating certain foods. Are they nutritionally healthy or emotionally comforting? It is a tricky balance to create, but we can also find nutritious foods comforting and satisfying.
There are various reasons why mindful raisin eating exercise is considered powerful; one of the main reasons is slowing down. As we practice healthy eating while adding a variety of foods to our plates, we are less motivated to binge eat unhealthy foods. Ultimately we find healthy foods mentally and physically satisfying.
Final Words
Mindful eating is a powerful tool to take charge of your eating habits. It is all about developing awareness of your physical cues, experiences, and feelings related to food. By practicing mindful eating, you can distinguish between physical and emotional hunger. It will also increase your understanding of food-related triggers and give you the freedom to choose responses to them.
Mindful eating helps to minimize binge eating and its severity. It can prove helpful in treating common conditions like stress, anxiety, depression, etc. To start practicing mindful eating, try to eat slowly and chew multiple times, stop as soon as you feel full, and eliminate any distractions while eating.
Original Source of the original story >> Tips To Practice Mindful Eating Habits
