Eat Meals Consciously

Quick Win

Eating in a calm and mindful state can help improve your digestion and ward off your brain’s stress signals.

Try This Today

• Listen to your body. Instead of eating out of boredom, check in with yourself to see if you are truly hungry before reaching for a snack.
  
• Eliminate distractions. Turn off the TV, step away from your desk and put down the phone. Allow your body to focus solely on eating.
• Bring your awareness to the meal. Smell your food. Take a bite and tune into the flavors. Is it savory? Sweet? Salty? Focus on the chewing and feeling the texture.

Why

Many of us plop down in front of the television or scroll through social media while eating. But tuning into your meals can help you maintain a healthy weight and can benefit your brain, too. One small study of 37 women ages 20 to 59, published in Frontiers in Psychology in 2024, found that those who did a month of workshops designed to heighten awareness of the body and the sensory experience of eating were better able to control their emotional eating than those in the control group. And in a study of 187 adults ages 18 to 76, those who practiced intuitive eating, meaning they paid close attention to feelings of hunger and fullness, had less anxiety, stress and depression and greater self-esteem than those who did not practice intuitive eating. The researchers also found that people ages 55 and older had higher intuitive eating scores than younger participants. The results were published in the Journal of Health Psychology in 2025.