5 Amazing Benefits From Mindful Eating
We work in a stressful city which most of us choose to sacrifice the time on eating for work. On the contrary, French people treat their meal sacredly with a normal lunch break to be as long as 2 hour. To them, quality eating is the most enjoyable moment of the day to relax, reconnect and recharge. Anything we can reference from them?
Quality is the key. It’s not about how much time we eat, but how mindful we eat. When we choose to enjoy the food by a conscious chew, breath and feel, even 10 minutes you can benefit a lot from it.
1. Facilitate weight loss
Digestion actually starts in the mouth. When we chew, we release enzymes and start digesting food at mouth stage instead of stomach. At the same time, it triggers 2 very important hormones which facilitate weight loss- ghrelin and leptin. These 2 hormones control our body fat and appetite. They send signal to our brain which help to decrease hunger and learn to stop eating when we are nearly full.
2. Age back
Mindful eating with high nutrient dense food has the effect of anti-aging. It provides a happy gut environment which we are able to digest and absorb fully on all the micro-nutrients, anti-oxidants and enzymes we need for growth and repair. Start by chewing your age on every bite. It brings you brighter skin, better energy and an amazing feeling of youth again.
3. Therapeutic relaxation
Instead of swallowing the food, take some time to truly taste and experience when you eat. We turn our body from inflammatory state to anti-inflammatory state when we eat slow. This is what we called "green zone". It is the mode of human body which blood starts circulate slowly and completely. Our breaths become slower, easier and more equal which helps realising stress effectively. No time to go for a spa? Treat yourself a 15 mins mindful eating and you can achieve the same relaxation.
4. Worry free
When we eat mindfully, we connect not just the physically sensations but also the emotional one. Every bite carries us to look within to experience our feelings in a deeper way. Every breath allows ourselves to open up to see things differently. Slowly, we realise problem is no longer a problem. It is just the way how we cope with it. All of a sudden, you can experience what people call being at present. The moment you start forgetting how to worry about any stories bothering you in life.
5. Attracting love
Through conscious breathing, we activate our parasympathetic nervous system which is our love and safe mode. We appreciate what we eat and reconnect with our feelings again. This powerful loving energy is calling in more love. We become a love magnet when sending this out to the universe and attract more and more love towards us. "I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become", CG Jung. Choose to believe you are the the creator of your life, and start by a small simple step to put this thought into action with one conscious meal.
Mindful eating is amazing yet it is also easier said than done. Starts small and treat it like a practice. Nourish your body, mind and soul with this conscious self-love approach in this Christmas. Experience what simple happiness is. Right here, right now, in every single chew.
