If you’ve ever spoken with a mental health professional, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of mindfulness.  Mindfulness encompasses the concepts of being aware of yourself and your surroundings, being in the present (instead of letting yourself be overwhelmed by fear or anxiety about the future), and observing the world around you for what it is without judgment.

Mindfulness, in this macro sense, is a commonly-suggested strategy for handling anxiety and depression.  It is often approached as an exercise in meditation, since it overlaps substantially with the meditative practices that are common to some world religions, especially Buddhism.  Even divorced from its loosely religious background, mindfulness is essentially universally recognized as an effective tool for mental health.

Intuitive eating, while it has a different focus than the psychological paradigm in which mindfulness is normally practiced, depends primarily on the same basic tenets of awareness and non-judgmental processing as traditional mindfulness.  In fact, there is even an approach to nutrition called Mindful Eating, which covers a subset of the aspects of Intuitive Eating. 

Mindful eating, according to The Center of Mindful Eating, is:

• Allowing yourself to become aware of the positive and nurturing opportunities that are available through food selection and preparation by respecting your own inner wisdom.

• Using all your senses in choosing to eat food that is both satisfying to you and nourishing to your body.

• Acknowledging responses to food (likes, dislikes, or neutral) without judgment.

• Becoming aware of physical hunger and satiety cues to guide your decisions to begin and end eating.

Examples of mindful eating include: technology free meals, sit down while you eat, take small bites and chew slowly to engage your senses, etc.

Intuitive Eating (IE) encompasses mindful eating. However, Intuitive Eating goes deeper into various aspects that play into overall health such as body image, movement, and gentle nutrition etc. Per Resche and Tribole, “Essentially, Intuitive Eating is a personal process of honoring health by listening and responding to the direct messages of the body in order to meet your physical and psychological needs.” 

Intuitive Eating is composed of 10 principles, they are:

1. Reject the diet mentality.

2. Honor your hunger. 

3. Make peace with food.

4. Challenge the food police.

5. Discover the satisfaction factor. 

6. Feel your fullness.

7. Cope with your emotions with kindness.

8. Respect your body. 

9. Movement- Feel the difference.

10.  Gentle Nutrition.

Both mindful eating and Intuitive Eating are great tools in healing your relationship with food and finding the joy and satisfaction factor that food provides. 

Even the aspects of Intuitive Eating that do expand beyond the bounds of Mindful Eating rely on the same basic principles as the broader realm of mindfulness.  Coping with your emotions with kindness, feeling and appreciating your movements, and generally respecting your body all rely on the objective and non-judgmental frame of reference that mindfulness requires.  And, of course, feeling your hunger, your satisfaction, and your fullness and being aware of how all of these interact within yourself is a perfect match for the mindfulness principle of slowing down and being aware of yourself and your surroundings.

If you are interested in learning more about Intuitive Eating, I work virtually with clients that are over dieting and want to say goodbye to dieting for good. I meet you where you are and guide you down the Intuitive Eating path in finding peace and freedom with food. Click here to work with me and build lifelong, sustainable habits that fit YOU.

References:

https://www.thecenterformindfuleating.org/Principles-Mindful-Eating/

https://www.intuitiveeating.org/10-principles-of-intuitive-eating/

https://www.intuitiveeating.org/what-is-intuitive-eating-tribole/