Recently, I was visiting with a friend at a coffee shop and overheard two women chatting at the neighboring table.  Yes, I eavesdropped, we both did.  I couldn’t help it, the conversation they had got me thinking.  While waiting for their salad to arrive, they were flipping through a fashion magazine and were talking about the clothing featured in it.  One of them said, “I need to lose 10 lbs to look good and feel confident in something like this … I need to lose 10 lbs, regardless.”  I quickly glanced at them, they both looked perfect to me.

What is it about women and weight? Why do we have a love-hate relationship with our weight? I was at that point in life once.  I wasn’t eating bad, I had good and healthy food most of the time with a little treat every now and then. I was never overweight as I now look at those old pictures of mine. Yet, I wasn’t happy with my weight because it could go up and down without reason, without warning. I remember trying different diets for a while; vegetarian, food balancing, no-carb at night, skipping fried food totally even though I love fried chicken and deep-fried fish. Diets were usually good at the beginning, and then my weight fluctuated again not long afterward. Decades later, I realized the cause of this unhealthy relationship with food and my body.

As soon as I was born, my body was fed so I could grow and thrive. It has been programmed and trained as such that my physical alarm now goes off three times a day around the time I usually eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If I skip a meal, my body will usually throw a tantrum – I either get crabby, have a headache, or eat more excessively at the next mealtime. “I am starving, you didn’t feed me earlier. Now you owe me big time!” I can assume you too may have had similar experiences. Our body has recorded the ritual and turned into clockwork.  That’s why we grocery-shop, to fill our fridge with ingredients so we can cook and feed the body regularly.

Question: How regularly do you grocery-shop for your mind and soul?  Do you have a plan or a schedule when to feed these elements of your being?

I knew the importance of balancing the well-being of my mind-body-soul.  I was familiar with the term and the popularity of it.  Yet, there was a disconnection between my knowledge and implementation.  I was regular in feeding my body but forgot to do the same for my mind and soul.  Over time, they were malnourished.  A starving mind and soul will throw tantrums too, one of the effects showed up in my body and weight.  In case you’re wondering of the symptoms I had then, here they are — I had a job I loved doing, a good company to work at, a great salary, a wonderful environment, yet after five years I was feeling unfulfilled.  I went on vacation regularly, I even went on a year sabbatical.  Yet a few years after returning to work, the same symptoms showed up again. Life seemed to be about completing task after task, rituals of motion without meaningful purpose. Eight-ten hours a day and five days a week, I didn’t have the energy left to do anything interesting.  If I did, it was short lived.  Years afterward, my dreams started fading away and I couldn’t retrieve them.  Meantime, I got easily crabby over small thing, I became judgmental, critical, and snappy about life in general.  I deprived my mind and soul from nourishment, I neglected them, and I paid the price.

Just like malnourished body, it took great willingness and self-awareness to turn it around. It can, it will, and it’s worth it.  It is, because once my mind and soul were nourished regularly, my life turned around, toward a new direction.  Inspiring things started happening. It is amazing to realize what’s possible because of that.  A regular good meal for the one part of my mind-body-soul will soothe the other parts, and vice versa.  I know my later years will gratefully thank my current years for this.

Do you feel some symptoms of a malnourished mind and soul? Share your story … together, we can help nurture and nourish each other.

#nourishmentforthemind-body-soul #innerfulfillement #livingyourinspiredlife #ingemaskun