How to Get the Nutritional Mindset
What is a Nutritional Mindset?
Nutrition is about nourishment, and when you are trying to take back your energy, it’s of top importance.
But is it really enough to nourish just the body? And can we even nourish the body without giving some reciprocal attention to the mind? I think not.
Your path to health and well-being is walked by you in your completeness, mind and body. Therefore, it’s crucial to have a nutritional mindset. That is to say, a mindset that leads to and enables effective nutrition but is also rooted in a mind that is effectively nourished itself.
Put simply, give your mental wellness some much-needed attention, but when you inevitably get positive feedback from that, know how to turn that positive feedback into even more productivity.
How to start building your Mindset:
A great first step to building your mindset is to expand your control of your mind and become more mindful.
That’s right, as in mindfulness meditation (just mindfulness for short). It's a viral strategy for managing mental states and with good reason. It’s not only mindful meditation that we can use, however.
What does meditation do?
Meditation helps to train control of attention, gaining you the ability to step back out of your thoughts and observe them or focus more intensely. This self-control helps you to manage your emotions and gain awareness of your train of thought. It also enables you to be very intentional about which thoughts you explore and which ones you don’t. You can apply this to sensations, too, becoming more intentional in your more physiological experiences.
Ultimately, honing the mind in this way helps you handle stress and stressful situations more effectively while giving you broader skills that help you in your personal objectives, whatever they may be.
What are the different styles of meditation?
Meditation is an ancient practice with many different modalities, each catered to different ends. Furthermore, the line blends as to what it means to “meditate”. There are a number of very familiar activities that could be considered to be a kind of meditation, for example, deep contemplation of an idea. After all, meditation in the traditional sense (as we typically think of meditation, with deep breaths and the seated lotus position) is no less a function of the mind than this contemplation.
That said, there are some key activities that definitely are “meditation” without a shadow of a doubt.
Here is a list of some such practices (but not nearly all, I discuss more in my course
EnergyRx) that have gained popularity:
Spiritual Meditation
In the US, our most prevalent exposure to this is Christian prayer, which involves focused rituals in divinely protected space. That is to say, from the Christian spiritual perspective, it shouldn’t be rushed because no priority can be above God. In this way, prayer creates a special meditative environment for development.
Spiritual Meditation of this kind can take on many shapes and forms in its own right, and its meditative benefits are consistent cross-culturally, where similar bounds are placed on the practice. Ultimately, the defining characteristic of spiritual meditation is belief in and desire to connect with some spiritual facet or higher power.
Movement Meditation
Movement meditation is a focused meditation style where a movement is being intently considered. This can be walking or stretching (which is a major focus of yoga); you could even say that the breathing focus in most beginner meditation practices is movement meditation.
Movement meditation can take on unique characteristics depending on the movement one takes and can help to reinforce self-perceptions in line with that movement.
For example, many forms of Tai Chi would be considered movement meditation, and these tend to follow peaceful natural patterns, leading one to a sense of being at home in nature from the practice.
In contrast, the practice of Qigong (another ancient martial art) involves more tension in the breathing and musculature. It remains heavily centered around concentration and slow movement, making it movement focused meditation. This type of movement leads to a sense of strength and vigor after a session.
Loving-Kindness
Despite sounding a little woo-woo, “When’s the sales pitch?”, loving-kindness mediation is actually an ancient style of meditation, taking its name from Maitrī, a core Buddhist value of compassion.
It is a blended focused style that involves other meditation styles, such as visualization. The practice is performed by holding in mind another person and actively cultivating feelings of warmth towards them.
This helps the practitioner develop a less hostile demeanor and gain a greater understanding of the roots of their positive emotions.
Loving-Kindness can also be performed using mantric repetition, as the meditative state is one where the mind is highly receptive. This allows mantric repetition to have powerful effects on subconscious behavior.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is my go-to meditation style.
It comprises of broadening awareness/mindfulness of the wider present experience without becoming deeply involved in thoughts. The meditator steps out of the train of thought and simply observes the thoughts as they pass by without becoming entangled in them.
