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Loving yourself and knowing how to do so is at the very core of well-being, joy and self-acceptance and is essential for creating a rich and wholehearted life. You cannot enjoy happiness if you are not at peace with yourself and with who you are. Your relationship with yourself is the most important one you’ll ever have. In addition, every relationship you experience with someone else mirrors, in many ways, aspects of the relationship you have with yourself. The following are 10 tips for learning to love yourself. Apply each tip one step at a time and know that you are on a path that creates self-love and a healthy self-esteem.
Continue reading Ten Ways to Love Yourself
We repeat this task over 20,000 times a day and breathing is one of the most important physical functions our bodies know to do. Yet most of us don’t get it right. We fail to reap the full benefits of this action. As Dr. Andrew Weil, MD, a well-known pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, says: “If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just one tip, it would be to learn to breathe correctly.”
Continue reading Breathing Basics
Emotional eating plays a large role in the epidemic of obesity in our country. We eat mindlessly most of the time. In addition to contributing to missing out on one of life’s most enjoyable pleasures, mindless eating can lead to many health problems. Mindfulness practice offers an alternative. When we bring mindful attention to the process of eating, we tend to notice experiences that otherwise pass undetected. We are able to see relationships between thoughts, feelings and eating.
Continue reading Are You an Emotional Eater?
List consciousness is a state of mind that is entirely future-oriented. With a subtle but constant quality of rushing, it operates on the premise that life will happen once everything is crossed off The List. When you are in list consciousness, you are leaning into the future and completely missing the present.
Continue reading Practicing Presence…if you’re not too busy
It may seem contradictory to those who are used to sacrificing living for pursuing their goals … but cultivating mindfulness will help you achieve your goals and enjoy life more. Focusing on one task at a time, putting yourself fully into that task, is much more effective than multi-tasking. Focusing on one real goal at a time is also more effective. Focusing on what you’re doing right now is highly effective. You’re more productive when you’re mindful.
Continue reading 11 Tips for Living Mindfully
We’ve all heard it said: “It’s easier said than done”. Is this true for you when it comes to eating mindfully? Are waiting for more clarity, more knowledge or simply some advice on getting unstuck? If so, I recommend taking a look at the following articles for inspiration, motivation, learning and, well, success. The authors share their views on overcoming fear of hunger, looking at weight gain and weight loss patterns as helpful information, becoming clear and committing to begin…now.
Continue reading How do I learn to eat mindfully?
It is very normal to feel uncertain when first embracing mindfulness at the table. Creating a mindful eating practice means simply becoming more curious and aware while eating ~ yet the whole concept can appear overwhelming at first. Considering awareness in three distinct areas can make creating a mindful eating practice much easier.
Continue reading Make Eating Mindful
Unfortunately, most women spend their days juggling many roles, conflicting commitments and the wants and needs of others. Often we come last, if there’s time. The temptation to reach for food as comfort or distraction can be overwhelming; although the issue is rarely about food — more times than not, the underlying force is emotion. Eating emotionally can become a way of life and extra pounds an unwanted result.
Continue reading The heart and soul of why women eat…it’s not what you think
Is it okay to have a “cheat meal” when you’re dieting? Joy Bauer, featured nutrition “expert” on NBC’s The Today Show, addressed this question during a recent segment* of “Joy’s Diet SOS”. Shockingly, Joy gives a weekend meal of total indulgence “two thumbs up” for dieters. Her reasons being: preventing feelings of deprivation, providing staying power for continuing to diet and rewarding dieters for putting in “so much HARD work during the week”.
Continue reading “Cheat Meals”: A Frightening Concept
It’s pretty safe to say that everybody, at one point or another, has felt the pain of regret-a missed opportunity, perhaps, or the sense of having made a mistake. But when Abigail Stewart, PhD, a professor of psychology and women’s studies at the University of Michigan, started tracking women in their late 30s, she found that this pain can be turned to your advantage.
Continue reading Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda
Mindfulness meditation — nonjudgmental awareness of sensations, feelings, and state of mind — has been proven to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress. According to the Harvard Gazette, a team led by Harvard-affiliated researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital are the first to document meditation-produced changes in the brain.
