Emotional Eating and Significant Moments of Beauty
Ah, Spring! The time of year that often seems plump with possibilities. Longer days and more natural light may lend energy to sleepy winter ideas. Spring is the perfect season to develop internal resources that, with daily practice, can boost us through many of the natural ebb and flow of life experiences, including new challenges, detours, transitions, and loss.
One amazingly powerful tool that can help us continue to grow and strengthen our potential for authentic happiness, is simply noticing significant moments of beauty and identifying the feeling of joy in our bodies.
Significant moments of beauty take place and can be experienced anytime, anywhere. It may be something incredibly gorgeous in nature, on a minute or grand scale. It may be an interaction between yourself and another person or an animal companion. It may be that you are witness to a sweet and tender interaction between others. It could be experiencing art in it’s multiple forms, something that just takes your breath away; a design element, a painting, a song, a theatre or dance performance, a juicy quote…
Other opportunities to connect with a significant moment of beauty may be spending time on a particular ritual in your day that you cherish, or recognizing an object that brings you joy simply because it is aesthetically delightful, or because it holds memories and sentimental value.
Significant moments of beauty can bring tears to our eyes, they can take our breath away, they can bring us that glow that comes with experiencing joy, pure joy.
The amazing thing about noticing, is the more you notice, the more you notice. The key is about developing your awareness of being present to the moment, of actually seeing, hearing, tasting, sensing, feeling what is occurring NOW. Experiencing pleasure in what is before us now.
It is necessary to make a daily practice of noticing beauty in order to live our lives more open to receiving, with our faces toward the light.
What does all this have to do with emotional eating? The more we can feel happiness, joy, and gratitude for that which we do have as our daily experience, the less we will be driven to compulsively overeat. The experience of being aware is the opposite of numbing and abandoning oneself. When you’re checked in, there simply isn’t as much time to check out.
Invite awareness, notice, notice…
As always, namaste,
Kristen
Great post! I love the idea of stopping to notice significant moments of beauty. In fact, the other day I was throwing rice to our chickens and had just such an experience. The stress melted off my shoulders and in the moment of simply watching the chickens cluck as they pecked at the ground, I felt serenely happy. Here’s to living in the moment!
Thanks Jenn! That is a lovely example of appreciating what is right there before you, your cute chickens happily eating in your own backyard. Being fully in the moment, enjoying the chickens, being outdoors, noticing the stress lift, and being serenely aware of your own happiness… Love it! Kristen