Mother Teresa once said, “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We only have today. Let us begin.” We often lead our daily lives from task to task to task – It’s a constant movement and we often forget to stop and breathe. Our facilitator, Lisa, reminded all of us group participants of the importance of engaging in mind-body skills. After a quick discussion about Peter McDonald’s farm, and clean and organic farming, Lisa led the group in a 15 minute mindful-meditation. Engaging in mind-body techniques, allows us to stay present to the moment and release our stress loads.
In addition to engaging in mind-body techniques, the support group emphasizes the importance of accountability. As group members we are asked to keep a food log to learn about our food habits and our body’s response to foods. We then share that information with group members.
In his best-selling book,The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven R. Covey shares his knowledge on experiencing optimal health in mind, body and spirit. His fifth habit reads “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Our food logs serve as a great tool for self-awareness and self-understanding in which we get to visually see our food habits and how they have affected our overall health. This sharing of our food intake and habits leads to the sixth habit in the book: “Synergize”. A synergistic energy leads to new knowledge and discoveries what we would have not discovered by ourselves. For example, an individual may be struggling, and by sharing their food habits, cravings and desires according to the designed food plan, it may become apparent that that individual is protein deficient. Our Food as Medicine Support group brings many minds together and at the end of each session each one of us goes home with new found self-knowledge.
