Food is embodiment
If someone were to ask me, "What's the first thing I should do to feel more connected to myself and at home in my body?"
I would ask them, "What are you eating for breakfast?"
Why is this one of my first questions?!
Because without an adequate breakfast, physiology will shift toward stress. When the blood sugar dips, spikes in cortisol and adrenaline follow.
It's VERY hard to feel fully embodied when your "lid is flipped" due to insufficient nourishment and stress hormones flowing through your bloodstream...
- blood flow moving AWAY from your gut (hello, intuition? I can't hear you?)
- heart rate increasing and breathing rate increasing
- tunnel vision, literally and cognitively, on whatever might be threatening (hello, realm of possibility? I can't see you??)
- more signals to emotional brain centers increasing fear, fewer signals to cortex in charge of sensation and proprioception (hello, feeling freaked out and disconnected)
The connection between nourishment and embodiment makes sense when you think about it - we are physical 3D beings composed of the food we eat. Eating food physically grounds us into our bodies, and lack of nourishment leads to the opposite:
One of the brain's top two priorities is a steady supply of glucose (oxygen is the other)
so when glucose drops lower than your brain is comfortable with, it sounds the alarm bells.
This increases your fight-or-flight nervous system, inhibits your rest-digest-connect nervous system, and deprioritizes anything unrelated to survival.
That creative project you were planning to focus on?
Tending to your tender emotional body?
Connecting to your capacity to say YES and NO from a place of inner authority?
Much harder to connect, create, and calm whenever stress physiology increases due to calorie restriction, whether intentional or accidental.
Eating a protein-packed, balanced, nutrient-rich breakfast is a TOP TOOL for creating a calm & connected embodied experience.
And because it's such a critical component of embodiment, and because there's a lot of confusion on the topic, I created this free Breakfast Guide to share with you.
It outlines how to create a breakfast that will support your resiliency in a few simple bullet points.*
I'm curious to hear whether the content in this guide is old news for you, or if some of what I share sparks an "aha" moment that will help you feel more confident in caring for your body.
Email me with your thoughts - I'd love to hear from you. If you want more personalized guidance, click the button below to learn more about working together.