Why do you eat? Sounds like an obvious answer should follow this question, but really there are many reasons why people eat and it’s time to bring awareness to the whole process of eating. What does it mean to you – is it stressful, painful and a problem, or is it one of life’s balanced and joyful pleasures?
Stop for a moment and ask yourself – what is your purpose for this daily routine? Is it to nourish your body? Is it to quieten the hunger pains… or is it just a habit that you’ve never thought about and questioned? Do you eat for emotional reasons – when you feel bored, restless, upset or stressed? Is it as simple as the belief that – if you don’t eat, you will eventually die? Do you consider what you put into your body by the taste alone, or the nourishing benefits? Do you simply eat whatever you want and enjoy eating? So many possibilities for this natural process!
Consider some further reasons to eat…
- eat for healthy, loving nourishment,
- eat to enjoy and appreciate a healthy body
- eat to preserve the health of the body
- eat to live without dis-ease
- eat to reduce stress
- eat to be free of dieting
- eat to boost self-esteem
- eat to feel wonderful, look wonderful and live with real energy!
- eat because it is a beautiful gift from Mother Earth to nourish our mind and bodies!
- eat to say ‘I love you’… to you!
To change the way we eat we must first change the way we think about food. It is not something that has been put here to torture our taste buds or tummies! Food – good healthy natural food – is a real gift to offer us the foundation of health and energy, to springboard us into the life of experience available to us. When you begin learning about what are truly nourishing foods – rather than commercial false promises of nutrition, perfect bodies, success etc – the understanding and awareness starts to grow and the choices naturally become easier.
There is a lot of knowledge available to us, so it is important to find the ‘right’ knowledge. We actually have an inbuilt ability to know whether what we are eating is good for us or not. There are the obvious junk foods that are eaten for taste, binging, quick fix reasons rather than health. I don’t think I need to outline these. It’s the not so obvious choices that we have to think about.
When you place your choice of food into your mouth, do you feel good about it? The opposite of knowing you feel good would be to feel guilt, hesitation or instinctively knowing you are not nourishing your body, just your insecurity, fear or similar emotion. With new ‘right knowledge’ you can ask yourself honestly before eating – “will this food nourish me well or add to the slow poisoning of my mind and body?” Or – put more simply – ”does this lift me, or lower me?” This is an easy way to guide yourself so you can start your self-awareness and some changes today, whilst you are learning.
Remember – you will only stuggle with this if you feel uncomfortable with or deny the truth that your inner voice offers you. That is ok, don’t give up – and most importantly never, ever, ever … beat yourself up when you slip up! Lovingly put yourself back on the track as many times as it takes. Lovingly coaching and supporting yourself gives positive results, as opposed to negatively reprimanding yourself which only compounds any problems in the first place. Remember to keep it real of course, keep moving toward any new choices you make – for you! What you focus on grows… stay lovingly focused.
