So often we are mindless eaters. We stuff food into our faces while working on the computer, watching TV, or on our way out the door. Yet, the true pleasure of eating lies in slowing down and fully experiencing all elements of food. I’d like to invite you on an exploration of the above two concepts for one meal. Do it by yourself, or with another person; you may feel silly but I encourage you to stick with it - it has the power to change the way you eat permanently.

The Mindful Eating Exercise
1. Find a comfortable seat for you and your meal. Whatever your meal is, study it as if you are a scientist from a distant galaxy who just landed on earth and have never before seen this food. Study it carefully without naming it. Ponder, for a moment, the water, the rain, and the sunlight that went into its creation. The storms, sunny days, and dark nights this food endured. Appreciate the hard work on behalf of all the people involved to get this food before you. Maybe you feel some gratitude. Some appreciation. Some hunger? Ok, ok – just feel.

2. Bring the food up to your nose. Experience the scent, without trying to name it – just describe it to yourself. Now bring your focus into your mouth – realize the physiological reaction that is starting to happen as your body responds to the visual and olfactory (that’s scent) triggers you’ve given it. Begin to notice if saliva is being produced, even though you haven’t put anything to your mouth. Who says that mind and body are not related? Your senses are responding to the anticipation that something will be eaten. Enjoy exploring your body’s reaction before you actually chomp on anything.

3. Touch your food, experience its texture. Again, without naming the feeling, just experience it. When you are ready, bring the food to your mouth. How is it that your hand knows how to get the food to your lips, without going past the face altogether? Experience how simple but miraculously intuitive the act of eating is. Zen mind, beginner’s mind… be playful with this. Be wonderous.

4. Bring the food to your lips, and notice how the mouth receives the food –nothing goes into the mouth without being received. What is doing the receiving? The tongue! How does it get the food between the teeth? Start to bite the food slowly, and begin to chew. Appreciate the activity that unfolds to get this food chewed in the mouth. What’s happening? Invariably, there’s an explosion of taste – what is it? Is it sweet, sour, juicy? There are hundreds of words to use for taste, but try not to use any – just experience the taste sensation, and where on your tongue it’s happening as you slowly chew and enjoy your food.

But don’t swallow that bite yet! Continue to chew. At this point, we generally begin to focus on the next bite, hurriedly swallowing the first. Instead, continue to chew your food until the texture becomes adversive and your body decides it’s time to swallow and move on. This could include 50 or so chews!

5. Finally, before moving on, stop and take a breath. Remember, you have all the time in the world. Take a nice long breath through your nose, breathing into the depths of your belly. Then, drop into silence. By this point, you understand something of what meditation is – you’ve been doing a sort of food meditation if you’ve followed this exploration: meditation is doing what we do all the time, except with directed, moment-to-moment, non-judgmental attention. Reflect for a moment on that bite, and when you’re ready, move on. Remember, we’re programmed to move quickly through things. Really try to keep your attention on the moment, and on keeping slow.

This may have tried your patience, but if you’ve given it a good effort, I’m sure you learned something, if you didn’t have one of the more satisfying meals ever. I’d love to know what you think, please leave us a note. Even if you can’t do it all, just experiencing some degree of mindfulness is good practice.