Wellness and self-care have easily become two of the biggest buzzwords of the decade. We buy whole, healthy, organic foods, we exercise, we meditate, we take “me time.” If I’m being honest, I certainly wasn’t committed to these rituals when I was growing up. It just wasn’t of the times! But now, I’d be remiss without my commitments to these practices. I stray—as we all do—but luckily, it’s becoming easier and easier to stay focused on wellness thanks to technology, media, and a culture that promotes and reinforces it.

While I feel that I have the wellness aspect of things in a good spot, I still struggle with practicing mindfulness. If you know me, you know I am always thinking about the next thing, talking a mile a minute, and juggling a thousand things at once. I could really benefit from a consistent yoga and meditation practice, but I find that I often just don’t have the patience or the attention span for it. I wish I did!

So naturally, when I saw that the meditation app Headspace was collaborating with Whole Foods, one of my favorite places, on an IGTV (that’s Instagram TV, to you) series, I was thrilled.

After all, I’ll never forget when Whole Foods came to University Drive all those years ago, and we were all talking about the new quirky health foods that were on sale that we had never seen before! I’ve been doing my family shopping there ever since.

The IGTV recipe series is called Food for Mood, and features three new meditations focused on mindful shopping, cooking, and eating, and a one-month free trial of Headspace Plus and more. I so appreciate that these wellness companies are creating something short, accessible, and fun in the mindfulness space. The promise of a quick and easy introduction to meditating is definitely intriguing to me. After the year we’ve had with the pandemic, this seems like the perfect baby step to, hopefully, a bigger commitment to mindfulness. You can check out the series on Whole Foods’ IGTV page.

I hope this little Instagram TV series will inspire you to up your mindfulness or personal wellness game. Now more than ever, we need to re-up our commitment to ourselves to make it through what will hopefully be the final stretch of the pandemic. But! You don’t have to meditate for an hour a day to be mindful, and you don’t need to be a nutritionist or a personal trainer to take care of your physical well-being. What I love about this IGTV series is that it reminds me that a small commitment is still a big accomplishment, and something worth celebrating. Come back to your wellness practice, or start one, with kindness, and in small ways. I’m rooting for all of us!

Julie Talenfeld

CEO