Mindful Eating
Until a person employs mindful eating, they are usually unaware just how unconscious or habitual their dietary and eating patterns are. Mindfulness helps us make better food choices but also helps us decide whether or not to eat a particular food at all, how much to eat and when, and very importantly, it allows us to gain the greatest emotional benefit from how and what we eat. Mindful eating involves becoming more aware of the impact's food has on us personally, emotionally and physically. This means becoming more conscious of our food prompts and triggers. While what we do or don’t eat is vital to our health, and those choices require mindfulness, mindful eating is as much or more about the why and the how of our eating, than it is the what. With deep Buddhist roots, eating mindfully isn’t a new concept. It can even help treat eating disorders, anxiety and depression. Eating mindfully helps you create a healthier relationship with food, one with a deeper appreciation for your body, well-being, health and happiness. Mindful eating is not a diet; it’s a gradual change of lifestyle. Simply putting more emphasis toward the appreciation and respect for food and wholly enjoying your meals on a daily basis will create a shift toward mindful eating. Everything else will fall into place with very little effort.
Although mindful eating is very holistic and all-encompassing, as far as our relationship to our eating, many people, especially when first involving themselves in mindful eating, concentrate their mindfulness on their mealtimes. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this approach, and nothing trains a person's mindfulness better than truly and honestly focusing on fully experiencing a dining event. This entails conscious thought and bringing in as many senses as possible to the experience. Even something as simple as a cup of coffee can be more abundantly experienced. How many times have you guzzled a coffee at work, yet shortly after, can't remember the taste, let alone any of the other nuances that could have made it more enjoyable. Consider, that taking a moment to hit the mindfulness switch before consuming could add so much to a simple coffee, by reflecting not only on taste, texture, temperature and other aspects of the beverage, but how it makes you feel, during and afterwards, physically and emotionally. In doing so, you will find that rather than rushing for another cup, you will savor the emotional aftertaste for much longer.