Reinventing Mindful Eating: Eating is an inevitable activity of everyday life. There was a time when this activity was carried on with utmost mindfulness, i.e. prayers were offered before beginning the meals, and after ending the meals slokas like Annapoorne Sada Poorne, Shankara Prana Vallabhe, Trayam were recited. Offering supplication (Du’ä) by Islam followers during the meal, Tibetans offering prayer called chamchoe before drinking tea, and prayers called damchoe before eating food all helped in mindful eating. Why am I speaking about all these things? Because this is the high time that most of us, especially youngsters, start to mind our eating. As many of us stuff our mouth with junk food. And fast food on daily basis and end up getting overweight and unhealthy and addicted to snacks. Packed foods, oily items and would mindlessly and emotionally overeat. So it’s high time to make a big change, learn to pay attention, to what we eat, and how we eat. So let’s reinvent Mindful Eating.
What is Mindful Eating?
What is Mindfulness? Mindfulness put simply as the word states, means that the mind is fully involved in what one is doing. Thus mindful eating is paying attention to eating process, consciously putting the food in our mouth, tasting it, noticing the thoughts, feelings and sensations.
Now many of you reading this article may say that it’s foolish to pay attention to an almost everyday activity of eating. I am busy in my clinic, I am stuck finishing my project, I don’t have time to eat, and so on. But you will not deny it when you glance through the benefit of Mindful Eating. So let’s glance through a handful of benefits of mindful eating to our mind and body by practising mindful eating.
Mindful eating:
- Eat when we’re hungry and stop when satiated.
- Chew properly and taste the healthy food.
- Realize that healthy food is tastier than unhealthy food contrary to what one thought.
- Stop overeating and under eating.
- Stop emotional overeating i.e. eating in excess, eating junk food when stressed, upset, at any time, even at midnight.
- Put a brake on social overeating like in social occasions, buffets etc.
- How food affects our mind and body.
- Enjoy eating food and look forward to the eating ritual than just thinking of it as an inevitable act.
- How food affects our mood and energy throughout the day.
Come let’s eat mindfully and enjoy our eating!
Renuka Rajashekhar
Consultant Clinical Psychologist
Cadabams Group
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