I’ve mentioned the connection with the body before. Why do we place so much importance on the body? Because every emotion has a counterpart in the body. Think about what happens in your body when you’re angry: trembling hands and feet, sweating, heart palpitations, a cold sweat running down your back, widening eyes, a surge of activity in your brain. Let’s move on to another emotion. Think about what happens in your body when you’re happy. When you feel desire, jealousy, joy, happiness. Don’t all these find a counterpart in the body? So how can we separate the body from emotions?

When cats are scared or feel threatened, their fur stands on end. When dogs are happy, they wag their tails. All of these are the result of the emotions of all living beings in the universe finding a counterpart in the body. That’s why I say, connect with your body to get to know yourself and your emotions. At MBSR, we do this through different exercises. The secret to MBSR’s worldwide success comes from this: we simply return to our essence, to the things we forget as humans.

Every single day, without exception, sit down for 10 minutes and observe your body, see what’s happening. Awareness of emotions comes from directing awareness to the body. For example, when you’re very angry and you notice what’s happening in your body, over time, when anger arises in your mind, it makes it easier to recognize it and choose your reaction. Isn’t it true that all the problems we face stem from reactions we can’t control?

I have good news for you. The brain can be trained, like exercising, but you don’t even have to get up from your seat, haha. You liked that news, didn’t you? I’ll explain. 🙂

Now, regarding its connection to nutrition… Emotional eating is what I see most often. The reason is that we ignore the reactions our emotions cause in our bodies, deny them, and then try to cover them up with food. Then comes bloating, regret, ignoring the body again and again, and getting angry at ourselves – a vicious cycle.

With love,

Sema Özpekmezci