Start by watching this short video and then begin to eat. After the practice, write down in your journal your observations.

During the Mindful Eating, what did you notice? What, if anything, surprised you about this practice? Were there elements of this practice that you found challenging, difficult, or easy?

Mindful Eating Practice

In a world of multitasking and fast food, mindless eating is all too common. We have less and less time and ability to stop, stay focused, and get in touch with our inner selves – our thoughts, feelings, and sensations.

Mindful Eating involves paying full attention to the experience of eating and drinking, both inside and outside the body. Food is a powerful sensual experience that engages all our senses. We pay undivided attention to the colours, smells, textures, flavours, temperatures, and even the sounds (crunch) of our food. We become fully engaged in the present moment.

Mindful Eating Benefits:

• Helps to enjoy, appreciate and savour the food
• Supports better digestion and absorption of nutrients. When eating with awareness we tend to chew food more thoroughly, which makes the food easier to digest and allows the body to absorb the nutrients in the food more effectively and efficiently
• Prevents overeating and “food hangovers”. To eat mindfully, we have to eat slowly. Because it takes us longer to eat, the stomach has time to signal our brain when it is actually full, a process which takes about 15 to 20 minutes.

Tip:

When we make Mindful Eating a regular part of our lives, we benefit in many ways. Not only that we do find greater balance and satisfaction with food, we can also discover some of life’s most valuable lessons. We all eat and drink, at least several times per day. This means that no matter what else is happening in our busy lives, we have several chances a day to enter a place of renewal, peace, comfort and nourishment. When we are able to find happiness in the most basic activities of our lives - breathing, walking, eating, drinking, lying down to sleep – we discover the secret of how to be truly happy and at ease in our lives!