As I’m sure you know, meditation benefits are abundant! Like exercise for the body, healthy food for the gut, meditation helps to condition your mind. Research suggests that practicing meditation may reduce blood pressure, anxiety and depression, insomnia and symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. But, what’s link between meditation and food and mood?

Reducing Stress Hormones

Usually stress can cause increased levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, and cortisol signals our bodies to store calories as fat. If you have a lot of cortisol running through your system, it will be hard to lose weight-even if you’re making healthy choices. Meditation reduces stress hormones.

Avoiding Triggers

Meditation helps you to create agency to make healthy food choices. A consistent meditation practice relaxes the sympathetic nervous system so that you become calmer, less impulsive, and more likely to make food decisions you won’t end up regretting. This can ultimately help you to develop more mental discipline and willpower.

What’s the bottom line?

Meditation is not just an activity to help us to relax. It has a direct impact on health and well being.

How to get started?

Meditation is free and an activity you can do anywhere. You can also start experiencing the benefits by beginning with just 3-5 minutes a day. Keep it simple build into your morning wake up or evening wind down routines. Try out the Headspace or Calm app or free podcasts like Grounded Sleep.

Research:

ScienceDirect: Two decades of mindfulness-based interventions for binge eating: A systematic review and meta-analysis

ScienceDirect: Mindfulness meditation as an intervention for binge eating, emotional eating, and weight loss: A systematic review