September 15, 2013

Mindful Eating: A Taste of Mindfulness

Mindah-Lee Kumar Uncategorized be mindful, eating mindfully, guided mindfulness meditation, Jon Kabat-Zinn, mindful, mindful eating, mindful eating exercise, mindful eating meditation, Mindful Eating Mindful Life, mindful eating script, mindful eating tips, mindful living, mindfulness, mindfulness eating, mindfulness eating exercise, mindfulness exercises, mindfulness for beginners, mindfulness for dummies, mindfulness meditation, mindfulness techniques, mindfulness training, mindless eating, raisin exercise, savor, savor mindful eating, savor mindful eating mindful life, Thich Nhat Hanh, what is mindful eating

 
As our lives get busier and more frantic, eating has become an activity that we usually do alongside other activities. Be it watching TV, working, answering emails, or thinking about what we need to do next; rarely do we eat our meals with mindfulness and enjoy the flavors of the food. It’s almost as though we don’t consider eating interesting enough that we need to create further excitement by reading the news, checking Twitter or texting. I’m sure we have all experienced getting to the end of the meal and wondering where it all went, or we wish we could have just one more bite to enjoy the flavor of the food.

Another aspect of mindless eating that we are usually guilty of, is looking forward to the next bite instead of savoring the mouthful that is already in our mouth. We’re thinking about how good the next spoonful will be, or worst still, we’re thinking about the delicious dessert we plan to eat after our delicious meal. And this is something we all experience. Our mind always seems to be looking forward to something better in the future, even if the future is just a spoonful of food away.

Eating without mindfulness is what most of us are doing on a daily basis. We ‘hoover’ in the food to satisfy the hunger pains so we can move onto life’s more important tasks. But the practice of mindfulness teaches us that there is nothing more precious than the present moment, so even eating becomes an activity that is worthy of our undivided attention.
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