Don’t Let Your Mind Bully Your Body

: By Sue Van Raes

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Image by Engin Akyurt

Don’t Let Your Mind Bully Your Body

by Sue Van Raes.

Look past your thoughts, so you may
drink the pure nectar of this moment.
~ Rumi

Caitlin felt like she had been at war with her body ever since she could remember. She was working with me to learn how to listen to her body, hoping to learn to love her body in the process.

For more than two decades, Caitlin had tried every diet she could find in an attempt to lose weight. There were a few brief moments when she had achieved the thinness she had been obsessing over since the seventh grade, but from those brief moments grew what she considered her “addiction to being thin” as she attempted to keep to a weight that was impossible to maintain.

Before we started working together, her most recent diet had been the potato diet — eating nothing but plain potatoes for weeks to lose weight fast. While she had dropped a lot of weight on this diet, she had done so in a way that was full of risks and setbacks — a lack of essential nutrients, an extreme deficiency of protein and fat, severe deprivation of food pleasure, and the inability to feel satiated when eating only plain potatoes.

I was not surprised to hear that she had suffered many negative side effects during (and shortly after) the potato diet. Some of these side effects included severe brain fog, a stress fracture, feeling out of control around food, and a continued obsession with the scale (even though she had lost a lot of weight).

Caitlin would constantly hear her thoughts berating her, criticizing her for every single thing she put in her mouth. No matter how many diets she tried, how much exercise she committed to each day, how much she shamed herself in the process, or how much weight she lost, she could not get out of this vicious cycle of her mind bullying her body.

Becoming the Witness

I encourage you to call in your inner witness or observer — the kind, loving, and nonjudgmental part of your consciousness. As you practice watching the thoughts passing through your mind, you will notice many habitual patterns within them. Observe your mind from deep inside, and notice the patterns that dominate your daily thoughts.

This ancient spiritual metaphor may help you do this with a bit more ease: Imagine your inner witness as a vast blue sky and your thoughts as the passing clouds. Some days are stormier than others. Some days your dark, looming storm clouds are filled with self-doubt, strife, inner conflict, or chaotic thinking. But you are not your weather. You are the vast blue sky, regardless of the forecast.

To practice being a kind, loving, nonjudgmental witness, grab your metaphorical picnic blanket (and an umbrella), get comfortable, and watch the clouds passing by. Stillness, quietude, being in nature, journaling, and meditation are all wonderful ways to practice being the witness within your vast blue sky, giving you some sacred space to watch your thought clouds pass by.

Inner Witness or Inner Critic?

Occasionally you might notice your inner witness shifting into your inner critic (you will know this because you will start to feel more attacked by your thoughts) or other dominant thought patterns. If this happens, pause and take a few deep breaths to calm your being. Remember, your inner witness is the loving presence within you, and you can call her back whenever you are ready.

Your inner witness is your pure consciousness or awareness — the vast blue sky between your thought clouds. Cultivating and strengthening access to your inner witness takes some spiritual fitness, so remember to stay slow and steady as you practice. Soon you will begin to tame your mind’s wild and wandering ways and be on the path to your grandest inner peace.

The Thoughts That Crowd Our Minds

Our mindset — the collection of our thoughts, beliefs, and stories — dominates our days and our lives. While our mindset can be very useful when it aligns with our true nature, most of us can relate to times when our mindset has been a complex tangle of self-sabotaging thoughts and beliefs, outdated habits and patterns, negative self-talk that can lead us astray, and the unsupportive stories we’ve crafted that can take over our lives. Our thoughts are not just one voice; they are a crowd.

Often referred to as the monkey mind, our thoughts swirl with a multiplicity of restless inner monologues. Our culture very much perpetuates the monkey mind, constantly overstimulating our systems with so many inputs. We ping-pong from one thought to the next, similar to how we race from one task to the next, neglecting to think (or do) one thing at a time. These ping-pong thoughts can feel depleting, disorganizing, anxiety-producing, and hard to manage.

What you think creates what you do. Luckily, with awareness, practice, you can gain positive momentum in consciously choosing the thoughts you feed. Like nourishing your body with nutrient-dense foods, eating to feel how you want to feel, you can learn to nourish your mind with the thought content that you choose — thinking to feel how you want to feel.

For example, if you flood your mind with loving thoughts, loving actions will follow. If you saturate your mind with peaceful thoughts, peaceful actions will begin to infiltrate your life. You may do this by intentionally surrounding yourself with inspiring or motivational media, since what you read, watch, or listen to can elevate your mindset.

You could try writing and speaking about your life (through journaling and conversing with others) in uplifting ways, reframing things where it feels reasonable to focus on your strengths and successes. This type of conscious speech, also known as wise or virtuous speech (and the first factor of the Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path), is said to give rise to peace and happiness with self and others.

Being Shamed by your Inner Critic?

Your thoughts might be focused on shaming yourself about your eating or causing yourself to feel at war with your body. You might also be in a pattern of criticizing the mishaps of your daily life due to a loud and relentless inner dialogue, to then find yourself dealing with your strife through your eating.

You may notice that changing your mindset is not as simple as making an attitude shift or thinking more positively. But by listening to your body-based sensations, balancing your biochemistry metabolically, and regulating your nervous system, you will find it much easier to shift your mindset.

Additionally, your brain chemistry is a sensitive system, complete with hormones, neurotransmitters, and all the other components for thinking well. Some days you might notice that your monkey mind is in a somewhat manageable state, while other days you may feel totally out of control.

Blood Sugar and the Brain

My client, Ava, noticed bouts of anxious thoughts taking over her mind each afternoon when her blood sugar was dipping way below optimal levels. Once Ava balanced her blood sugar, she simultaneously balanced her brain chemistry, soon noticing a huge amount of relief from her daily anxious thoughts.

