{"id":12874,"date":"2022-04-26T17:37:11","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T22:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mentalhe180dev.wpenginepowered.com\/news\/five-ways-to-use-food-as-a-tool-for-practicing-mindfulness-fostering-connection-and-centering-joy\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T08:55:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T13:55:36","slug":"five-ways-to-use-food-as-a-tool-for-practicing-mindfulness-fostering-connection-and-centering-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.grafik.mentalhealthfirstaid.org\/es\/news\/five-ways-to-use-food-as-a-tool-for-practicing-mindfulness-fostering-connection-and-centering-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Ways to Use Food as a Tool for Practicing Mindfulness, Fostering Connection, and Centering Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alexander
Alexander Hardy reunites with National Trainer Lee Berlinquette, who led his first MHFA Instructor Training. (April 2022, MHFA Summit).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a grits-powered mental health programming developer, facilitator and Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Instructor, food is more than a source of sustenance for me. It\u2019s an ice-breaker and a way to get friends, attendees and strangers to talk about feelings. Through food, you can tap into your creativity and build culinary confidence. You can establish connections and bridge gaps. Food is a vehicle for joy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether I\u2019m on a partnership exploration chat; facilitating a grief and loss workshop or a Mental Health First Aid training; or on a group video chat with friends, you can expect me to ask you about the delicious things you’re eating or making, what meal represents your current mood or what you\u2019re doing to find some joy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These covert food-based wellness check-ins are part of the GetSomeJoy experience: You get a reminder to take off your superhero cape and recharge. I get new recipes to consider and an unintimidating entry into conversations on wellness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are a few more ideas for using food to inspire or share joy at home, work, school and beyond.<\/p>\n

Prepare or order a meal that represents joy to you.<\/b><\/p>\n

There is so much power in a pot of rice.<\/p>\n

My mother is a Panamanian-born product of the Platano Belt and preparing and sharing food is our language. Rice is a way of life for us.<\/p>\n

It fills my belly and blesses my soul as a co-star or the main attraction. But each pot of rice I prepare contains decades of family history, years of learning from afar as the grandson of the Janet Jackson of rice<\/span><\/a> and countless kitchen lessons from my mother. Each pot represents culinary anxieties I\u2019ve overcome and inspires gratitude for life and stable housing in which to celebrate whenever my rice isn\u2019t a mushy, ancestor-shaming mess.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a mighty mound of grains.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Frying plantain, loving on a pot of grits or rice or experimenting with empanadas brightens my mood, every time. Those familiar foods and flavors calm my nerves, remind me of home and cultivate a sense of safety and familiarity in times of uncertainty. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n