Mindful Eating & Eating Mindfully ...

Following my previous entry around 'Mindfulness' ... here are some thoughts about carrying mindfulness into our eating and hunger ...

Out of touch with our appetites?

As human beings, we need food to ensure our ongoing existence.  But how many of us actually eat purely in response to our body’s physiological hunger?

In our Western society, food and eating have come to have many more meanings than just sustenance and survival.  We use food as a treat, as a reward, as a celebration, as part of an event shared with others, and for many more reasons.

But at these times … what are we really using food for?  What purpose is it serving for us on these occasions?  And just how did food come to be filled with such a   myriad of meanings?

Hunger

As human beings, we experience a physiological hunger; our body’s way of telling us when we need to eat & provide ourselves and our bodies with energy.

Many people though, appear to have lost touch with this physiological hunger and are no longer aware of their body’s physical needs.

As human beings, we also experience a number of other hungers … for love, for affection, for excitement, for growth, for belonging, and many others …

Often, these emotional hungers get confused with our physiological hunger and this can lead people down the path of using food in an attempt to satisfy these other hungers.  Hungers which can't truly be satisfied by food.

Mindful eating

Mindful eating gives us all the opportunity to pay attention to our hungers, and to become more aware of how, and when we use food.

A good starting point is to take a couple of moments to focus on noticing feelings of emptiness or fullness within your body.  Where, and how, do you experience these?  Where, and how do these change as you eat?

Before you decide to eat anything, ask yourself; “Am I hungry?”  “What am I  hungry for?”  “Is it my body that’s hungry or my soul?”  Too many people get caught up in trying to satisfy emotional hunger via food.  Food can never fill those emotional needs and hungers in our hearts and souls.

How do you know when you’ve eaten enough?  What happens in your body or mind to tell you to stop eating?  Often, we eat whilst doing other things and so aren't fully concentrating on our body’s hunger  or satiety messages.  This is where disconnection to hunger needs can begin.

To maintain a healthy weight, all we have to is eat in response to our body’s physiological needs 

…. Eat when we’re hungry, & stop when we’re satisfied … but it’s not always that easy is it?!