Creating a Mindful Relationship with Food

MINDFUL EATING – Changing Our Relationship with Food

Many of us have settled into an unhealthy relationship with food, whereby we inadvertently accept chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity or cardiovascular disease as part of our genetic inheritance. Even if we try to eat healthy, we may be dissatisfied with our body shape, food habits and feel a sense of helplessness and defeat where food is concerned. Food has lost its role as a source of nutrition for the body, and instead has become a comfort provider for the mind or even a narcotic for the brain. How can we reclaim our brains and minds from the clutches of sugar, starch or unhealthy addictive substances? How can we learn to love and accept our bodies without subjecting them to eating disorders? How can we give up feelings of guilt, anxiety and craving that food brings out?

In this workshop we will first bring awareness to how we relate to food – are we grazers or gorgers? Are we diet junkies or judgmental eco-geeks? Gym bunnies or a bingers who swing from one extreme to another? Are we fanatic about calorie counting, or do we eat like zombies? Are we consuming for comfort or for peer acceptance? By bringing mindful awareness to our eating habits we begin the process of transformation. We re-evaluate how we can introduce healthier habits into our lifestyle, and how we can overcome addiction to food, learn to enjoy the food that we eat, and be self-compassionate when it comes to changing deeply ingrained habits. We use some cutting-edge psychotherapy and meditation techniques to understand why we get into the rut of unhealthy eating, and how we can dig our way out.

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Sangeeta Bansal, Ph.D., is a mindfulness and meditation teacher, and teaches courses at schools and colleges, such as Princeton University, Stern School of Business (NYU) and Rye Country Day School. She has been invited as a mindfulness consultant to Hong Kong International School to train students and faculty, and also to Columbia Business School as a guest speaker. She volunteers as a mindfulness teacher in inner city schools. She also works with corporate leaders, womens’ groups, children, and young adults who seek to reduce stress and find sources of happiness and meaning in their lives. Sangeeta is also an experienced Enneagram Consultant (The Enneagram is a tool by which people understand their own and others’ personalities, leading to better work and personal relationships and realizing one’s potential to the fullest), and teaches workshops on special topics such as Ayurveda, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, and Vedanta.

​After receiving her MBA from IESE (Barcelona), and her Ph.D from Rutgers University, Sangeeta worked in the corporate sector as well as an Adjunct Professor. In 2008, she turned to meditation and mindfulness in her personal life, and then went on to be a full time meditation teacher.

​​Sangeeta lives with her husband and two children in Westchester County, New York.

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