Do You Mind?

Eating is something we do so often that we take it for granted. It is habituated, automated. We eat while we work, talk, think, and worry. Yet considering that eating is essential and vital nourishment for the body, our greatest asset, might we want to pay more attention?

You are what you eat, and how you eat it. The practice of mindful eating improves your relationship with food, and therefore, with yourself! Bringing mindfulness and awareness to the table can transform your every bite, and your very being.

Here’s how: EAT. While you do, pay attention to your immediate experience. Engage with your food. Appreciate the texture, appearance, color, smell, and taste. Notice your chewing and swallowing. Your mental position should be curious, open, and accepting of thoughts, feelings, sensations, and urges. Create an internal space that is non-reactive, non-judging, not attached, not clinging, not avoiding. In short, don’t tamper with your experience. Observe the interaction. As you sit with yourself in this frame of mind, you will begin to get the picture.

What do you notice?

Patterns of behavior.
• What you choose to eat. How fast you are eating. How much you are eating. If you always clean your plate. If you are eating out of hunger or habit.

Patterns of thought and feeling.
• Rules/Mindgames with your food. Eating to avoid or soothe emotions. Guilt, craving, and desire, and denial.

The more healthy attention you pay to eating, the healthier your eating will become. Non-judgmental awareness brings patterns that have been operating in shadow out into the open… and from there, you can let them go. Allow eating to become the source of joy it is meant to be. You can make a formal reservation for yourself and eat mindfully in specific times and places, or you can practice mindful eating whenever and wherever you find yourself.

Tips.

One way to trick your brain into attention is to approach your food in a new or unusual way. Eat with chopsticks or your non-dominant hand, or chew a specific number of times.

Make your food last at least twenty minutes (slowing down helps identify patterns, and gives you more choices).

Notice your portion and plate size. Compare the amount of food on your plate to the amount of room in your stomach.

No Multi-tasking! If you’re eating, eat. Give the food your full attention.

Awareness is a powerful tool for change. Keep it sharp.

Check out Mindfulness at UCSD!