It can be helpful to focus on one behavior at first, such as breathing, which helps provide a point around which one can re-center one’s self should one become distracted. Many, alternatively, choose a more open approach, allowing the mind to empty instead of focusing on something specific.
Mindfulness uses a variety of techniques within broader meditative practice, such as visualization and body scanning (a practice that involves a progressive focus on different areas of the body and its sensations).
One subclass of mindfulness meditation that I particularly like is MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction), developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn.
This style of mindfulness has been optimized for psychological well-being while also being moldable to fit in with modern life. It has structure, which is excellent for beginners, with an 8-week course.
What does Mindfulness do?
Mindfulness has a wide range of known benefits, and its popularity in the West has resulted in a flourishing academic environment around it.
There is evidence that mindfulness has benefits for several mental health disorders and conditions, such as:
There are some physiological conditions that can be benefited by mindfulness practice too, such as:
Meditation for Nutritional Mindset
As you can see, incorporating meditative practice into daily life is essential to achieve a mindset that is genuinely healthy and nutritional.
Social Exploration and Indulgence
We humans are social beings, and it’s key to our mental well-being to have interactions with others, preferably positive, and also to meet new people.
Is Socialization Actually Good for Mental Health?
Yes, indeed, it’s generally positive in most areas of life, but like all things, there are points to be wary of.
Socialization, friends, and fruitful intimate relationships have been linked to positive mental health outcomes across the board (Reduced anxiety, stress, and increased happiness).
But how do we make sure we get good friends and not more problems?
Tips for Making Friends and Socialising:
Don’t Overthink It.
You are looking for tips, but the most important tip is to remember that they are just that. Tips. More important than any of these tips is taking some kind of action. If you don’t, you can be stuck optimizing insignificant details about your mindset when, really, these tips will become natural with time, seeing them in real life. I will actually discuss taking action generally later in this blog post, so skip ahead if you just want to get stuck in.
Know your worth.
Socialization is great in situations where you are a fair recipient of value. Reciprocity is important. Whether it’s a casual encounter with a cashier who is in a bad mood, or a long relationship where you are being exploited unfairly, trying to avoid situations where you are investing disproportionately is a good move, especially while you are just getting into your nutritional mindset.
In time, you may find you have the energy (thanks to your earlier prudence) to invest in someone who isn’t reciprocating in the hopes they will open up to you. This is not a lost cause, but it is a highly speculative choice, and caution is advised.
Move at your own pace.
Socialization is also great when it’s at your speed. If you are someone who is, extroverted and has been on lots of wild adventures meeting many people, then another adventure is very socially approachable.
If, however, you consider yourself introverted but would like to explore socially, don’t feel pressured to dive into the deep end. The last thing you want is to end up in an unfamiliar environment, have a bad experience missing innumerable social cues, and give up on the whole thing. So, for starters, at least, especially if you are nervous, just take a peak out of your comfort zone, maybe message an old friend, or attend a local market.
Try to Take a More Optimistic View of People.
It’s natural, even necessary, for us to project out our ideas of what we would do in a given situation onto others. That said, sometimes this can be a damaging behavior. Do you really know yourself as well as you think you do? And even if you do, how similar are you and the person you are going to talk to?
Consider that you want to ask someone a question, but you believe they will react negatively. Could this be (and there are other reasons, such as prejudice, which we will get into) because you think that an adverse reaction is justified and that you could see yourself reacting in that same way?
But here’s the thing. Often, we can hold these cold self-perceptions of ourselves to make us feel like we are strong and powerful. Would we really behave that way, or would we be more amenable than our fantasy self-perception might suggest?
And even if you would react negatively, what is to say that this person will too?! Sure, there are some topical extremes, but within the realm of reason, there is plenty of wiggle room in beliefs and perspectives that might cause someone to react totally differently to the same information.
All in all, project, but don’t let it cover up the reality of a situation.
