A Relationship That Needs Some Work And Extra TLC

-Melissa Punch

Blogger and writer Celina Ottaway (her blog-life is a wonderful and conscious journey!) wrote a nice piece for November’s issue of body+soul regarding an important component that is essential to all of our lives, eating disordered or not: FOOD – and how mindful eating (I’m partial to the term “conscious eating”) can help reconnect and form a healthier relationship to that which sustains us.

I don’t have an eating disorder. But like many women I know, somewhere along the way, eating — what, when, how much, in front of whom, how fast — got complicated. The sensation of hunger went from a physical signal with a simple response (“eat”) to a mixed emotion that has no clear solution. Should I, shouldn’t I? I’m being bad, I’m being good. I deserve this. I will hate myself in the morning. And on and on

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How did our appetites — for nourishment and pleasure — become suspect? Is it possible to listen to our bodies the way we did when we were children? The answers lie somewhere in the tangle of emotional, cultural, and neurological reactions that shapes our desire to eat. “Hunger is complicated,” says Jean Kristeller, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Indiana State University and president of The Center for Mindful Eating. Besides the actual physical sensation, “it has to do with a complexity of psychological cravings that may have very little to do with your physical need for food.”

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 I love Celina’s parting thoughts:

Whether we move toward our deepest hungers or simply recognize them, we begin inhabiting ourselves more fully. And this moves us closer to feeling ourselves from the inside out, like we did once upon a time.

: Eclipse Solaire :

I find Eating By The Light Of The Moon to be a fitting thought for the day…

                            Your body is precious.

                   It is your vehicle for awakening,

                               treat it with care.

                                    -BUDDHA