Day 7 - Today. Eat. Slower. In. Silence - 30 Days Mindfulness Challenge
Since we're right around Christmas and New Year's Eve, a time when many of us have difficulties saying "enough" when it comes to food, I trust today's exercise will help you take back control over how (much) you eat.
At least once. And I hope you'll experience at least one mindful meal before the end of 2016.
So...
What's this slow eating about?
Turns out it has many more implications than helping us become more mindful.
During my research on the topic I've found at least two interesting resources.
The first one is the Slow Food Manifesto:
“To be worthy of the name, Homo Sapiens should rid himself of speed before it reduces him to a species in danger of extinction. A firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life.” - The Slow Food Manifesto
I've discovered there is a whole movement embraced by the people who share values like slowing down, eating mindfully, respecting themselves and planet Earth by making conscious choices when it comes to food.
The second resource is an article on Zen Habits where Leo Babauta shares 5 Powerful Reasons to Eat Slower.
Here they are briefly, you can read the whole article on ZenHabits.
Lose weight
Enjoy your food
Better digestion
Less stress
Rebel against fast food and fast life
Anyhoo, enough introduction, I hope you're conviced by now to try this out.
Day 7 - Today eat slower, in silence
Step#1: prepare yourself for success.
This means put away your phone, your laptop, tablet whatever technical device that might distract you. Also, if you are eating with someone, agree to not talk while eating. You'll survive, trust me! :)
Step #2: use your eyes and nose
Take a few seconds to enjoy your food with your eyes and nose before digging in. Really look into your plate, be curious and delighted about what you see and smell.
Step #3: take smaller bites and chew a longer time than usual.
Notice the different tastes and textures that mix in your mouth while you chew. Take a few seconds before going for the next bite. And continue like this until you finish. Bon appétit! 🙂
That was it on today's exercise.
All this talking about eating got me hungry.
I'm gonna practice my slow eating while having dinner, which I hope will be ready soon.
See you tomorrow!
Photo source Unsplash
I'm a psychologist, intuitive coach, blogger and vlogger. You can find me mainly on my blog at Being Raluca where I write about communication, relationships, listening and sexuality. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @raluca.
Nice advice. I'm actually trying to eat slower, but I manage to do it only from time to time :).
I don't know why I'm always eating in a hurry.
I'm with you @sstefan. I remember while I was in kindergarden that we were suppose to eat very fast because we only had like 10-15 minutes to eat. Although I didn't spend too much time in there it was enough to condition me for years to eat fast. When I remembered this it helped me become more conscious about the real reasons for my fast eating. Hope this helps you discover yours.
I also fall back into the hurried eating often, but then I remember and slow down, and so on. In time I'm hoping I will get more slow eating than hurried :)
So nice, slow it down. Tis supposedly a good idea to also lay on your left side for 15 minutes to let the body do it's thing. Cheers.
I didn't now about laying down on the left side after eating, thanks for the tip.
Yes we did this in the mindfulness course I took with a small piece of chocolate. It was amazing. I even wrote on here about it if you are interested: https://steemit.com/food/@hopehuggs/how-to-eat-chocolate-so-you-enjoy-it-10-times-more