Mindfulness practice helps us become more aware of what we are experiencing, while we are experiencing it. So we can start to observe ourselves when we are feeling different emotions and reactions and learn how not to react in the moment. It helps if we can do this without judgment. Without judging ourselves for whatever we are experiencing in the moment. Maybe we are angry, sad, unsettled, happy, excited, overwhelmed. We can learn to label these feelings states and not be carried away by them.
Mindfulness offers us space between our reactions and our responses.
One thing that makes mindfulness so challenging is our judgmental mind. As soon as we become more mindful of what we are experiencing, our self-critical mind can jump right in. This is especially so with respect to our food and body.
Most of us are very hard on ourselves. Very self-critical. Perhaps even caught up in a eat – distress- blame – shame cycle
That’s why kindful eating is so powerful. Kindful Eating is an approach developed by Dr. Lucy Aphamor in the UK. Her work integrating mindfulness with compassion and nutrition and has been shown to transform food guilt and body respect, support people to adopt sustainable lifestyle changes and improve health and wellbeing.
Interested in learning about how to bring a more kindful approach to your life? Join us for our next 8 Week Mindful Self-Compassion Program for Emotional Eaters.
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