Audience: All Benefits-Eligible Faculty and Staff.

Prerequisites: Either you have attended an “Introduction to Mindfulness” workshop at Harvard; you have completed “The Basics” course on the Ten Percent Happier app (available for free to all benefits-eligible faculty and staff); or you have a well-established personal mindfulness practice. For more info about these prerequisites, visit: hr.harvard.edu/mindfulness.

Please come to this session with a small food item, such as a piece of fresh or dried fruit, or a small piece of chocolate.

Description: How often do we go to the market and end up purchasing groceries we didn’t intend to purchase? Plan to eat healthfully but find that we did not? Look in our refrigerator for a snack to meet an emotional need? Avoid food altogether for any number of reasons? Completely miss the taste and nourishment of a special meal because distracting thoughts carried us away from the moment? These all-too-common experiences happen to us when we feel distanced from our bodies, our thoughts, and our emotions. This session delves into how a consistent practice of mindfulness can help participants close those gaps and further manage the unconscious, reactive habits that can build up around food. As a result, participants will learn to become more aware of when they are truly hungry, when they are not, and when they are sated. Participants will learn to better appreciate all aspects of their relationship with food, from purchasing to consuming, and from nourishing themselves to connecting with others.

Click here to learn more and register for this free webinar (HarvardKey protected)