Take Your Time: Mindful Eating

When was the last time you enjoyed a meal largely in silence, paying attention to what you were eating, savoring every nuance of the food, contemplating its origins and complexities and your reasons for consuming it? I'm guessing not recently, if at all. The fast pace of modern life has all of us mindlessly hurrying through our mealtimes with no time to enjoy the moment, our food, and our lives. It's definitely time for mindful eating. Mindfulness is not a new concept; it has been a basic tenet of Buddhist thought and practice for millennia. But the specific application of it to eating is garnering a great deal of attention these days, as people seek ways to counteract the relentless tempo of our media -- and app-saturated daily grind. Spa retreats are incorporating it into their relaxation offerings; the NIH are funding studies into the effects of mindful dining on eating disorders; local health food markets are offering helpful seminars on the shopping aspects of mindful eating. Essentially, mindfulness in eating is about looking inward and outward in your relationship with food. Internally, it is about being aware of how you feel about food, in the moment and in context; it is meditating upon the sources of your food and the effects of its production; it is being sure you are hungry before you eat. Externally, it is focusing on the sensory effects of your food; it is appreciating the textures and colors and aromas and flavors that you are experiencing; it is slowing down...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news