How can you rediscover the wonder of food?
By Carol Nader
For those of us – lucky people – who never had to starve, having food on our plate can be a pretty basic, if not insignificant experience. Indeed, we all too often forget to be mindful about what we eat and grateful that we actually have something to eat. Yet mindfulness and gratefulness considerably enhance the experience of eating and we’d be crazy to pass that up.
Next time you’re having a meal, use your eyes to start noticing the colors and shapes of your food, then think about how it got here. The first round of gratitude should go to Mother Nature, who provided rain for watering and sunshine for ripening. The second round should go to the people who harvested the food, transported it and sold it in markets, grocery stores or else. Ultimately, the final round of gratitude should go to the person who peeled, cut, cooked and served the meal.
Once you realize the journey it took for a seed to get to your mouth, focus on the aromas and textures that make every single meal so special and different. Don’t forget to be grateful for the opportunity to choose your meals, as food diversity is something many cannot afford.
This level of awareness gets you in a meditative state and suddenly makes you feel much better. You then tend to eat more slowly, focusing on quality and diversity rather than quantity, and hence end up diminishing your food intake. It also allows you to select your ingredients more carefully by trying to avoid chemicals, pesticides and anything imprinted with human or animal suffering.
If you wish to be consistent with this practice, choose one meal – breakfast for instance – and turn off all electronic devices so you can direct your full attention to what you eat. Try to do this every day for at least three weeks until it becomes second nature to you. Once you notice that pleasure prevails over hunger and thirst, congratulate yourself: you’ve just mastered practicing mindfulness with food!
Oh… and there’s one last thing you can do: say a little prayer for those who may not be as lucky as you.
Carol Nader is a Life therapist based in Lebanon. You can reach her via email on: carol.nader@hotmail.com.
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