Your body has its own natural equilibrium. It is different to anyone else's - it may be similar to someone else, but never exactly the same. It is for that reason that conscious eating, as part of a tailored health regime, is necessary to create abundant health.

The healing system of Ayurveda teaches that you have a unique mind-body type, which guides how you look and feel when you are healthy. Since my individual state of health and balance is different to yours, my dietary regime will differ from yours.

This system teaches that by understanding this mind-body type and strengthening our internal connection we can begin to live in balance with our natural rhythms and our body's perfect state of balance and harmony will reveal itself.

There are three primary objectives when it comes to conscious eating. First, it is important to consider your digestive power - that is your ability to digest and absorb nutrients from your food. Secondly, by paying attention to how we eat we can enhance our health. Thirdly, having an understanding of your unique mind-body type assists you to make the most appropriate choices for your body. Let's look at each in a little more detail.

Your Digestive Power

This is probably the most important factor to consider when we are creating abundant health and perfect balance. I have had clients who eat ‘the right things', and exercise regularly, but do not have the energy they would like to have, or are not losing weight, despite ‘doing everything right'. In such cases, it is important to explore the factors that may be weakening this person's ability to digest nourishment. When we determine these factors first we can restore balance and harmony much faster for that individual.

Two of the major sources that can weaken your digestive power are:

Stress: When you are constantly busy and/or ‘stressed', it is because your body is in a   heightened state of ‘fight-or-flight'.

As a result your body is over-producing stress hormones.

Your adrenal glands and kidneys are working overtime to produce and filter these hormones, which places excess stress on your digestive capacity. This hormonal reaction has a cascade effect on other metabolic functions, including your thyroid activity, and your level of immunity.

Without effective measures to counter stress, over time your body will experience chronic Dis-ease and suffer from an inability to appropriately metabolise and store energy.

Overeating: In the western world, with obesity rates reaching one in three, overeating is very common. Our food is high in calories, but often low in nutrients.

When we give our body more calories than it needs, our digestive power weakens.

The lack of adequate protein (which is the basic building block of the body) and other essential nutrients, but excess carbohydrate in our diet causes us to feel more hungry, therefore we eat more. It is a vicious cycle.

This tendency to overeat can be countered in a couple of ways: by tuning in to your body, and eating only when you are hungry.

I don't believe in diets, because they are not teaching you to implement these two simple steps, particularly the first, in a sustainable fashion. If overeating, or not eating in a healthy way, is an issue for you, I encourage you to read my series of articles on ‘Changing Your Food Habits'. Here is another exercise you can try:

If you are considering eating, bring your stomach into your awareness and put your hand on it. Ask yourself "On a scale of 1-10 (1 is super-hungry and 10 is uncomfortably full) how hungry am I?" Tune in to how your body feels. Don't eat until you reach a 2-3 and stop eating when you reach about 7. This will help your digestive system to work more efficiently. And because you have room left in your stomach you will feel more energetic.

One of the most powerful practices for stopping compulsive overeating and getting in touch with our true appetites is meditation. When you meditate, you connect to your essential nature and expand your capacity for self-referral, which is looking within and taking actions based on your internal value system.

Paying Attention to How You Eat

In our ‘busyness' our eating patterns often interfere with our ability to digest our food and eat for health. We eat too quickly, on the run, or while our attention is on other things - like the TV or computer. When we slow down, eat in silence, or in a peaceful environment - by yourself or with important people - you are eating consciously. When you fuel and nurture your body appropriately, you start to notice the signals it is sending you. You will also be more satisfied because you have taken the time to taste and appreciate your food.

Eat for Your Mind-Body Type

Once you are aware of your digestive power and how you are eating, you will naturally start to listen more to your body. In Ayurveda there are three mind-body types and the foods that are suitable for each mind-body type to achieve optimum health are different.

If you would like to learn more about your mind-body type I invite you to download my Creating Health In Abundance pack at the website below.

Ayurveda divides food into six categories based on their taste and the effect they have on our bodies. The six tastes are sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent. By incorporating all six tastes into each meal, our bodies feel satisfied, often with much less than we are used to eating.

When we are satisfied, our body does not give us signals to look for more food, and cravings begin to disappear.

We no longer feel the need to snack because our body feels satisfied with the meal we have eaten. Ayurveda also offers specific guidance on how each of the six tastes affects the doshas and which tastes to favor depending on your doshic type. In addition, by eating a variety of foods, especially densely pigmented foods of all colors and from all six taste categories, we give our bodies all of the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that it needs.

They key to conscious eating, as Ayurveda teaches, is to strengthen our internal referral system around food and our eating habits, so we can stop reacting to external cues and make better choices for ourselves. When we can do this, we move effortlessly toward behaviours that further strengthen this internal reference because they are right for us.

Kirsty Greenshields is a passionate partner, mum and business owner. She is the founder of Create Perfect Health, dedicated to empowering you to let go of unhealthy habits and create balance and harmony in your life. www.createperfecthealthnow.com