Mindfulness is a state of living in the moment, where you think about and appreciate and absorb what is happening right now, without worrying about the past or future. It is not helpful for your mental health and wellbeing, but for your hunger and appetite as well. Here are some ways to use mindfulness to help with your appetite.
Change Your Eating Habits
The first benefit for your hunger and appetite is changing your eating habits. In mindfulness, you learn to live only in the moment. What does this mean for eating? When you eat, you get rid of all outside distractions so that you are only thinking about what you are eating. This means turning off the TV, not using your cell phone, and not listening to music.
You want to be in a quiet, peaceful environment where you really concentrate on what you are eating. Focus on the quality of the food, the smells, tastes, and textures. You learn to enjoy and appreciate food for what it is and how ti fuels your body, instead of just mindlessly eating without ever thinking about it. You are changing your eating habits by developing a mindful eating practice.
Learn to Identify Hunger
Another way mindfulness helps with hunger is by helping you to identify true hunger from other types of hunger. There are many types, including mouth hunger and mind hunger and emotion hunger. True hunger is when your stomach sends you cues that it is time to eat. If you are on a normal eating schedule, you should start getting these hunger pangs around the same time each day. However, if you tend to eat and snack haphazardly, then you might feel constantly hungry because your body doesn’t have a good eating routine or signs that you need to eat.
Live a Mindful Life
Not only will mindfulness help when it comes to eating and your appetite, but it helps in other ways as well. You learn to appreciate each moment and focus only on how you feel right now. You don’t stress yourself out about worries of the future or regrets of the past. Living in the moment is about acknowledging your life right now, and using that to better yourself physically, emotionally, and mentally.
There are so many benefits to mindfulness even beyond helping with your hunger and appetite.
But once you have that under control, you can manage your weight and have a healthier lifestyle overall.
