Mindfulness key to healthy living

These include increased quality of life, better self-control, and reduced anxiety.

Mindfulness goes hand in hand with a healthy lifestyle. It is the key to increasing our ability to make choices based on personal values.

Every day we make choices - whether to purchase or eat particular foods, whether to go for a walk or watch TV.

Mindless eating is particularly problematic for many of us. This is eating where we are not fully aware or appreciative of the food we are putting in our mouths.

Mindless eating often involves eating more food than we need or intend to eat in the first place.

On the other hand, eating mindfully can increase our appreciation of good food, making us more aware of the look, colour, texture and subtlety of flavours or aromas of food.

Mindful eating promotes greater attention to these and other details, such as the sensations of food in your mouth.

Mindfulness is also useful for helping us manage a wide range of thoughts and feelings.

"Emotional eating" occurs when food is used as a way of managing emotional states, such as anxiety or unhappiness.

Emotional eating would be fine if it involved eating fruit and vegetables, but unfortunately it often involves eating high calorie comfort foods.

Emotional eating may provide temporary relief from our emotions, but in the long run it often makes us feel worse about ourselves.

So, how does mindfulness help overcome emotional eating?

One of the most important aspects of being mindful is that is allows you to sense your internal experiences rather than avoid them.

One of the skills in mindfulness (which takes practice) is that it allows you to pay attention to these internal experiences in a particular way.

You purposely pay attention and accept and observe thoughts and feelings without becoming stuck. Just as importantly, it frees you up to make more helpful and healthier choices.

Like most new skills, increasing everyday mindfulness takes practice, but the rewards can be substantial.

■ Frank Deane is the director of the Illawarra Institute for Mental Health at the University of Wollongong. Joseph Ciarrochi is from the School of Social Sciences and Psychology at the Australian Catholic University.

These health tips are provided by researchers affiliated or associated with the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, which runs the HealthTrack study. Please consult your doctor for specific medical advice.