“The MEQ® way to diet: eat more."

– AJ Bicât

Monthly Tip: Diet

Dieting the MEQ® way concentrates on eating more good foods first.

The dictionary definition of the word food is a substance which when digested nourishes the body. Nourish means to encourage growth. Growth means to give life. 

Use that strict definition of food to reframe your understanding of the items you introduce to your physical mechanism and though it may seem rather extreme consider the antonym of food too: poison.

Make a list food you absolutely love that fits into the first category. You will find it to be almost endless. 

Now, listen to your body after you have eaten. Do you gain weight or get a huge spot on your forehead, do you get a small rash or feel tired when you eat loads of bread, cheese, battery chickens, mass produced pork, hydrogenated vegetable fat and/or refined sugar? If so, guess what? Your body doesn't really handle those foods very well, so eat more of the foods it does handle well and that you love first. Don't be hungry, be full!

Lastly, when you eat; eat. Sit down and just eat. Don't read the news on your phone, don't walk to work, don't listen to music. Just eat and observe your complete moment by moment dining experience. Don't look back on the meal and not know what you ate or what it tasted like. Enjoy food!

Editorial

I'm not going to say too much in this first editorial except that the take up of hard skill MEQ® in the workplace is increasing at a phenomenal rate. I'm very grateful to all of you for being so helpful in championing the cause by giving us such glowing testimonials. I look forward to seeing more of you in the coming months and years and to revolutionising the way we train in the corporate world with this crucial hard skill.

Lastly many people have asked me how they can be a corporate MEQ® trainer. Well, the first step is to complete an MBSR™ course. Thereafter you need to have a consistent daily practice and be on the training pathway as outlined by the University of Massachusetts Medical School's Oasis Centre for Mindfulness. 

MEQ® and MBSR™ are registered trade marks

Feedback Loop: Addiction

In the Feedback Loop we answer or print comments from our readers and those who have attended any of our Secret Events.

Below is a comment on addiction from a member of our community.

Remember we asked you to pay attention moment by moment to the sensual experience of whatever it is that you are ingesting.

As you will see from the below comments, this community member has spent almost no time paying attention to his or her moment by moment sensual experience and a lot of time beating themselves up instead.  Very interesting.

     "Light up.. Inhale deeply to make sure it's lit up properly.

     My mind is full of justifications and reasonings to tell myself it is ok to smoke now. It may be that I didn't smoke past day or two, or maybe I've finally completed something I've been procrastinating for a while. Or maybe it's just because it's end of a day.

     Whatever it is, you always find excuse. This is the mindset of addicts. We always find excuse.

     We give in. We let it slip in.

     At least, the buzz is there. The belief, the lift, and the sensation to your mind which lets you realise what you are born for.

     But it doesn't last long. And another doesn't give you the high the first one had. It will never be as good as the first one, but the buzz from the first hit is what you are now craving for.

     And I binge. Binge smoke. This is what we addicts do.

     I promise, I will not smoke tomorrow. I promise, I really do..."

- Anonymous

My advice would be to try the exercise again and this time observe the moment by moment sensations starting with the touch of your fingers on the cigarette paper, ending with your mental and physical sensations from the effects of the material you have ingested and everything inbetween: sight (ophthalmoception), hearing (audioception), taste (gustaoception), smell (olfacoception), and touch (tactioception).