Stay the hand of Prejudice.
Prejudice gets a bad rap because we most commonly talk about it when it is misused. Unfortunately, it’s not so simple as a big bad thing that we can just throw out; the system that exercises prejudice and stereotypes others does its job both for fake threats and real threats.
I.e., the mental facet that tells you “don’t open the door to 3 guys with baseball bats” is the same one that caused you to miss out on creating a fruitful relationship with someone whose, for example, English skills were not up to scratch (just on a different level of course).
This being the case, we must reign prejudice under control, training it to separate the wheat from the chaff effectively. And that means self-analysis.
When you feel an aversion to someone based on how they present themselves to you, ask these three questions:
- “Does the source of this aversion relate to any real, personal threat?”
- “If so, is the extent of that threat great enough that I should discard their potential as an individual for my own safety?”
- “Is there any more realistic explanation for the presentation of this person than the threatening one?”
Yeah, okay they aren't easy ones to remember but I'm giving you them like this for the sake of accuracy. Chop up these questions and make them more manageable for you to use on the fly. By doing this, you can help yourself hone your intuitive feelings about people you meet.
Be Protected and Secure.
It can be scary to socialize with others, and it’s essential to consider your safety.
Whether it’s having your location shared and a friend or partner on standby, socializing in a group, or learning how to defend yourself physically; ensuring you don’t feel out of your depth will help with your social comfort.
Present yourself well to the people you want to attract.
Want to meet some gym friends? Wear workout gear. Want to network for business? Dress in professional attire. You see where I’m going with this.
This ties into a lot of the previous tips. You’re not going to feel confident in your worth if you are projecting that people will think poorly of you (because you would think poorly of someone who presented as you do).
Socialization for Nutritional Mindset
Taking action to build out your support network and social circles can be immensely beneficial to your mental health and well-being.
What are some common obstacles to attaining the Nutritional Mindset?
Procrastination, Overthinking, or Analysis Paralysis
Are you a habitual procrastinator?
Procrastination, in its many forms, is probably the most common obstacle to developing health and well-being, as well as success in other areas of life. It stops you from taking action in your life (and you need to take action to succeed).
Procrastination indicates that the mind is somehow incentivized to avoid dealing with an issue, an incentive which can come about in the following ways:
- The mind is faced with two important and equally valuable options (whether that value be positive or negative). In order to make a decision, it delays it, waiting for new information to become available that might tip the scales one way or another.
- The mind fears seemingly inevitable suffering and seeks to delay, generally with the justification that a certain state needs to be attained prior to acceptance of its fate (which is not an unreasonable request by default). This is the most complex and common form.
- The mind is using the fact that it is involved with a certain activity (the one which is being procrastinated over) for another purpose. In this instance, procrastination is simply based on the absence of a need to perform the task when the title is all that is useful.
Procrastination is especially dangerous because it creates an anxiety loop, where the negative value attributed to an activity builds and builds the more it is neglected, resulting in an accumulated emotional debt that crushes, causing severe task aversion. The cycle of procrastination needs to be broken to achieve the nutritional mindset.
How to Solve Procrastination
There are a few ways to solve your procrastination problem, and knowing these techniques can make procrastination, overthinking, and paralysis by analysis much more manageable in the future. These procrastination tools will help you overcome over analyzing, cure laziness and overthinking, and provide a solution to perpetual indecision.
The key unavoidable component, however, of solving procrastination is honesty. If you cannot be honest with yourself about what’s happening in your mind, then you cannot solve anything.
Get Someone Else Involved.
Let’s say you are procrastinating over a decision regarding meal planning, which is causing you never to meal plan.
Bringing someone else into the situation will bring a fresh perspective and make available new information that may help you decide.
Take that one step further and consider that you are struggling with meal prepping. You keep putting it off. Maybe you are just not the best person to be doing this job, or at least, not all of it. Could you get some help from someone else in streamlining the process, or even someone to do the meal prep for you?
