We often focus on the role food plays in managing the hard situations in life such as getting through times of stress and anxiety, but we don’t tend to spend as much time thinking about the role food can play during the happy times in our life. What do we often turn to as a way to celebrate that new promotion, good news a friend has received, or even just a beautiful sunny day? (Can you say ice cream)?! For many of us, celebrations of any sort tend to involve food. This is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, food and celebration are intertwined in all human cultures, it is naturally part of how we not only celebrate successes, holidays etc., but most importantly it is part of how we connect and socialize with others.

So how do we balance this cultural pressure to celebrate with food with eating in a mindful way? Well, I think the biggest thing to keep in mind is that it’s ok to enjoy a meal as part of celebrating something. That said, when that urge to celebrate with food comes up, it can also be helpful to ask if we are feeling physical hunger right now. If we have a desire to get something fun to eat to celebrate that good news we got earlier in the day and are feeling physical hunger, great why not go make that fun meal!

If we are having the urge to celebrate but are not physically hungry, it is certainly still ok to go ahead and eat, but we may also want to think about other ways we could celebrate the event that don’t involve food, or celebrate with that meal later on when we are feeling hungry.

Questions about celebrating with food or anything else relating to food and body image? Feel free to get in touch!