What’s Nourishing You?: Developing your own nourishment plan

Hello Mindfuls! Ingrid here. Let’s talk about how to nourish ourselves and how to develop a mindful nourishment plan for when times are easy, difficult, or just are.

nour·ish·ment /ˈnəriSHmənt/ the food or other substances necessary for growth, health, and good condition.

mind·ful·ness/ˈmīn(d)f(ə)lnəs/ a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations

Nourishment is necessary for good bodily function, health and development. Mindfulness in short calls us to the present moments of life without judgement and is a constant process of reflection. Both mindful practice and nourishing yourself are deeply personal processes that can change over time due to any number of life milestones and phases.   

In order to develop a well-balanced plan you have to have an awareness of how you are at your best and how you are when things aren’t going as well as you’d like. Remembering to hold both versions of yourself without judgement. This can be challenging because we are taught that things are good or bad and then project that judgement onto ourselves. You as you are, are neither good nor bad, you just are. With that understanding recognize that sometimes life can go well or awry (and that both can happen at the same time). Mindfulness asks us to notice, reflect, and if warranted hold or release. Having a plan to nourish yourself through the eventual ups, downs, and turnarounds of life helps to keep us balanced and engaged with life. 

For me having a plan to fall back on or to return to when things are not going well or even to keep centered when things are going well helps keep me present in my body and inhabiting my own mind. A mindful nourishment plan can help rebalance your life. A well-developed plan is one that not only includes the thing that you need, but is also flexible and agile with room for growth and change. The ways in which you nourish yourself can help you to return to yourself. Self-awareness allows us to recognize when you are not okay. The willingness to speak that truth to yourself and to others gives you the ability to return to or adjust to your plan. 

Here are some questions to consider as you develop your own personal nourishment plan:

• Who am I? 
• Now imagine or remember the last time you were appropriately nourished …
  • When did you feel the most satisfied? Describe that feeling.
  • What are the key elements of a nourished you.
  • Here are some examples of mindful actions/elements for a well-balanced life.
• Develop the plan 
  • What are some “staples” you can keep on hand?
  • Remember that everything you do is in service to the life that you want to live.
  • At different times you need different things. i.e. hormonal shifts, illness, busy times at work, deadlines on projects, travel … How can you honor the phases within your plan? 

In short: 

As you make a nourishment plan that works for you increase in awareness of yourself and how you function. As you grow in that awareness of yourself, hold an non-judgemental view of that self. Life changes…honor yourself and others as you go through the inevitable ebbs and flows. Create and have a plan that can grow and change as you grow and change. Reflect and release. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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