Continue reading Change Your Brain, Change Your Life
Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives and being aware of whatever is happening in the present moment – without judgment. Mindfulness is about cultivating a curiosity about ourselves and about who we are – being curious about how we view our world and our place in it…and about appreciating the fullness of each moment that we are given on this earth. Mindfulness is about paying attention in a particular and very important way: on purpose and in the present moment, with kindness and compassion.
Continue reading Mindfulness: Meditative Awareness
This year, National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is February 26-March 3, 2012. In recognition of this significant event, my thoughts are with both the individuals suffering from a diagnosed eating disorder as well as with the individuals who fall outside of the diagnostic box yet who suffer daily in many ways. As a medical professional treating people with eating disorders and related issues, I understand firsthand that these individuals long for a life of balance and wise nourishment yet find themselves eating in unhealthy ways, often causing weight gain and distress. Emotional eating can become a way of life, leaving a person feeling trapped and at the mercy of their thoughts, feelings and habitual behavior.
Continue reading Eating Mindfully: An Introduction and Overview
Having worked with obesity for over 25 years in my consulting and coaching practice, I know one thing for sure: no one who is obese wants to be that way. The extra pounds are not the issue – though health and wellness are certainly a large part of the situation. The true issue is why do individuals, young or older, turn to food for emotional support, distraction or other reasons rather than true hunger?
Continue reading Weighing in on Georgia’s Anti-Obesity Campaign
I found this quote from Winnie the Pooh, a book I read many times over the years to my now grown children, as I was cleaning out my desk and wondered: how many of you can relate to Pooh? How many of you eat for excitement? Does food break the boredom and add some “fun” into your day or evening? And how many of you would like to use food for nourishment and, yes, for enjoyment but not necessarily for “excitement”?
Continue reading Food for Thought
I’m speaking of is the moment during a healing journey when it’s clearly time for action. Goals have been established, the past discussed, contributing events and significant people defined and it is now time to bring attention to intention and take the first action step. This is a time of personal challenge yet more importantly a time of personal triumph: taking the action step and then taking the next..and the next.. creating your path as you go.
Continue reading When the Going Gets Tough
It is important to understand that not all behaviors are created equal – meaning each behavior has a different meaning for each individual. One person may be counting calories to become more aware and intentional in the face of food portions and calorie content. Another person may be caught in food restricting and dangerously controlling behavior involving calorie counting and specific food groups. It is important to use your intuition and trust yourself in observing other people, such as a family member or a friend. Above all, bring patience, compassion and love to the situation before making any decisions or forming any opinions.
Continue reading FAQs About Eating Disorders at Holiday Time
Often the holidays are approached from a “more on an already full plate” perspective. There is a cultural expectation for joyfulness and accomplishment. Family and social gatherings occur. Often more money is spent over the holidays than planned and budget concerns can dampen merriment. Time, energy and sleep patterns become altered, leaving a person tired and close to burnout as healthy self-time becomes less frequent. For some, the holidays are a time of sadness and depression involving grief, sorrow and loneliness. And for nearly everyone, eating mindfully becomes more difficult and challenging during the holiday season.
Continue reading Navigating the Holidays Mindfully
One of the things you may sometimes forget is that you’re the author of the story of your life, not just the main character. You may think that your story has to do with all the things that have happened to you, the qualities you were born with or have cultivated, the stuff you’ve done or haven’t done yet. But, when you remember that your story is a function of your thoughts, most specifically the thoughts you have about yourself, you can be empowered to consciously transform not just your story, but your life as a whole.
Continue reading Changing Your Life Story
In America, it seems we are drowning in abundance. While the “American Dream” invites us to consume and enjoy an abundance of cars, purses, golf clubs and shoes- there is only temporary joy found in owning these items. Many of us are beginning to question what we had previously accepted as abundance and asking ourselves: “How much is enough?” and “What is true abundance?”
Continue reading What Does Abundance Look Like?
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