Mindful Eating: Some years ago, when I was participating in a Zen Training period at a Catskill, NY Zen Monastery, I had noticed that a number of the resident monks would eat with their eyes closed in the dining hall. So, I tried it. I immediately discovered how radically it changed the experience of eating. When the eyes are closed, we actually can pay attention to what we are eating. Worlds of flavor cascaded forth and I found myself eating much more slowly and deliberately without any conscious intent to do so. And when one eats slower, one tends to eat less since one can more easily feel fulfilled. Now contrast this with the idea of “fast food”. What that suggests is mindless eating. And that is often how we eat….mindlessly. So the trick is to learn to pay attention.
Mindful eating – the Raisin meditation
But this should not just be limited to the period of eating, but also to the feelings that lead up to the ingestion of food. So we need to be awake to the feelings that compel us to eat. We need to be aware of why we are feeling the desire to eat. Is it truly hunger (biological need)? Or is it an uncomfortable emotion? Is it external cues…time of day, presence of food, a TV commercial depicting food?
Very often, habitual eating is the result out of a reflexive desire to escape from or avoid some form of emotional pain or discomfort. We eat to escape/avoid loneliness, emotional emptiness, anxiety, fear, boredom and shame. When eating to erase pain, we will be barely paying attention to the food we are eating. So the antidote to mindless eating is quite obviously to learn to become awake to the experience of eating and the circumstances/feelings that promote eating.
1)Prior to non-meal eating, ask yourself to delay the impulse for three minutes. During that time label the feelings that you are experiencing. if possible write them down.
2) Focus as intently as possible on the feelings you are experiencing. Actually bring your mind to bear as cogently as you can into the area in your body where the discomfort emanates from. If you feel sadness in your chest, really focus there. If there is emptiness in your abdamon, let your attention dwell there. watch carefully as other thoughts, images, feelings arise out of those feelings/places. Just continue to watch and experience without any notions of control. Just watch.
3) Take some time to contemplate all the actions, efforts, labor and sacrifice involved in bringing food to your plate. Recognize that the food on your plate is the final stage of a very long and complex chain of events. Think about the animals/plants you are about to eat. Where they were raised or grown. Who was involved in their growth and cultivation. The people involved in the harvesting, shipping, processing, packaging, transport, stocking and sale of the food. In other words eat with a sense of gratitude and reverence for all the people and things involved in the process.
3)When you do eat, eat like a gourmet, tasting the food as if for the first time. Carefully observe the tastes and sensations on your tongue. Smell the food. Notice the colors, textures and everything about the food using as much of your sensorium as you can bring to bear.
4) Make eating as “stimulus pure” as possible. So when eating eat. Don’t eat while reading or watching TV. Make eating a meditation.
5) Pay close attention to the emotional as well as sensory experiences that follow the act of eating. Pay attention to the feeling of fulfillment, enjoyment, satiety, guilt, shame or whatever it is that you experience.
6) Raisin meditation (can be any food) – put a raisin on your tongue. Close your eyes and withouht chewing, focus on all the sensations produced by the raisin for one minute. Then for one minute, slowly chew and swallow the raisin. This exercise is adapted from Dr. John Kabat-Zin’s Behavioral Medicine Program.
If eating with your family, talk to them about mindful eating. Maybe start a meal with an acknowledgment to all those involved in bringing food to your table. Perhaps you can lead an exercise of two-minute mindful eating at the outset of the meal.
As always, you are invited to leave comments, observations, personal experiences, anecdotes, or complaints.
2 Comments. Leave new
I have been increasing my mindfulness by writing down what I’m going to eat first. It has greatly changed what I consume. I also find if I wait 30 minutes after choosing my meal, I’m more willing to eat the ‘right’ things than to just chow down! I have so much to learn about being mindful. Thank you for these suggestions.
Sorry for the delay in responding Heidi. Between the holidays and the whole family battling GI bugs, I’ve been out of commission for a bit. Writing is a great tool to facilitate mindfulness. Writing what one eats, whether before, or even after eating, tends to make people eat in a more deliberate and less reflexive fashion as research indicates. Also the idea of building in a delay is very helpful. Even if we just delay the act for a couple of minutes, we are more likely to make more discriminative choices. Thanks for your great input!