Mindful Eating

Theresa read the following passages on mindful eating. Passage one:

How many of us were taught early on in our lives that our inner feelings and sensations were the signals by which our body’s regulation and healing is effected? In modern life in the Western world, the answer to that is “almost no one.” Instead, we were taught to ignore our inner signals in favor of obeying various “outer authorities,’ experts and specialists. Unfortunately, the human organism just doesn’t follow external social standards or arbitrary rules established by someone else’s experience or research. Trying to force your body to meet standards that cause it to be stressed leads to conflict, frustration and disease. It has its own rhythms and standards to follow. It is flexible and adaptable, but it has its limits. If those limits are not respected because you are not listening to its signals then it begins to break down.

If you habitually try to control nature instead of listening to it and cooperating with it, and if you ignore your healthy limits and push beyond them with pills and various regimens of diet, you will be rewarded with an uncomfortable life.

ONE BOWL, Don Gerard

Passage two:

You can adopt better habits only if they honor who you are, your ethnicity, religion, and lifestyle, the climate where you live, the hours you work, and the stage of life you are in. There is a healthy, satisfying way of eating that is natural and realistic for you. The point is to know yourself, respect yourself, and make appropriate choices based on who you are and how you live. When you make alterations that will change your body and your life, they have to be ones that work for you and that honor who you are.

FIT FROM WITHIN, Victoria Moran

Passage three:

When we eat and look deeply into our food, we are in the company of many beings: the plants, animals, and people whose life energy was poured into the food on our plate. Each time we eat we take into our bodies the life energy of countless beings. The food on our plate is the product of the sun, the rain, the earth, the insects who pollinate the plants, and many people, including farmers, truck drivers, and grocers. This energy, which is the product of so many beings, courses through our body, propelled by every beat of our heart. It travels to the farthest cells, to our toenails and to the tips of our hair. These beings become us, our blue or brown eyes, our soft lips, our hard white teeth, our loving heart. This daily miracle of transubstantiation occurs in our own bodies, every day.

MINDFUL EATING, Jan Chozen Bays

Peace...