“Mindfulness” is a largely used term nowadays, or at least we’ve surely heard of it, but we don’t seem to get its real meaning.
According to the dictionary, this word refers to the mental state achieved by concentrating on the present moment and it’s a technique used to help relax. It’s a way to re-connect the mind to the body and the idea was spread by Zen Buddhism.
Kabat-Zinn’s program in Massachussets (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) shows how this practice has helped people suffering from ansiety, depression, sleep disorders, etc. However, beneficts do not affect only these things, but also, for example, our way of eating.
Some studies have noticed improvements in people who had an eating disorder, were used to overeat and binge eating or had an anxious behaviour towards food. As a matter of fact, no diet can be successful without a change in the individual’s behaviour. By putting the right attention to the food you’re eating, to the moment and to develop awareness, you’ll make great changes to your eating experience. It’s not about obtaining certain results, but mindful eating is like a guide during your path to succeed. If a diet brings beneficts in the short term, this technique acts in the long term.
Keep attention: there are no rules. It’s an individual experience and so everyone establish his personal and different relationship with food, which changes everytime according to what you’re eating.
In the first place, it’s a sensory experience. The right approach is that of a baby tasting foods cyclically for the first time, letting go of judgments or previous experiences to let in the only things that are worth in that right moment.
So how can you start? You could work on these 4 points:
- Mind: am I tasting every single bite?
- Body: how do I feel before and after I eat? full? empty?
- Feelings: how am I feeling towards this food? happy? guilty? disappointed? satisfied?
- Thoughts: what thoughts does this food suggest me? memories? fears? myths?
If you want to know more about it, you could read this: Kabat-Zinn Jon, Full Catastrophe Living, New York, N.Y., Dell Publishing, 1991