How is your relationship with food? Do you look forward to meals? Are you able to eat happily and without negative feelings such as guilt or fear ruining your eating?

Are you experiencing body shame? Cultural pressure to achieve a particular shape or weight? Optimising your nourishment involves more than simply eating a balanced diet. Accepting that the mind and body are deeply connected is a central message in my practice: Our thoughts, beliefs, feelings, relationship with pleasure, mindfulness, pain, joy and more all affects our health.

The efficiency with which we digest and assimilate food is directly impacted by the body's many stress pathways: it is vital to feel good and think positively while we eat and digest - but how do we get there? Nutrition is about far more than what you see on the label of a packet. Understanding how to interpret the nutrition label can be helpful — but acknowledging that there is so much more to be considered when making decisions about healthy eating is crucial.

For example, an orange contains a good amount of Vitamin C, but whether we are actually absorbing and utilising the vitamin depends on many factors. How do we maximise our metabolism, absorption and assimilation? How do we achieve our optimal body image without sacrificing our inner joy and a pleasurable, spontaneous relationship with food?

Chronic stress inhibits good nutrition. Stress management is a key strategy everybody needs to learn in order to navigate life successfully: Stress dysregulates our appetite, upsets our digestion, kills beneficial gut bacteria, promotes stubborn overweight, increases inflammation and can often lead to us disengaging with life and therefore, food.

Under a cloud of chronic stress we are vulnerable to building compulsive coping mechanisms, often food centred, in order to find a way to cope.

Anorexia, bulimia and orthorexia are extremes of this. The lack of a diagnosable eating disorder does not mean that an individual has a good relationship with food: mindless eating and snacking and a disengagement from a true sense of hunger or satiety are also signs of imbalance.

An imbalanced relationship with food and eating often involves the consumption of pro-inflammatory foods which lead to disease and unhappiness — a downward spiral many people find themselves in.

Detangling this web is part of the work we do together in our sessions. It will change your life for the better. Understanding your stress triggers helps to induce permanent change. Many people need more help than simple dietary guidance.

Healing your relationship with food, and also, your body, can help you rebuild your mind-body connection. In my work with dancers, we utilize The Healthy Dancer® as a framework for this process— more specifically The Healthy Dancer® Body of Evidence: a tool for guided reflections that bring awareness to your here-and-now.

The Healthy Dancer® Body of Evidence involves a series of prompts that help you scan your internal cues and external surroundings, helping to drive your decisions with more directed intent. The goal is to utilize self-awareness to gain more clarity amid the stress.

Some of the most common instances in which we utilize The Healthy Dancer® Body of Evidence include:. Externally, we begin to notice our environment and the possible triggers for the mental, physical, and emotional sensations experienced above.

Ultimately, the goal is to build evidence towards supportive habits. Not feeling regular hunger cues? This could be evidence of an over-booked schedule. Struggling with excessive fatigue? This often means leaning into tools like The Healthy Dancer® Food Flexibility Algorithm and The Healthy Dancer® Functional Fuel.

Cultivating a strong mind-body connection allows dancers to support body attunement, enhance proprioception for spatial awareness in the studio, and sharpen self-awareness with food and movement exercise decisions.

With a stronger mind-body connection comes the ability to prioritize decisions that support long-term performance, some including:. The role of food and nutrition in fostering a strong mind-body connection cannot be overstated.

The Healthy Dancer® Body of Evidence is a helpful tool for dancers to raise self-awareness and build more intent behind their work in the studio, out of the studio, and even at mealtimes. To get started with this work, join the community and embody all it means to become The Healthy Dancer®.

Skip to content MEMBER LOGIN. Search Topics Understanding the Mind-Body Connection The mind-body connection is the ability to integrate our thoughts and emotions with our physical movement, seamlessly.

Is your mind-body connection lost? Building The Healthy Dancer® Body of Evidence Healing your relationship with food, and also, your body, can help you rebuild your mind-body connection.

Some of the most common instances in which we utilize The Healthy Dancer® Body of Evidence include: Food choices at meal and snack times Understanding hunger cues Honoring fullness and satiety cues Responding or not responding to triggering diet talk.

Responding or not responding to triggering social media posts. Understanding the risks of over-training and burnout. We take an internal and external scan.