What Do You Consume? Becoming Mindful of the Things That Influence You

My lovely husband was helping with cooking the other night. Half way through the recipe– and discovering he had chosen too small of a skillet–he started telling me that he was going to remove everything and cook the rest of the meal separately.

If you’re a cook (or even if you would rather not claim to be one but are stuck with the role, like me) you can imagine my face palm!

“I see where you’re headed there, but the flavors need to blend! It would really be better to just transfer the whole thing to a new pot.”

You just can’t cook something full of peppers, onions and garlic, cook the meat separately, and expect remotely the same flavor! The meat takes on the flavors of what it’s surrounded with.

This is important in cooking, and it’s important in life.

During the Zapped to Zen 101: Serious Self-Care and Mindful Living Resets course (Join us today!), we are asked: what do you read, watch, & listen to during the course of a typical week?

This particular mindfulness practice comes at a point in the group where we have learned to slow down and really tune into the subtle differences in the body. As we watch what we are consuming, we are able to notice the agitation brought on by listening to the news or the soothing that comes with good music, and we are able to ask ourselves a critical question:

What’s influencing me?

What is the flavor of my daily exposures that I volunteer myself for?

And, like the meat in the frying pan,

How do these exposures change my nature? Am I choosing things that layer and create more of the depth and texture that I want in my life?

I have long told clients that I am super choosy about what I will do to my nervous system, even though I came from a young adulthood of chasing extremes: rappelling, caving/spelunking, every horror movie that released, the wildest roller coasters.

I was ALL IN.

As I mellow with age and cater to a post-PTSD nervous system, I am super curious what I choose to marinate in NOW. So, I’ve started a new habit: I am tracking the information I consume during the course of the entire year. How much time I spend in learning, how much time am I binging TV, what podcasts do I spend time in, and what exactly it is that I choose to read in the course of the year? And of course, who are the people who influence me and the company I keep? Even in my leisure, do I invest in things that add or deplete?

What’s on your list? Does it matter?

Be Well. Live with Intention.

Renee