My name is Andrea Lieberstein.
I'm a mindful eating expert and mindfulness meditation teacher.
And today I want to talk to you about the relationship between eating and stress and finding freedom from stress eating and then learning a practical tool that you can use at any time of the day in any situation to manage stress eating and find a possibility of new freedom of breaking the habit of feeling stress and that moment when you feel stress wishing to go to food to soothe and comfort.
We're going to pull the plug on that trigger pattern.
How do we do this?
By a wonderful practice called the mindful pause the mindful check-in this practice along with other mindfulness practices was found in the research on MBE mindfulness based eating awareness training a program that I've been trained in and trained teachers in showing that the greatest outcomes were achieved in this research study by those who practiced mindfulness came to more balance with their eating patterns and healthier in their bodies.
So what is this practice?
It's bringing awareness to the moment noticing when we're feeling stress.
It could even be the barest whispers of stress in the body when tension begins to build we feel you might begin to feel anxious overwhelmed,
Which of course is all unpleasant and can lead us to wanting to soothe comfort numb not feel those not feel those feelings.
And if you're listening to this most likely one of your big coping mechanisms is going to food to soothe.
But what happens when we're activated in the body when we have levels of cortisol adrenaline our mind might be racing.
We can't think as well.
We have less control.
And then we reach for food and we may eat more than we wanted to or intended to or are hungry for.
We also know from research that we tend to reach for more highly processed foods when we're feeling stressed and foods that are higher in sugar sometimes salt have a crunch higher in fat.
It seems to be the kinds of things that we reach for when we're wanting to soothe.
We can notice when these again first whispers of stress are coming on or we can notice where when we're just in the thick of it.
We can pause take a few deep breaths and come back to our baseline.
Begin to calm the mind and the body through attention to our breath and create a mindful space in doing so where the waves of the mind the waves the body feeling sensations no longer overtaking us,
But we're watching the waves rather than being right in the middle of them being thrashed about and in that space of mindfully and kind fully observing being aware of they're in that space lies our freedom to make a different response to choose a response to the stress in that moment.
That is beneficial a kind wise and caring response.
We can ask ourselves in this space.
What is it that I truly need right now?
Am I truly hungry?
We may be hungry but with this pause we're able to make a wiser choice about the type of food how much food and then we can be more present to really savor it enjoy it or we might find that just this pause gives us that respite that respite what we need that calm that refresh button we might find that there's some other form of nourishing activity or practice that would support us in that moment.
So that might be exercise movement or taking a walk or talking to a friend or telling jokes with a co-worker changing the mood and the energy being in some levity but let's practice now.
There is a myriad of other choices panoply of choices when we really tune in and come back to more of a spacious baseline that spacious resting in that spacious space that is more who we really are in these waves of stress.
So I'm going to invite you to get comfortable in your chair closing your eyes or having your eyes open with a soft downward gaze and taking a few deep relaxing breaths.
Noticing the movement of the breath in the body as you breathe in through the nose down to the belly and out again.
On the next out breath,
Just breathing out any tension worries,
Concerns that you might have in the body right now.
Anything that you're carrying just letting that flow out with the exhale and then and then breathing in the nourishing air on the next inhale and exhale and just repeating this breath cycle a few more times and then gradually letting your breath return to its natural rhythm this moment,
Whatever that is right now.
And then expanding your awareness away from the breath to include the whole of your body and the whole of your experience simply noticing any thoughts feelings,
Physical sensations that are present.
Noticing them with a sense of curiosity of kindness.
You might take a moment to notice how hungry you are right now from not at all to very hungry the most you could imagine being to very hungry the most you could imagine being just noticing how you know how hungry you are in the body.
How do you know that?
What is it that you're truly hungry for at this moment?
It might be that you're actually physically hungry for food.
It might be that you're hungry just for this moment of reset and refresh.
Maybe there's something else that you're really needing at this moment.
But just checking in and then bringing your attention back to the room around you and noticing what's different?
What's changed in your experience with this brief mindful check-in?
With this brief mini meditation?
With the space that's created we are connecting to our inner wisdom or wise mind.
Where we can see what we truly need in this moment.
So consider how you could use this short practice which could be as short as 30 seconds when you practice.
During the day at those choice points when you feel stress and you go to that familiar reaction of wanting to eat,
To soothe.
What else could you do?
What else could you choose in that moment,
In that space?
Practicing this diligently leads to more freedom.
More freedom from stress eating and a greater panoply of nourishing choices in your life.
So that can include what I like to call the well-nourished approach.
That could include a choice that will bring more social nourishment or creative nourishment or spiritual nourishment,
Physical nourishment,
Be it movement,
Exercise or water.
Enjoy playing with this practice strengthening your mindfulness,
Your ability to create that space and the freedom to choose.
Thank you so much for joining us on this little journey today and enjoy the practice.
Thank you.
