Saturday mornings when I was a kid meant a bowl of cereal and a front-row seat on the living room carpet. The lineup was The Jetsons, The Flintstones, and a slew of enticing commercials for My Little Pony and Frosted Flakes. But what stands out most to me now – far more than Fred yelling, “Wilma, I’m home!” or George Jetson’s flying car – were the public service announcements wedged between cartoon segments and commercials.
There was Schoolhouse Rock, with its animated scroll explaining how a bill becomes a law. They really should bring this one back. And there was Timer, an egg-shaped character in a top hat and bowtie, singing, “You are what you eat from your head down to your feet.” Timer waltzed through conveyor belts of food labeled “fats,” “proteins,” and “carbs,” explaining how nutrition fuels our bodies and minds.
It was delightfully weird. And sneakily educational. Check it out on YouTube.
Timer might have been talking about physical food, but the message stuck with me more deeply. If we are, in fact, what we eat from our heads down to our feet, shouldn’t the same apply to what we think?
Sheila Tucker, LMFT, a licensed marriage and family therapist and owner of Heart Mind & Soul Counseling
You Are What You Think
The medical world often reminds us how our food choices impact our physical well-being. Too many cookies and not enough vegetables? You’re probably not feeling your best. But what about your thoughts? What’s the quality of your mental nutrition?
Our minds are constantly spinning, whispering (or sometimes shouting) thoughts at us throughout the day. Minds think. That’s what they do. Some are helpful. Others are, well, not so much. Unless you intentionally tune in with curiosity, those thoughts have the potential to play in the background like bad hold music or, even worse, they become your beliefs.
Your thoughts have a profound way of shaping how you perceive yourself, your relationships with others, and how you navigate the world.
If your internal playlist includes greatest hits like “I’m not good enough,” “I should be doing more,” or “Everyone else has it together except me,” then it’s no wonder you’re feeling depleted. Just like bodies need nourishing food, minds need nourishing thoughts.
When was the last time you really listened to your thoughts? Not just heard them, but paused long enough to ask: Where did that come from? Is this even remotely helpful?
Many of your thoughts are automatic. They were planted years ago, by a parent, a teacher, a social comparison, and now they loop without question. They inform how you relate to the world around you. The good news? You can interrupt the loop.
Try this:
Notice your thoughts (especially the ones that spark a reaction).
Name them. Is this self-doubt? Comparison? Shame? Fear?
Nurture a new one. Try something softer, like: “I’m learning,” or “This is hard, and I’m trying,” or “It’s OK to start small.”
Side note: You can also notice the thoughts that elicit joy or excitement. Your “nurture” phrase might sound like “Wow, this is nice” or “I want to do that again.”
It’s not about becoming relentlessly positive or pretending everything is great when it’s not. It’s about offering your mind the same nourishment you’d give your body – something balanced, kind, and sustaining.
Repetition Matters
I heard an ad on a podcast the other day – one that’s played probably a dozen times – but this time, it stuck. Without realizing it, I was on the advertiser’s website checking out their product.
That’s the power of repetition. It’s how we learn. It’s also how we get stuck.
Negative self-talk, shame spirals, and overthinking thrive on repetition. But so does growth. The more often you practice self-compassion and curiosity, the easier it becomes to access those skills.
You might have heard these classic sayings: “Where the mind goes, your energy flows” or “What you feed grows.” They are right.
You repeat affirmations and mantras not because they’re magic but because they’re training the way you think. Just like Timer reminded us that food becomes energy, your thoughts become patterns. And those patterns become the way you relate to yourself and others.
Here’s the irony: As I sat down to write this piece about the importance of mental nourishment, my thoughts began to heckle me.
Blinking cursor. Blank page.
“You have no idea what to write.”
Several deep breaths later, I began to write as I usually do. I wrote about not knowing what to write, one sentence at a time. Just to keep going. In all honesty, I could curate a collection of my pieces aptly called “Tales of Nothing to Say.”
It’s interesting how taking action can silence the voice that tries to derail you. I didn’t need to feel inspired to write or to change my thinking. I needed to start, even if it was messy.
This begs the question: What are you feeding your mind?
If you’re constantly consuming content – news, social media, emails, texts, or your own unhelpful thoughts – it can feel like mental snacking all day long. No wonder your brain feels bloated and burned out.
I’ll repeat it: Mental nutrition isn’t only about positive thinking. It’s also about intentional consumption. Ask yourself:
• What am I reading, watching, and listening to?
• How do I feel after spending time with this person or reading this post?
• What am I telling myself after a tough day?
Mental nourishment might look like:
• Reading something inspiring before bed.
• Journaling about what’s working instead of what’s not.
• Calling a friend.
Final Thoughts
You can’t control everything that happens to you, but you can influence how you respond. You can decide what thoughts you feed. You can shift your mental menu toward something more nourishing.
Here’s one more exercise you can try today:
• Name one unhelpful thought you’ve been repeating.
• Replace it with something kind and helpful.
• Rinse and repeat. Again. And again.
I’m going to take some artistic liberty to amend Timer’s song: “You are what you think from your head down to your feet.”
So, what are you feeding your mind today?
