I have eaten food in the company of all these emotions: duty, boredom, panic, desperation, loneliness, anger, frenzy, denial, numbing, unconsciousness, excruciating self-consciousness, appreciation, joy, pleasure, abandonment and love. Mostly I eat too fast and am swayed by “mood”, with anxiety exerting reliable influence. When I suddenly awaken to its influence, I am able to shine the light of awareness on a ‘driven’ event and apply compassion as needed. That’s a big improvement over the old days, when I’d feel disgust and self-hate.
At this point, I’ve had decades of people advising me how to eat. Diets, fads, experts, friends. And all the knowledge that I’ve gained distills down to the fact that, truly, go figure, digestion does indeed start in the mouth. Therefore chewing well—so that pieces are smashed, minced and well-mixed with the digestive enzymes in saliva—is good. If I knew nothing else, this one thing might take me a long way. In addition, food lands in the stomach and piles up there from first bite to last. Who would think it was so logical? Yet the stomach is not like a washing machine: there is no spin cycle. So if food is well chewed and mixed with saliva, and eaten in order from rapidly processed to slowly digested (i.e. fruit first), digestion is facilitated.
There isn’t much I can do once food has left my mouth. But if I don’t do what I can do while it is in my mouth, I may forfeit many of the virtues of, say, grass-fed, organic, locally farmed food—if that’s what I’m lucky enough to eat. An anxious system does not metabolize well: it is too busy preparing for combat or flight. Even good anxiety—the kind that leads to the bride and groom BOTH showing up—doesn’t foster good digestion. I mean there’s more than one reason that the feast is after the vows, right?
As you use the visualizations, activities and body cues in Anxiety Soothers, you activate the parasympathetic nervous system, also known as the rest and digest system. Help your body, that miraculous ecosystem, by soothing anxiety. Then there is a far better chance that you will draw healthy nourishment from the food that you eat—even if it’s a cookie. Especially if it’s a chocolate-chip cookie. Apply mindful awareness and you will be able to savor that cookie and draw from it maximal pleasure—which may short-circuit the urge to eat the whole box. Improve your relationship with food by using the visualizations, activities and body cues in Anxiety Soothers.
There isn’t much I can do once food has left my mouth. But if I don’t do what I can do while it is in my mouth, I may forfeit many of the virtues of, say, grass-fed, organic, locally farmed food—if that’s what I’m lucky enough to eat. An anxious system does not metabolize well: it is too busy preparing for combat or flight. Even good anxiety—the kind that leads to the bride and groom BOTH showing up—doesn’t foster good digestion. I mean there’s more than one reason that the feast is after the vows, right?
As you use the visualizations, activities and body cues in Anxiety Soothers, you activate the parasympathetic nervous system, also known as the rest and digest system. Help your body, that miraculous ecosystem, by soothing anxiety. Then there is a far better chance that you will draw healthy nourishment from the food that you eat—even if it’s a cookie. Especially if it’s a chocolate-chip cookie. Apply mindful awareness and you will be able to savor that cookie and draw from it maximal pleasure—which may short-circuit the urge to eat the whole box. Improve your relationship with food by using the visualizations, activities and body cues in Anxiety Soothers.