Your brain chemistry mimics your blood sugar. Your blood sugar, when in a healthy range throughout the day, will support the production of your feel-good neurotransmitters (such as GABA, serotonin, dopamine, and endorphin), keeping them at healthy levels and creating calmer and more positive thoughts.

When you are on a roller coaster with your blood sugar, spiking and crashing throughout the day, you can expect to notice a more active roller coaster in your mind as well — usually to the tune of more challenging thoughts, more doomsday scenarios, less motivation, less pleasure, and heightened anxiousness.

Take note: one in five Americans struggle with their mental health, reflecting the challenge of maintaining an elevated mindset. Yet with the right support, in the form of nutrition, supplements, therapy, and in some cases medication, a healthier mindset can become more possible to attain.

FOODS TO FEEL GOOD

Below is a list of feel-good neurotransmitters (messenger chemicals), along with how they affect your system, their precursors (the cell molecules they derive from), and which foods to find them in.

Serotonin: helps you feel happier, sleep better, regulate digestion and appetite, and increase libido

Precursors: tryptophan and 5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan, also known as oxitriptan)
Serotonin superfoods: high-quality animal protein (especially turkey), bananas, peppers, paprika, hazelnuts, pineapples, tomatoes, plums, passionfruit, papaya, kiwi, spinach, cabbage, nettles, green onion, lettuce, potatoes, hickory, strawberries, wild rice, pomegranates, plantains

Dopamine: helps you feel pleasure, personal satisfaction, and motivation

Precursors: phenylalanine and tyrosine
Dopamine superfoods: all high-quality unprocessed animal proteins, almonds, apples, avocados, bananas, beets, chocolate, coffee, fava beans, green leafy vegetables, green tea, lima beans, oatmeal, olive oil, oregano, peanuts, rosemary, sesame and pumpkin seeds, soy products, turmeric, watermelon, wheat germ, foods high in natural probiotics such as yogurt, kefir, and raw sauerkraut

GABA: reduces anxiety and calms your nervous system

Precursors: GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid, an amino acid), glutamate
GABA superfoods: cruciferous vegetables, soy and adzuki beans, peas, tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, buckwheat, oats, wheat, barley, rice, sweet potatoes, valerian, St. John’s wort, passionflower, chestnuts

Endorphin: relieves pain, reduces stress, improves a sense of well-being

Precursors: POMC (pro-opiomelanocortin)
Endorphin superfoods: cacao, chili peppers, ginseng, vanilla, tomatoes, nuts, seeds

Mind As Bully vs. Body as Wise Friend

While your body is your home for life, your mind can swoop in and, before you even realize it, become the bully of your body. Mind hunger, or allowing your mind to direct your eating, is very different from engaging in body-led or self-led eating — eating from a place of wholeness and inner wisdom.

Your body’s wisdom is responsive rather than reactive, unlike our thoughts. Yet it is all too easy to confuse mind hunger with body hunger. Here’s the thing: your mind is never either hungry or satiated, and your mind does not have a stomach.

Mind hunger usually feels chaotic, random, and in constant flux, because your mind often has an insatiable appetite. Mind hunger is embedded both in how you think and in how you eat. Conversely, body hunger is expressed via your mind-body connection, or interoception, and speaks to you through your physical sensations.

Our worlds are infiltrated with so much food noise that clutters our minds and fills our thoughts with thousands of different food rules, strategies, and rationales. While we will never be completely free from all mind hunger, body-centered eating asks you to quiet your mind noise and soften your mind hunger so you can drop in and listen to the wisdom of your body.

Copyright 2024. All Rights Reserved.
Condensed and adapted with permission.

Article Source:

BOOK: Food and Freedom

Food and Freedom: Discover Your Personal Recipe to Eat, Think, and Live Well
by Sue Van Raes.

Food and Freedom is a journey to reclaiming your wholeness and experiencing more mindfulness, personal fulfillment, and pleasure with food and in life. This trustworthy guide is rich with personal memoir, inspiring case studies from clients, soulful teachings, self-study prompts, nourishing recipes, and techniques to support biochemistry, satiation, and metabolic health. It will help you create body compassion and give you the confidence to show up in life as who you truly are, remedy emotional eating, and prosper with embodied self-care.

For more info and/or to order this book, click here. Also available as an Audiobook and a Kindle edition.

About the Author

photo of Sue Van Raes Sue Van Raes, author of Food and Freedom, is a functional nutritionist, food psychology specialist, and psycho-spiritual practitioner, who is dedicated to helping women who are stressed out about food finally make peace with their plates. After her life-long struggle with food and two decades of private practice, she discovered a surprising pathway to a renewed relationship with food. Sue draws on her personal and professional experience providing a body, mind, heart, and soul approach to stop stressing and start fully living. Visit the author's website at: BoulderNutrition.com

Article Recap:

Mind bullying refers to the negative, often critical thoughts that can dominate your mindset and create a conflict between your mind and body. This article explores how to overcome this conflict by cultivating a peaceful mind-body connection through mindful practices, body-centered eating, and nutritional support. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing mind hunger versus body hunger and provides practical strategies for achieving harmony between your thoughts and physical well-being. The role of neurotransmitters and balanced blood sugar in maintaining a healthy mindset is also highlighted as a crucial aspect of this journey.

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Thanks for visiting InnerSelf.com, where there are 20,000+ life-altering articles promoting "New Attitudes and New Possibilities." All articles are translated into 30+ languages. Subscribe to InnerSelf Magazine, published weekly, and Marie T Russell's Daily Inspiration. InnerSelf Magazine has been published since 1985.