How To "Listen To Your Body" To Create Health and Wellness

A seven-hour seminar on CDs recently came to my attention. It's entitled "When Food Is Food and Love Is Love" by Geneen Roth. To participate in the program offered, it is necessary to "listen to your body" to find out when it wants food, what it wants and when it's had enough.

Piece of cake, right? (Pun intended.) For some of us, it simply isn't as easy as it sounds. How often do we do that? Or for that matter, how is it even done? I was sincerely surprised and not a little put off when I realized that I eat when it's time to eat and I usually munch on what my emotions or my mind want. I was brought up that way, and it looks to me like those around me are doing the same thing.

Giving it a sincere try left me not eating for 24 hours because I didn't have a clue how it felt to be hungry! That didn't seem to hurt me and eventually I got a feeling of "butterflies" in my stomach for want of a better description. All was not peaceful in my innards. My mouth started watering long before that but that didn't seem to be enough of an indication for me to act on.

Asking your body what it wants is just as tricky. I got answers loud and clear from my emotions and mind, but my body seldom wanted sugary foods and sought a better balance, when asked.

Finding out what was "enough" was the least difficult. Once the sensation of "butterflies" were accessed. "Enough" is when they go away, for me. How strange to approach eating so wisely.

A side benefit was that things started to taste and smell quite wonderful. I started to sit down and pay attention to my food and eat more slowly. It's been a revelation to find that I was more focused on shoveling it in than I was on what it was I was eating.

As the weeks have progressed, I've started to become curious about the rest of my life. Like...why can't this same approach be taken with the decisions I make about my work and play activities and my choices about friends?

The art of listening to your body resonate with a negative or affirmative response can be slow to come by. At least it has been for me. I've had to get past tons of "shoulds" and "should nots", first...unconscious programming that I wasn't aware of. However, with practice I'm starting to get the hang of it and it's starting to offer me a deeper freedom. Why not give it a try? Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

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About the author

Luise Volta's life has included careers in nursing, teaching pre-school, interior design, Real Estate sales, insurance adjusting, and dairy herd testing. Visit for Nutrition and Health.

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