Whether your procrastination is an indicator that you need more information, or that you just shouldn’t be the one doing this task (and you should instead focus on finding someone who can and should), getting someone else into the picture is almost always helpful.
Rationalization and Taking Action
Indecision are destructive. Inaction when action is demanded is a quick way to destroy your health. There comes a certain point where even the largest discrepancy or unknown is outweighed by the need to take action.
Analysis is a valuable tool to help assess situations, and when that analysis is unfavorable or unclear, that’s when we get analysis paralysis. And there is always another tidbit of information, always something more to be considered; it’s easy to get highly deterministic and think, “If I just spent long enough, I could navigate this entire situation perfectly, with total knowledge”.
But you don’t have time.
And even if you had 50x the amount you do, there is no way that you would acquire such knowledge.
And even if you did, would it be worth it?
Of course not. So rationalize yourself into this pragmatic state because decisiveness, action, and time are values that habitual procrastinators often don’t consider.
You don’t need to look this much into your meal plan (and I say that as an advocate of thorough meal plans). You are going to die, and we are just working on improving the duration and quality of your time here. No point in that very goal not being possible because you are crippled with anxiety over the looming issue. Let’s just do it. Even if you do it 50% wrong, you are 50% more right than most people nowadays.
Self-Esteem and Qualification
One reason you might be procrastinating is that you just don’t think you will do “it” right.
Consider once more the meal plan. You are uncertain if you can do it effectively and meet all your nutritional needs.
This comes down to one of two things. Either you are competent, or you aren’t.
If you are competent, you need to address the lack of self-esteem causing you to think you will fail.
If you aren’t, then you need to take action to acquire the knowledge that will qualify you.
There is a single surefire way to address both these concerns, and that is by taking a relevant qualification or course in the area of interest. For example, people leave my course,
EnergyRx, with confidence that they are able to move forward knowledgeably with their nutrition to take back their energy. They are both competent and assured of their competence. So in whatever area you find yourself procrastinating, consider studying under a knowledgeable teacher.
Be wary of paralysis by analysis becoming justified by this. It’s why you need a genuinely knowledgeable instructor who makes sense to you. If you don’t, then you may feel that your learning is insufficient (and continue the paralyzing quest for more information). You need someone or something you can trust to give you everything you really need to know.
Self-Love
Sometimes, you are running from a challenge because you just can’t take it, emotionally or otherwise, if it doesn’t work out.
In times like these, procrastination is at its most useful. It’s stopping you from destroying yourself with burdens and challenges. So in this instance, you need to give yourself some resources first.
It could be as small as a nice bath before doing a meal plan. It could be as large as taking a week off work and giving yourself room to breathe before implementing a major lifestyle change.
This relates to me in my practice quite directly, because I often hand out some daunting advice, but I make sure to remind my clients that it is something that, once implemented, will be adding to their mental well-being AND the we are going to clear out bad habits which is immediately going to give them room to breathe. Self-love is so important when trying to handle procrastination, and it’s crucial to achieving a nutritional mindset.
Beware, as self-love is the most seductive solution. Do not let yourself get trapped by viewing it as the only one or “the one you need”. If you find yourself with a wide array of positive stimuli, but still feeling procrastinative, then its time to move on to some pragmatic “tough self-love” and tackle the issue with other approaches above.
Physical Exercise Hacking
The last reason solution I’ll provide (in this non-exhaustive list) is Physical Exercise Hacking.
Addressing the same problem of emotional strain as self-love, physical exercise hacking is a great alternate approach, especially when you really need to do something.
Often, indecision and procrastination can be caused by neurological deficiency. We train ourselves to be expedient in our emotional demands by abusing social media, entertainment, and quick highs like alcohol. This means that when we come to a task that requires a significant delay in gratification, we feel drained at the prospect. Our neurochemical environment, used to being filled with dopamine and serotonin, is sapped dry.
So we think, “Ah ha, I have a great idea; I’ll go scroll on social media for a while, then I will feel energized”. But it rarely works out like that, does it? No. More commonly, the rest of the afternoon is spent in a state of emotional slavery to the social stream.
