Is it really that good… or have we just been taught to believe it is?

Here’s why I say there is nothing special about chocolate… or cake, lollies, soft drink, fast food or any of the other foods we feel we can’t give up.

Unfortunately for us, our brain has been marketed to from the day we were born.

Let’s just use chocolate as the example. Chocolate has been marketed to us as the be all and end all of sublime and sensual experiences. But really… is it?

It goes in your mouth, it’s there for a few seconds, and then it’s gone… leaving a kind of pasty glug on your tongue and your taste buds overwhelmed with sweetness.

And as sugar begets sugar, what ends up happening is we just keep filling our mouths with it… even though the “joy” is short lived.

I used to worship chocolate and all things sugar. But one day I started to get curious… what exactly was I worshipping?

It didn’t provide any nutritional value. There is nothing essential to life contained in the sweet things I was consuming.

And the reality was, it was robbing me of my vitality and energy. When I really started to pay attention to how I felt before and after eating it, I realised it was actually unsettling my body… causing agitation and disharmony.

Maybe it’s the same for you too?

So what can you do to enhance your body-mind awareness and start noticing what’s actually going on?

1. Stay attuned to the sensations, feelings, thoughts and emotions that arise in your body, and the relationship they have to the foods they lead you to eat
2. Recognise that the mind and body are interconnected and influence each other in profound ways
3. Develop your mind-body awareness and cultivate a sense of present-moment awareness and non-judgemental observation of your mental, emotional and physical experiences
4. Use that awareness to gain insight into your connection between your physical and emotional states, recognise stress, tension and discomfort in your body, and develop a greater ability to guide your behaviours and support yourself through the day

When you practise this daily, you start developing ways to reduce stress and improve your overall well-being, while fostering a deeper sense of inner harmony… felt as relaxation, calm and being in control of what’s happening in your life.

There’s something interesting about what starts to happen when you pay attention at that level…
because the way you experience those foods doesn’t stay the same.