First, let’s understand what mindful eating is: Mindful eating is the practice of being present or being aware of your food’s taste, texture, aroma, hunger, fullness, satisfaction and all kinds of feelings and experiences while eating your food.
Most of the people are not mindful while eating their food. They are eating their food and thinking about something else.
You are not eating with mindfulness if you are – talking on the phone or watching videos or doing any other activities while eating. I also used to do that. When I was eating my lunch and dinner, I used to watch videos at the same time. After finishing my lunch, I noticed that I couldn’t even tell how the food tasted. I noticed I ate my food, but I couldn’t remember if I enjoyed my food. I ate food like a robot.
One day I decided to stop watching videos while eating. Then I noticed that even though I had stopped watching videos, but I was still thinking about so many past and future thoughts while eating food. I couldn’t focus on my food. If I bring my attention back to my food, my mind again goes to the thought.
After some days, one day, I made a delicious food dish. Before starting my eating, I have decided to pay full attention to my eating and enjoy my food to the fullest this time. I noticed, in the beginning, I was in the present, and I was enjoying my food; it was really very tasty. But after some time again, my mind went somewhere else.
To bring my mind back to eating, what I did was I started telling myself that “the food is tasty. Wow, the food is very tasty.” When I said these 4 words, “the food is tasty”, I noticed that my attention immediately came back to eating from past and future thoughts. And my mind started focusing deeply on my food and eating. I was saying these four words over and over again in my mind during the time of eating. At that time, I was really able to enjoy my food a lot. These 4 words were helping me to eat with mindfulness.
After this wonderful experience, I made these 4 words my regular eating time mantra. And I saw it works every time. During my eating, if I say those words, my mind immediately becomes so focused on eating. Those words help me not only in mindful eating but also in enjoying my food.
I would like you to try it by yourself and see how wonderfully these 4 words help you in mindful eating.
You will start enjoying your food once you start mindful eating. You will receive all the benefits of mindful eating if you practice mindfulness eating.