Why I practice mindfulness and incorporate it into Food Freedom Coaching.
What is mindfulness?
To me, mindfulness is being conscious or aware in the present moment. It means to acknowledge your feelings, thoughts and actions in a calm manner.
How did I get started?
All of my life I’ve struggled with an overactive mind. Sometimes this works to my favor helping me to come up with ideas and creations, but a lot of the time it involves worry and things that are not productive to the things I hope to achieve. This results in anxiety, panic, etc.
Being mindful allows me to shut out the noise and focus on what’s happening in the here and now in this very moment.
I started with guided meditations. There are great free apps for this such as insight timer and the calm app as well as youtube versions. Setting aside 10 minutes a day is how I began, and this practice has transformed over time to include journaling and silent meditation.
If you’re someone who also has an active mind, I encourage you to try it! Meditation does not mean shutting out all of the noise and expecting complete silence. It’s an opportunity to sit with your thoughts, process them at your own pace and recognize what’s coming up for you to deal with or focus on.
Meditation is not the only way to practice mindfulness. Pausing to take a deep breath is an easy way to refocus and be present. Place one hand on your heart and the other on your abdomen and focus on the rise and fall in your abdomen during your inhale and exhale. You did it, you practiced mindfulness! That wasn’t hard, was it?
What does mindfulness have to do with food freedom?
One of the biggest challenges to food freedom is deciding what works for you when the "rules" are taken away. If you're surrounded by noise and clutter and don't take the time to check in with yourself and how you're feeling, your decisions may not reflect your desires. It's easy to fall back into old habits and make choices out of convenience when we're stressed. Taking the time to check in with yourself, even for just 10 minutes a day can have a profound impact on how you show up for yourself and how you feel.
If you love meditation and find that the practice has really helped you, I encourage you to take it a step further and journal your thoughts that may come up during your meditation. Even writing 3 things you're grateful for that day can shift your focus to the good things surrounding you which we sometimes forget to notice as they happen.
I’d love to hear if you tried it and how it worked for you!