by Deepak Chopra, MD
Understand the mind-body connection:
- Aware of your body: experience what your body is experiencing
- Aware of your emotions: put attention on your heart, center, and observe
- Aware of your choices: find a calm time and examine how you make decisions
Nourish every level of you:
- Nourish with “light”
- Lighthearted, light-handed, enlightened, aka, not heavy or deep
- Meditate by imagining yourself filling and exuding light, feel light
- Choose light foods, beverages, do light hearted thins, wear lighter colors
- Get the message:
- To change your body, change your story
- Every story is about how to be happy
- If you find a better way than eating, your body will balance
- No mixed messages
- Make a week theme:
- Monday passive into active
- Tuesday dull into vibrant
- Wednesday routine into surprising
- Thursday stale into fresh
- Friday pessimistic into optimistic
- Saturday work into recreation
- Sunday ordinary into inspiring
Purity
- Don’t eat stale leftovers
- Use old oils
- Buy highly processed foods
- Buy boxed or canned foods
Make it pure:
- Is it fatty
- Does it have hidden sugar or additives
- How fresh is it?
Energy
- Eat less when inactive
- Stop eating when satisfied and go no further
- Choose variety
Ask, before eating:
- Am I in a good mood?
- Is this meal going to be a positive experience?
- Is the food attractive and appealing?
- Can i give it full attention?
Balance
- Eat when balanced emotionally
- Wide variety
- Drink water, get enough sleep
- Eat at regular hours
- Vary intake on activity
Eat mindfully
- Eat only when you feel hungry
- Sit down when eating meal and minimize distractions
- Start with half a plate, sit, see if you really are hungry
- Linger over the taste
- Know that appetite is stoked by fatty, salty, and sweet tastes. Bitter foods is suppressed. Try club soda with Angostura bitters
- Remove skin and fat from animals
- Eat as slow as possible, don’t fill fork or spoon until you’ve swallowed
- Tell others how much you intend to eat and keep your word
- Ask for half dessert in a take home box
Mantra:
- I expect my body to project what I want
- I want to be at my ideal weight
- I want to feel light, energetic, and joyful
- I want to be pain free
- I want to feel good about how my body looks
- I want to be rested and centered
- I want to be in a state of well-being
The Best of All Habits: Self Awareness
- Am I joyful or suffering
Happiness =
- Don’t settle for unhappiness as a given
- Material security
- Try to be happy in the present
- Stay connected to people – 1 to 2 hours a day contacting those they love
- No physical pain
- Baseline for happiness as a set point
Checklist for happiness:
- Comfort, security, safety
- A sense of belonging
- Love and affection
- Accomplishment, success, achievement
- Self-esteem
- Creative expression
- Meaning and purpose
- Take this list and decide how you’re doing on a scale of 1-5, list out what that specifically looks like
Emotional freedom – letting go of things
- Recall an emotion
- Feel the emotion
- Label the emotion
- Express the emotion in writing with paper and a pen. Write down what happened, how you felt, what others did, how you reacted. Then retell from the others’ point of view. No do it as a newspaper article, be objective.
- Share the experience with someone else.
- Create a ritual, set it on fire or bury it. Draw a line between past and present
- Celebrate this moment
Acquire awareness skills:
- Be centered
- Don’t multitask
- Don’t let yourself be distracted
- Don’t scatter your attention – manage mental time so you can be alone to think.
- Pay attention: note that you are.
- Meditate
Food:
- Morning shake:
- 5 almonds
- 2 tsp honey
- 1 oz protein powder
- cinnamin
- alternative milk
- banana
- aloe vera juice
- Tofu scramble
- 16 oz tofu firm
- chopped leeks/onions
- tamari
- cumin
- curry powder
- coriander
- dill
- nutmeg
- tomatoes
- zucchini
- spinache
- cilantro