eating mindfully

Eating is one of the daily activities where we can benefit greatly by bringing more mindfulness to the process. This is not just a good way to improve our mindfulness, but it's a good way to eat healthily.

When we eat with mindfulness. we're not merely filling our stomach. We are really appreciating the food. Not just the taste, but the fact that this food is nourishing our body. It is keeping us alive. The food is becoming us. It's remarkable if you think about it.

Anyway, to eat mindfully, before actually starting to eat, take a look at the food on your plate. Think about it. Mindfulness is not just about having an empty mind. It can also mean bringing our thoughts onto our current activity. So do this with the food. Think about where the food has come from. Sadly, these days, we are usually quite far removed from the production of the food. Nevertheless, you can imagine where the food was grown. Imagine a farmer harvesting it. Imagine it being transported to the shop where you bought it. Think of all the stages of preparation and packaging, everything that's gone into bringing this food onto your plate. Perhaps someone else has cooked it for you. Or if you have prepared it yourself, just take a moment to remember that. An enormous amount of activity has gone on beforehand, to bring this food to you. So we can be grateful for the food.

And then, as you start to eat, really bring your awareness into your mouth, to the tastes, the smell of the food. Bringing your full awareness to the food as you chew it. And really chew the food well, as if you're squeezing every last gramme of taste out of it.

Eating this way – with our full awareness on the food and the taste and smell of the food – eating this way brings some benefits that you might not expect. Firstly, it will improve your mindfulness, as any of these practises will. Secondly, you will feel more gratitude for the food, and with gratitude that comes associated joy. When we take things for granted, we are really living in a habitual way, and that's a way without gratitude. And without the gratitude, the joy also withers away and dries up. And food can be so delicious, it's natural for us to enjoy it, to feel that joy. And we only do that if we really taste it.

And that's another one of the benefits of this practice of mindfulness. When we eat mindfully, the flavours are so much stronger. You don't need artificial flavour enhancers if you are mindful. Even things that you might normally think have very little taste will suddenly seem to have a lot of taste. They'll be full of flavours. So the food becomes more delicious if we really bring our awareness to the process of eating.

And there are other benefits, too. Bringing this sort of mindfulness, awareness to the food as we eat it, we will naturally want to eat more healthily. For example, if you are eating meat, you will have needed to consider the slaughtering of the animal. In most societies, the slaughter of animals is hidden away, in buildings without windows. It's a terrible process. And most of us ignore it, as if it doesn't happen. But if you are eating meat mindfully, that is part of it. So naturally, if you bring this sort of awareness to eating, you will either become a vegetarian, or at least you'll eat meat where the animals have been treated very well during their life.

And another thing, if you find often that you eat too much, perhaps you are getting obese, or at least a little fatter than you would like, this is the most effective diet: simply to eat mindfully. You want will naturally find yourself eating only what you really need, what is healthy for you, what is healthy for the body.

And actually, this goes not just for eating. This is one of the main reasons why we should live mindfully in general. When we live mindfully, we live in a way that is healthy, not only for ourself, but for others and the environment, too. We don't have to make a big moral case out of it. It's not really driven by ethical thoughts. Just simply being mindful in the moment, this harmonious behaviour comes naturally.

So the most effective diet in the world is to eat mindfully. Give it a try. Enough for now.