Your HeartMatters Journey
Mindful Eating on Your HeartMatters Journey
Slowing down to savor the flavor is a practice of mindfulness–a practice that leads to an enhanced connection with your level of satiation. When your brain is engaged in the pleasure of eating, you will create a connection between feeling satisfied and eating just the right amount of food. (read: you will eat less, with all the pleasure of eating more!)
A guided relaxation…After the Rain
An inspired guided imagery relaxation, created in real time, after my morning walk. Enjoy!
I had/have a busy day ahead with some scheduled appointments and a To Do list. As soon as I was outdoors, that all went by the wayside…I was captivated by the crisp, clear morning after the cold winter rains, and I was blessed by giving myself permission to be mindful of the natural beauty around me. Upon my return to home, I could have blasted into my day, but chose instead to create the guided imagery–to share with others–and immediately dropped into my own place of deep quiet and calm in the sitting, creating, and visualization while recording the audio.
Perhaps I will end up working harder, smarter, and with more focus–later today or over the weekend–as my To Do list beckons, but for now, I am in a delicious state of peaceful, calm, and intentional quiet.
May you be blessed with the same…
And P.S. This audio is not “perfect”! There is my breathing, my long ssss sounds, my clicking tongue; not that you will notice! xoxo
Mindful Mastery of Self-Talk
Let Your HeartMatters Journey take you to positive and affirming self-talk.
February is National Heart Month…Heartmatters will be there!
January 27th: Thursday, I’ll be on KNCO 830 AM, Talk of the Town to discuss National Heart Month, how to embody a heart-healthy lifestyle, and what resources are available for the journey to optimal health and well-being.
February 3: HeartMatters and In the Kitchen team up for this HeartLovers cooking class. We’ll be sharing the preparation of several dishes that invite romance, while discussing opportunities to integrate daily behaviors that are health-promoting.
February 9: Eat Well In Your Busy Life cooking demo and tasting at Nevada Union High School for the district teachers and staff. It is an honor to support those who give of themselves to help us to grow our children. I’m looking forward to sharing ideas and opportunities with them so they can become and stay well-nourished throughout their busy days!
February 15: I am so pleased to have been asked to present a workshop at the Cardiac Symposium and health fair, sponsored by Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital. I’ll be speaking on a topic about which I am very passionate–Mindful Eating! How perfect is that?
February, all month: Your HeartMatters Journey continues. The positive feedback for this series and the fun I am having making the videos and writing the blog posts is keeping me highly and pleasantly motivated. Thank you for traveling with me on this journey!
And who knows what else I will come up with for the month…stay tuned!
Mindful Morning Musings…
With a busy day ahead, I went out early for my morning walk with Grace the dog, taking with me the intention of enjoying the morning sky. I started out in the dark, using a headlamp, marveling at the delicate scattering of stars, the brightest of which illuminated the thin clouds. The path I walk each morning opens up in one spot to a large Manzanita grove, affording me a big view of the expansive sky beyond the forest.
I gave myself permission to just be. I stood still–perhaps it was five or eight minutes–and savored the awakening of morning. I watched the clouds spread sensuously to cover the sky, shifting from feathery streaks to tissue paper wispiness. The stars began to fade, although that brightest light remained as the herald to the sunrise. Birds began to tweet and sing from the treetops in celebration of the new day. A gaggle of geese flew overhead. A most gorgeous blue crept into the sky, the color of which is unique to nature–surely that blue cannot be duplicated in a pencil or paint pot. The clouds turned from dawn-gray to soft white with just a hint of pink. The birds sang more robustly, serenading the sun…
In the several moments I spent in a state of mindful observation of the morning sky, my heart was open and receptive, slowly filling with joy and calm. My soon-to-be-busy day has begun with the gift of quieting through intentional attentiveness to the details.
As I share the journey to optimal health and well-being with you, I find that I have become so much more aware of the opportunities for mindfulness throughout the day. What about you–what mindful experiences are you savoring?
Pay Attention!
This familiar phrase that we heard as kids from our teachers and parents, in retrospect now seems that they were on to something…and as adults, we can apply this wisdom to becoming Mindful.
When we live in mindfulness, we pay attention. We notice the details. We give ourselves permission to slow down, so that we can create an awareness of what is occurring in this very moment. The details are rich and colorful and delicious and…so incredibly varied from one minute to the next, that our brains become soothed in the attentiveness.
Being mindful brings depth to so many aspects of our lives. We listen more fully. We speak with clarity. We eat slowly. We walk in nature with reverence. We savor the flavor. We love completely. We see without judgment. We share with compassion. We express gratitude. We move our bodies with appreciation. We sleep deeply. We come to know ourselves.
As we move forward in Your HeartMatters Journey, mindfulness remains a central component of integrating new and healthful behaviors. In the state of being soothed, the brain literally grows new decision-making pathways that allow for a pleasant and subtle shift to daily choices that support optimal health and well-being.
Take a moment to look around you. Pay attention. What do you find when you slow down to look and listen?
Mindfulness as your GPS for the journey…
A video offered as the starting point for Your HeartMatters Journey. I can’t wait to know of the richness of your experiences as you create the opportunity for inviting mindfulness into your day.
It’s not all or nothing. Being mindful is the gift that keeps on giving–your familiarity with this delicious way of observing events during your day will make long-lasting, positive brain changes. As we move forward together on this optimal health journey, the practice of mindfulness will lend itself to a practice of quieting the brain through intentional elicitation of the relaxation response. Stay tuned for more! I will continue to work on keeping these weekly video posts under 4 minutes–this one was close!