Healthy Eating Through Gratitude

You know those moments where your heart is filled with this feeling of true and pure gratitude? I had one of those last night. As the feeling filled me, it also in a sense blew me away. I tried to express this feeling through words and emails to those I loved giving thanks for being in my life.

That all felt great - but what I noticed most was that this feeling was not here to be instantly offered to someone else. I realized this feeling was only here to be felt and enjoyed.

How much time do we spend not feeling good feelings – waiting for them to come, wishing things were different, checking out the green grass on the other side of the fence – so when a feeling like that just happened to come along, I forgot what to do with it.

So I just felt it. Suddenly the need to express the feeling faded and I softened into the space it offered. I felt my body relax as I let myself fall into it all.

When we are relaxed, our digestive system sparks up. When we are grateful for each bite we take, we slow down how we eat. We taste. We chew. We focus. We notice the flavours. The texture. As we slow down to appreciate the fortune on our plates and around us, our bodies know that everything is safe. Finally, it can focus on processing, absorbing and assimilating all the nutrients in what we ate.

We begin to notice if our bodies, too, will be grateful for the food that just entered.

Here’s the thing – true gratitude can’t be rushed. In order to really feel the goodness it offers, we must experience it by slowing down and letting it arrive. It’s a step back from “thank-you-for-the-food-on-my-pla…”while taking your first bite.

Good and healthy eating habits start one bite at a time. With a single pleasurable moment of pure gratitude before we take a bite, our bodies can’t help but love you back.

Thank you

xoxSus