Mindful Eating
The art of remaining present while savouring meals and how does that impact your health
Mindful eating
by Fabiana Porto
www.therawyogini.com
Mindfulness begins when you recognise your tendency to react towards life as an automatic response and make a commitment to stepping out of it in order to be present. As you practice becoming more aware of your body, you'll notice the strength your mental and emotional habits and realise that this simple shift to mindfulness can be very rewarding.
Your perception is magnifed when you recognise the present moment and you tend to enjoy more what you are doing. Allowing your mind to observe what your body is doing in each moment will immediately slow you down and bring you more into the quality of 'being' . When you adopt a mindfulness approach to each moment you are living you bring many positive changes to you and surrounds and will start to feel nourished from head to heart!
Food has been always associated to pleasure and /or energy requirements but eating consciously and mindfully is almost never mentioned...When you eat consciously you devote your time for that meal, you devote your attention to what you are eating and you start to realise that there is much more there than just taste but also colours, shapes, fragrances, textures, noises, consistency etc! Your state of awareness tends to amplify and you get to satisfy your body a lot more than usual. The absorption of nutrients is optimised and the appreciation for food becomes a ritual. Give it a try and choose one meal a day that you can do 100% consciously. You will be amazed with the difference it makes in your appetite and will possibly even lose weight!
When you eat fast chewing gets completed in seconds and your satiety seems to be never reached. Its not just inadequate for your body and digestive system in general but also quite detrimental to your soul nourishment. When we eat in a hurry we are most likely to have digestive issues such as bloating, heartburn, gas, burping, pain and end up not absorbing nutrients properly. Not to say that we can also trigger more psychological imbalances due to the 'endless emptiness'. Food digestion starts in your mouth while you are still looking at your favourite food or sensing the smell of it and fnishes in your bowels when there is a selection of what will be excreted from your body and what will be absorbed as nutrient. Enzymes in your saliva straight away start the breakdown of food as soon as it gets into your tongue so its quite important to allow time enough in your body to complete this whole nourishing process otherwise steps might be ignored and you won't get what you expect from your meals feeling unsatisfed and often in need of something else. Mindfulness is about making what you are doing right now the most important thing in the world!! So why not start from your food as it is probably your main energy source?
“ Consciousness is the primary force in the universe. Consciousness gives rise to thought. Thoughts give rise to action. All change begins with awareness – awareness of the current situation, awareness of the potential for something greater, and awareness of the unlimited creativity that exists within each of us to catalyze the transformation we want to see for ourselves and for the generations to follow.” D. Chopra
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