The Satisfaction Point

Hi, and welcome to Day Six of the Mindful Eating course. Today, we'll be exploring the satisfaction point. The practice in this session is designed for you to have a plate of food while you listen. So if possible, time this session for when you're ready to next eat. If that's not possible at all, you can listen to this session and then apply what you learn at your next meal.

Okay. So finding the satisfaction point is all about tuning into your body sensations with curiosity and compassion. And as you eat, finding out the point where you feel that the body has had just the right amount of food, not too little, not too much, just the right amount. That is the satisfaction point. So the simple goal here is to feel better after you eat.

Of course, this will depend not only on how much you eat, but also what you eat. So it's important to also tune into the effects that different food have on your body as well. If you don't feel better after you eat, that's worth paying attention to. But instead of seeing it as any kind of mistake or berating yourself or beating yourself up, just seeing it as a learning experience. If you overeat, no problem.

That's a learning opportunity. The emotion of regret, if it comes up, can be useful in that it can draw our attention to something that's potentially not helpful for us. But guilt and shame are not needed here. Instead, we approach the whole process with compassion and curiosity. And in this way, we leave the door open for learning, growth, and change.

When we become out of touch with our body sensations, including the feelings of satisfaction or fullness, it's easy to overeat or overlook how different foods make us feel. But the good news is we can become better at listening to our bodies. And when we do so, we not only become more able to eat in ways that support our well-being, but we also grow in overall self-awareness and wisdom too. So let's give this a practice. If you haven't already got one, you could pause this for a moment and get a plate of food, if that's possible for you.

And press play again when you're ready. Hopefully, you can have a time and space here to practice without distractions around you like devices or other people, so you can try this without interruption. So I'm going to invite you to a place or what's called a speed bump in your plate of food. So to do that, you're going to divide the plate of food in half by placing a gap in the middle of the meal. So now you have kind of two portions on the plate.

And this is to assist you in pausing halfway through the meal to check in with sensations. So now taking a deep breath in. And a long steady breath out. Just grounding your attention in the present moment. And begin to eat mindfully now.

And staying attentive to the sensations in the body as you do. And you can pause this audio from now until you hit the speed bump halfway through your meal. Okay. Now that you're halfway through your meal, take a moment to check in with your body. Tuning into any sensations of satisfaction or fullness.

How does your belly feel right now? Take a deep breath in. And a long breath out. Tuning into your body and this moment and seeing if you're still physically hungry. Have you hit the satisfaction point yet? That sweet spot where you're not overly full, but you're not hungry anymore? You feel satisfied and comfortable in the body? If so, you may decide that you've had enough to eat now. And even if there's food on the plate, you might decide it's time to stop.

You can give yourself permission to not eat the rest of the meal, even if there's food on the plate. And you can also give yourself permission to keep eating as well. Whatever you choose to do, continue to keep eating or stop, just making that choice based on awareness, on a conscious choice of caring for your body. If you're going to continue to eat again, you might like to pause this now and continue to eat mindfully, tuning into your body. Seeing if you can find the satisfaction point and then pressing play again, when you're done.

Great job. Now that you're done, just keep noticing how the body feels and any after effects of the meal. Do you feel sleepy, nauseous, overly full? Or do you feel content, satisfied, re-energized? And maybe reflecting, were there any emotions or thoughts involved in potentially driving a desire to eat more than the body wanted? Just reflecting on all of this with an attitude of compassion and curiosity. And noting if there's anything you might like to do differently next time or anything that worked really well. And taking that learning with you.

Well, congratulations for completing Day Six of the Mindful Eating course. And try on-going to tune into the satisfaction point when you eat your meals. And remembering that the overall goal is that each meal should make you feel better when you're done. As always thank you for your practice. And I look forward to being back here with you again for Day Seven, where we'll learn about the mindful eating cycle.

Till then, take care.