When I was earning a Masters in Spiritual Psychology (I called it a Masters degree in Loving), one of the key tenets was this: “how you are with yourself as you go through the issue IS the issue.”
This can be applied to anything, including how we literally feed ourselves. In other words: how you are – and who you are being – when you eat is as important as what you eat.
When clients want to work on releasing weight, I include some kind of mindfulness practice, which at its essence is about slowing down and being present with what is in front of you. Loving is listening, and true listening requires deep presence. So this is a practice of learning to love and accept the self and that includes our bodies. There are scientific reasons for this need to slow down. The hormone cortisol, which is released when we feel stress of any kind (even imagined), is linked to retention of excess weight, as it suppresses digestion and metabolism. With our stress-immersed
culture and lifestyles, there is an overproduction of cortisol on a constant basis for
most people, and it has a huge effect on our health and bodies.
There are different mindfulness practices to choose from but one of the easiest and
most simple is the practice of lighting a candle for a meal. While I worked as a house manager and self-care coach at a women’s recovery home, I would always light a
white candle at the table when sitting down for a meal. I didn’t explain it; I just did it. Meal after meal, I would first light a white candle. What did this do for the women
and for the environment? Well, for starters, it invokes beauty.
Beauty is nourishment for the soul. We are not just feeding our bodies, we are feeding our being.
And the body-soul needs nourishment on a continual basis. Lighting a candle also sets a context for the meal: this meal is sacred and we are taking time for it – which psycho-spiritually translates to “I am sacred and I am taking time for myself.” And voila, the stress response softens and the body can digest. Whether we say an opening prayer of gratitude or not (I encourage you to), the simple candle brings focus, beauty and reverence to the occasion of sitting together – or with oneself – while our deep soul knows how much
there is to be grateful for.