The art of eating mindfully

Eating is an activity we perform everyday, and it often becomes a habit we follow as if we were on automatic pilot. Many of us eat while watching TV, staring at our phones, or just lost in thoughts about our work and any other concerns. Those eating habits, along with high stress levels can be the main responsible of accumulating weight and developing obesity.

I would like to invite you to change bad eating habits, and transform eating moments into an opportunity to practice mindfulness and focus on that present moment. This can have a big impact on your diet and on your weight if practiced daily. Mindfulness as a daily practice can help us to develop a much healthier relation to our body and to the food we use to nourish it.

Eating mindfully – an exercise

From this new perspective, eating becomes a wonderful opportunity to feel and explore the present moment, to plant new seeds for the practice of mindfulness and the development of insight and wisdom. As you see the food that is in front of you, you recognize the infinity of elements that are involved in the existence of that meal. Not only it is the generosity of the earth, the sun and the water, but also all the men and women who worked hard to plant, grow, harvest, transport and produce that food. You recognize that without the existence and the labor of all those people, that plate of food would not be there in front you. Looking deeper at every piece you eat, you recognize that everything was made possible thanks to an ecosystem of living beings ranging from bacteria, insects, plants and other animals. While enjoying the taste of every flavor, and the joy of feeling alive, you clearly see that you are composed of all that food that you have been eating since you started to get nutriments and milk from your mother and until your present meal. You see that you and this food are very alike. While eating, you are merging yourself with the process of transformation continuously happening in the universe, and you feel how deeply you are part of it.

Mindful eating is an act of love

As you put the food in your mouth, your goal is not only to stay alive, but also to enhance your health and your energy. This is an act of kindness and love toward yourself. Your mind and your body need different nutrients to be healthy and balanced. From this perspective, you do not want to take poison by your own hands and put it into your body.
Being mindful about your breath while you are eating is very helpful and beneficial. As you eat, you can take the time to breathe in and observe that you are alive, then breathe out and think how wonderful this is.
When you introduce this mindful practice in your routine, you will not accept to poison yourself anymore. You will be much more aware about the taste of things and about their effects on your body and your mind. You will start to eliminate the bad food, and eat much healthier. You will also start to observe when you are overeating, and stop eating what is excessive and harmful.