The concept of Mindful eating can be critical to our health. In our daily activities, we never pay enough attention to what we are doing at every moment. Most of the times our mind is busy with a flow of thoughts while the activities we do are being done in autopilot mode. The autopilot mode of activities occupies the majority of our mundane functions. We do many different things without really being present when we do them.
Eating is not the exception.
If we reflect back, we will realize that when we have our meals we are thinking about anything but the food we are eating however, we never look at the food we are eating very well. We often do not pay particular attention to its smell or different flavours. In fact, if we became aware of our food we would notice that there are so many qualities to our foods like the colours, scent, temperature, texture or size. These characteristics go unnoticed when we eat them in autopilot mode.
Not paying attention to the food we eat, or not eating mindfully has many problems. First of all, we seldom enjoy the experience of eating to the full extent. Our food can give us more pleasure than what we are experiencing if we gather our senses and become AWARE of the EXPERIENCE of eating.
On the other hand, when we bring our awareness to the experience of eating, we tend to eat slower. We may end up making better food choices when we start paying attention to the experience.
Eating slowler and being fully present at the time of eating would enhance our eating experience and give us more pleasure from choosing healthier foods. This would lead into better health in time. We can enjoy our food more while gaining more health benefits from them. People who practice the mindful eating tend to gain less weight and can LOSE WEIGHT easier over time. There is a delay of time between when we start eating and when our brain gives the signal of not being hungry any more. Too often we eat faster than the circuit of this process.
Eating mindfully teaches us to give enough time to enjoy every bite of our food and give enough time for this process to do its natural work. We would end up enjoying our meals more and feel full faster with this MINDFUL EATING.
TRY IT NEXT TIME YOU EAT.