You were right. You need to do something to prepare your mindscape for a hard task. But there’s a better way to get a fast release of positive neurochemicals.
Short, intense exercise triggers dopamine reward systems (one of these positive neurochemicals) as well as triggering the release of serotonin. The pain of exercise can also release endorphins, which cause the phenomenon known as “runners high”, where runners experience a tangible positive change in their mood and experience of the world after running. By triggering these neurotransmitters, you hack the system, giving yourself an energised, focused, and confident state.
Next time you need to just “get it done”, go and run for 5 minutes, or get down and do some push-ups. Make sure you limber up a little so as not to get injured. If you live in a warm climate, then this is less of a concern, but in cold climates, the muscles become much stiffer, so a warm-up is essential. Once you are done, you’ll feel more ready to engage with the task that you were previously overwhelmed by, and unless you’re superhuman, you’re not likely to waste the whole afternoon running.
Putting Procrastination Behind Us and Taking Action
Procrastination can cause indefinite stagnation of your development in all areas of life. It is the single most common obstacle (along with its sub facets: overthinking / analysis paralysis) to attaining a nutritional mindset that helps you grow and heal. But these tools provided above are the ways for you to stop thinking and start doing.
Honesty
Honesty is incredibly important in a nutritional mindset.
The human mind is a fantastical thing, and it creates a lot of crazy logic paths to justify all kinds of behavior. Practicing radical honesty with yourself about the nature of your thoughts and feelings will help you understand your mind.
This will allow you to implement nourishing mental habits more effectively, reduce unpleasant mental experiences such as cognitive dissonance, and result in more reasonable and appropriate action in the real world.
If you lack this honesty within yourself, you become impressionable and vulnerable to dogma, which will oftentimes draw you away from healthy habits.
Starting Beyond Your Means
Don’t set yourself up for failure by trying to attain a totally and highly beneficial mindset overnight when you are stressed, depleted, sleep-deprived, and emotionally low.
Start in accordance with what you can do. Give yourself a little 10 minutes to meditate. Maybe the next day, you can push it to 15 based on the fact that you had a marginally more productive day previously. You don’t need to start with a 10-day silent retreat.
If you do overstretch yourself like this, take note as you begin to feel burned out. Take note as you think “ugh, I’ll just skip it today”. Use that sentiment as a trigger that will recenter you.
It is all a fine balance when working up, but remain aware of it. I would say, however, don’t do reductions in anything less than the most extreme circumstance. If you are thinking you will do a minimum of 20 minutes of meditation per day, then try not to reduce this.
With behavior, it’s important to recognize the impact of trajectory. If you only ever increase a behavior's performance, no matter how little you do it, it is natural to assume it will continue to increase. If, however, you do a cutback, you change the trajectory to be downwards, something recognized on a deep subconscious level.
Addiction
Are you an addict?
Most of us are to varying degrees. The modern world has high time demands and is ill-suited to our natural systems.
So what do we do? We shut those systems up, using sugar or alcohol or smoking or sex or drugs (yep, sugar makes that list).
Addictions are going to be an obstacle to creating your healthy nutritional mindset and really merit addressing in their own right. Ultimately, this is anything that immediately pops into your mind as an escape route when you feel a negative emotion.
Addiction has a lot in common with procrastination (after all, it is procrastinating away an emotional state), so much of the advice regarding procrastination higher up in the article will be of value. That said, it is not specifically catered for addiction, and so, considering addiction can have profound neurochemical effects, the advice should only be applied conservatively.
Attaining the Nutritional Mindset is Not Easy.
But you stand to gain a wondrous new perspective on the world and an internal ally in your continued striving for health, well-being, happiness, and success. You create a bulwark against declining mental health and become one of the most self-aware people in the room. You give yourself productivity instead of silencing your desires with dopaminergic hits. Moving to the nutritional mindset will be the best thing you ever do.
Heidi Toy Functional Medicine Blog
