Posted By: Kristam Moffett Often the most difficult mindfulness exercise for many is to eat with mindfulness or ‘when you’re eating just eat’. So no TV, no social media, no phone, no friends and family, no newspapers just you and your meal! Easier said than done, but there are a few tricks.
1. Prepare your favourite food.
2. Prepare a nice space/table with a napkin
3. Load up your folk and put it down while you chew the food – don’t continue to load up the next mouthful!
4. Chew your food! Digestion begins in the mouth. It’s called mastication and it’s where the food is broken down. We should chew our food 50 times! Try for 20 – even the counting of chews will help you become more mindful.
5. Notice, taste, savour. Attend to the smells and flavours, listen to the sound of eating and drinking (it’s normal to make some noise!)
6. Maybe contemplate how the food got to be on your plate. If someone else made it, appreciating their efforts. If the food is from a far off land appreciating the journey the food has gone on and how many people were involved in delivering the food to you. If it’s local produce thank the farmers and locals who helped produce it.
7. Enjoy your meal.