Namaste,
My name is Stelcum Heath,
Binge and emotional eating recovery specialist.
And today I want to take you on a journey to find a more neutral approach to food.
To let go of seeing food as good or bad,
Clean or junk.
So find a comfortable position and gently close down the eyes.
Begin with a comfortable breath.
Slowly inhale through your nose and if you can exhale through the mouth just releasing any form of tension.
You might have stumbled on this meditation feeling quite conflicted.
You might feel like you've judged yourself for a choice in food.
So take this moment to just deeply breathe.
Breathe in and slowly breathe out.
Just take this moment for yourself.
Allow your body to relax into this moment.
We cannot try and correct ourselves,
Our thoughts,
Our emotions when the nervous system is out of sync.
Allow your breath to gently guide you into a beautiful calm sanctuary.
As you breathe in and out,
Gently reflect on your views about food.
Maybe think about a certain food that you have judged in the last couple of days.
Maybe this judgment is around whether it's healthy,
Whether it has the right amount of calories that you were looking for.
Maybe you looked at it as being unhealthy,
Junk or maybe you feel like this food might even have severe health consequences.
Gently just lean into these thoughts.
Notice where this belief about this food came from.
Take a moment here to question whether that belief is in fact true.
Has the statistics or the rumors about the negative effects of this food been exaggerated in our society,
What we read or what we see?
Has cutting this food out been glamorized in a specific way?
Just gently check in.
Just feel how you feel in your body about this food.
Is there a sensation that comes up in your heart,
Maybe your gut when you think about this food?
It might be a feeling in your body.
Just locate where that is and gently breathe into this area.
Allow your body to soften into this moment.
Breathe into this resistance,
This judgment around this particular food.
Now say to yourself,
Food is just food.
There is no moral value around food.
Food nourishes me.
Food is here to provide me with energy and even if it's not deemed the most healthiest thing on the menu right now,
This food is helping me,
Helping my body,
Helping my tissues and organs function in some form or way.
All foods have some nutritional value.
It might not be a lot but there still is nutrition or energy that you get or receive from eating this particular food.
And gently just forgive yourself for feeling this judgment.
Forgive yourself for judging yourself harshly for eating this particular food.
And just bring a sense of gratitude.
Be grateful that you were able to eat today.
Be grateful that you had a choice in certain foods.
Find a sense of gratitude of how this food might energize you to run or play or do yoga.
And know that there's still millions and millions of food choices that you will make along your way.
And this was not the end of the world.
One meal is not the end of the world.
So gently next time when you see this food,
Just take out the emotion,
Take out the judgment and plainly see it as what it is.
So if you're looking at a banana,
Just label it as banana.
If you're looking at a Snickers bar,
Label it as a Snickers bar instead of good or bad.
When we do that we add shame or guilt and our bodies feel like the food is forbidden.
Allow yourself to look at food more neutrally.
This will help you feel less likely to binge the next time you have this food.
Give yourself compassion for the choices you make and take this moment to just clear out any memories or judgments you have of this food right now.
Just set the intention when you complete this meditation to clear out your environment out of judgment of food.
Get rid of the food police.
This starts with your social media accounts,
Your emails and sometimes even the magazines we buy.
Start avoiding conversations that tolerate food judgments and allow yourself to just start seeing food in neutral eyes.
No judgment,
No shame.
Food is just food.
Thank you so much for practicing food neutrality with me.
Namaste.
