Fully Embodied Living is based on 4 Pillars:

Connection to Body
Connection to Nourishment
Connection to Presence
Connection to Growth

Each day of this introduction has 3 gifts:

• a guided meditation,

• a video of accessible stretches or body practices,

• writing on healthy nourishment.

  Please enjoy all 3 gifts, or just check out the ones that resonate with you.
  This page will always be here for you to come back to whenever you need.

  Day 4: Connection to Mind

  Our thoughts can be just as powerful as the stars in the sky.
  Can we allow our thoughts, just like the stars, to have lots of space to move, to expand, to transform, to radiate?

What is Mindfulness?

One translation of the word Mindfulness that I like, is Remembering.
Remembering that we are here, now, in this moment, and that NOW is all that we have control of.
Remembering that what we do in this moment affects how our future unfolds, and how we view our past.
Remembering to listen to the highest wisdom of our bodies, hearts & minds,
Remembering our breath, and our connection to the ground,
Remembering that this moment is precious, and so instead of living our moments submersed in fear or anger,
remembering that we are our greatest source of joy, love, abundance, & wisdom.

With practice, this is all possible.

Mindful, Joyful Nourishment

Mindful eating is a popular idea these days, but how many of us actually know what that means, and actually practice it? And what about making everything about the act of nourishing ourselves a practice in mindfulness, and a practice in discovering joy?

Many of us live busy and complex lives, and so may not have time to sit in meditation everyday, or in weekend or week-long retreats, but we can get many of the same benefits - and possibly more - by living mindfully, and by looking for joy in the everyday moments of our lives. I want to emphasize the combination of these 2 ideas - mindfulness and joyfulness, because I think that the idea of being ‘mindful’ can sound a bit onerous - like we need to be hyperconscious all the time - and that sounds like not much fun at all! Although there is a LOT to be learned from the practice of mindfulness, and from mindful eating in particular, I think one of the things that we can learn is how to cultivate awareness without cultivating hyper-criticalness or harsh self-judgement. We are a culture that loves to either over-analyze, or totally tune out. We get overwhelmed by the news and then we seek escape in movies or video games. Or we can’t handle how we feel, so we escape into a bowl of ice cream. Since we eat everyday - several times - can we use this whole experience as an opportunity to practice  mindful awareness joyfully?

In this article, I am going to outline what a day being ‘mindful of our nourishment’ could look like. The picture I am going to portray may seem very ‘over the top’, but it is meant to show all the moments that we could become more aware, more awake, and more joyful. My intention is that we use this picture to inspire our own ideas of what we might incorporate into our day. We can pick just one or two things here, or discover our own, end then notice the effects - both immediate and over the long term.

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It is morning. We wake up, and take a few moments to tune into the body, to stretch in bed, to take some slow, deep breaths, and to visualise our day - what is on the official agenda, and what kind of energy we would like to bring to our day.

Morning includes drinking pure water, knowing that the body wakes up naturally dehaydrated, and some sort of morning practice - 5 minutes of meditation or yoga, for example. It also includes some fresh fruit and yogurt, or whole grains & nut butter  - or some sort of whole food based meal that includes protein. We are present when cutting up the fruit, or spreading on the nut butter, enjoying the smells and the textures. As we eat slowly, seated, chewing everything with delight, tasting it, we might look outside and see what the day is like, or connect with the others in our household. We remember that before we took up this habit of eating slowly, seated, without the distraction of electronics, we often felt bloated and gassy after eating, and our doctor told us that we actually had higher blood sugar levels, but now, not only do we enjoy everything so much more, our digestion and our energy have improved.

At lunch, we eat the lunch that we packed the night before with some of our favourite work colleagues, cracking jokes to relieve any work day pressure that may have already accumulated, as we eat with no rush.  Or, we may sit outside and eat on our own, listening to the birds and the squirrels while we lunch. Because we are eating slowly, we notice that we are full before we have actually finished everything we brought, so we stop when we are full, instead of waiting until we are stuffed. 

(Ok, I know - this is a pretty ideal picture so far, but stick with me here!
The point is to find the 1 or 2 things that we might incorporate - and not to expect that we can do all of this!!!)

After work, we have to get some groceries for supper. We have already planned what we want to cook and what we need to buy, so the trip to the grocery store can be smooth. When inside, we realise that we are already a bit hungry, and that our afternoon was kind of stressful, and so there is a bit of a nervous energy within us, and a desire to munch on something. Because we mainly shop in the perimeter of the store, where all the fresh food is, we don’t even see the chips and sugary snacks in the inner aisles with all  the boxes, AND we remember the aspiration that we made to ourselves to cultivate healthier snack choices, so we end up picking some grapes to munch on - perfect for picking at, and full of natural sugar, fiber, and micronutrients. We have to wait extra long at the check out counter, and so we use this time to tune into our breath, something we realise we haven’t done since early this morning. Because of this mini-breath practice, when we do get to the front of the line, we are able to be more present with the person helping us, able to joke around and ask them about their day.

(All of these moments of mindfulness are not a grim duty - they are a joy. They are good for us AND they let us have a better day.)

Once at home, the other people in our household are able to help us get dinner going - setting the table, chopping the veggies, putting on some nice relaxing music. We share stories of our day as we prepare dinner, smelling the food as it cooks on the stove, adding spices according to our nose. We can feel our stomachs getting ready for something good, and we enjoy the feeling of anticipation. This time of preparing to eat is the first phase of digestion. Called the cephallic phase, this is when the juices of our stomach, and the saliva in our mouth, start to flow and this phase actually accounts for up to 30% of the digestive process - even more of a reason not to rush!

As we sit down together, we take a moment to give thanks for the food we are about to eat, we toast each other, and then we dig in. As we eat, we talk about the food with each other - what we like about it, and what we might add next time. We notice the food we are eating. We enjoy it together. We put down our fork between bites, we look into the eyes of the others at the table. We laugh.

After the meal, we stay for a while at the table, letting everything settle, and then we clear away everything together. We notice the smooth feeling of the cloth as we wipe the table and the countertops clean. We put the leftovers neatly in containers, so we can just pop them in our lunchbags for tomorrow. As we are cleaning up - we notice what groceries we might need for tomorrow - and we write them down, so we don’t need to think about it anymore.

We finish eating about 2 hours before we go to bed - taking time to read, to stretch, to have a long bath perhaps. When we do go to bed, we take a few moments to notice what we are grateful for about this day, we tune into our hearts with our breath, and we go to sleep. 

Again - I totally realise that this is an ideal scenario. Maybe we can add 1 idea here into our day - YAY! Maybe 2 ideas - double yay! Again, we eat everyday, and so it is perfect for incorporating some mindful and joyful practice. We also have to grocery shop, and clean up everyday - so instead of making that a chore - can we make it more of a delight? Can we relax AND live our lives - instead of waiting for the moment in which we can ‘finally relax’?  

Please remember that every moment of mindfulness counts. It’s like drops in the well, and eventually the well is full and our lives are more rich and joyful. And above all else, remember to be kind and compassionate to the person we spend all of our lives with - ourselves. 

Please enjoy this post on Mindful Eating & Self Care

And if you would like more mindfulness meditation, there are several here on my meditation video hub

Wishing you well. Take good care.