I’ve had a lot of enquiries about the Train the Trainer program. The first training day on 4th April is now closed to new applicants.
There will be a second training day in Lancashire on Monday 11th July, after the northern Diploma program completes. Here in the south, there will be a weekend of training 26th/27th November. You can find out more and also take a look at the updated Integrated Coaching Academy website here.
My blog this week is about using mindfulness for making good choices around food.
We make two or three hundred choices every day about what to eat, when to eat, where to eat and just how much to eat. But with choice comes the potential for making a bad choice and one that is not compatible with our desire for good health.
How often, in the moment, do we react emotionally and mindlessly and make a choice we regret later? When we reach for the fridge handle to release one of the cream cakes that lie within, do we take the time to ask ourselves, ‘will this cake take me towards my goal of losing half a stone, or away from my goal?
If we do, we become mindfully aware. Like standing at a fork in the road, we have the ability to play the film forward and consider the future consequences of the decision we are about to take. That doesn’t just apply to food of course and is one of the reasons clients and practitioners like the STOP System so much, because it is a quick and easy way to ‘remember to remember’ to be aware.
I hope you find the blog useful. It describes a classical mindful eating exercise which we can teach our clients in session....and remember to practice ourselves
How to manage your weight, your health (and a lot more)
with mindfulness
Mindfulness is all about focusing; about paying attention in the here and now, in a detached and non-judgemental way. It is both the art and the skill of 'being present'; of being aware of our awareness itself.
It is a way of being truly conscious.
So many of our responses are unconscious; if we are not careful, much of our life can be lived on a kind of autopilot; caught up in memories of the past or imaginings of the future and not really ‘here in the now.’ The things we do unconsciously or automatically have the power to control us and can mean also that we make bad choices.
This is very true when it comes to eating.
Do you really want that biscuit?
How easy is it to open a packet of chocolate biscuits and, before you know it, half of them have gone.
It's as though you have been in a trance-like state; as though someone else is eating the biscuits. And, much of the time we are not eating the biscuits because we are actually hungry, but are looking for something else.
Eating the wrong things or just eating too much can happen as a reaction to external triggers that raise uncomfortable emotions for us. We seek to make ourselves feel better; to calm ourselves down or to self nurture. Many people eat when they get stressed or feel lonely or sad. They are looking for comfort and a quick fix.
And many people make poor food choices because it has simply become a habit.
Savouring
It might be a biscuit with a cup of tea or a cake with coffee or a bag of crisps with a late-night glass of wine. These patterns and habits get reinforced on a daily basis and can make us pile on the pounds over time.
Mindfulness can help us to make healthy choices, so we can ‘step back’ from habit or automatic reaction and helping us to respond with emotional intelligence. Mindfulness allows us to pay attention to our food so that we are fully aware of it; how it looks, smells, tastes, feels and how our body responds to the eating of it.
Mindfully eating a meal will slow us down, helping us to chew properly and savour the meal. Many of us eat far too quickly; barely tasting what we are eat and certainly not taking the time to really enjoy the food. It can allow us to be aware of whether we are actually hungry at all, or are simply eating to ‘swallow back down’ some uncomfortable feelings.
Being mindful also allows us to have a sense of what our bodies really need to stay healthy and make good choices around food. Eating a raisin is a classical mindfulness practice that brings our full awareness to ‘savouring’. It can be done with any food.
Doing the exercise regularly will help, not just to slow eating down, but to begin to make good choices about what, when, and just how much to eat; and to actually savour the food itself.
Just one raisin: Eating mindfully
Holding
Choose a raisin and place it in the palm of your hand or hold between finger and thumb. Focus your attention on the raisin. Be curious, as though you have never seen a raisin before and it is completely new to you.
Seeing
Allow yourself to really look at the raisin. Give it your full attention and allow your eyes to explore every part of it. Notice where the light shines on it; where the folds and creases fall in to shadow. Notice the shape and uniqueness of this raisin.
Touching
Now begin to turn the raisin over between your fingers or in the palm of your hand, exploring the texture, perhaps even closing your eyes to bring up your sense of touch.
Smelling
Bring the raisin up to your nose and, as you breathe in, inhale the fragrance, aroma and smell. You might also be aware of changes in your mouth or digestive system as a result of doing this.
Hearing
When you bring the raisin up to the ear and roll it between finger and thumb, does it make a sound?
Placing
Put the raisin to your lips and have an awareness of how your hand and arm do this. Place the raisin in the mouth and explore the texture of the raisin with your tongue.
Tasting
When you are ready, prepare to chew the raisin and consciously take one or two bites, noticing what happens, savouring the taste as you chew. Continue until you are ready to swallow the raisin.
Swallowing
Become aware of your intention to swallow the raisin before you swallow.
Following
Continue the awareness exercise as the raisin makes its way down the throat and into your stomach. Scan the body as a whole for a sense of its response after completing this exercise in mindful eating.
Goal setting, therapeutic story, mindfulness, new paradigms, reframes, fast track learning, perception shifting, self actualisation, positive psychology, reframing, metaphor, personal empowerment, psycho education, affirmations, motivational thinking, lifting depression, the happiness principle, resilience and resourcefulness, human flourishing, anchoring, rewiring your brain, the STOP System, the SAFE SPACE happiness recipe, holistic coaching and working on the continuum of wellbeing plus many other professional theories, tools and techniques underpin the content of the fast paced, fast track, Fusion training.
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