Most of the time, we eat on autopilot, especially when we’re doing something else at the same time, like talking, walking, or watching TV. We often shovel food down without paying attention, without knowing what we’re putting in our mouths, what it tastes like, or even whether we’re really hungry.
Mindful eating is an extraordinary way to fully harness the power of the present moment. We’ll explore various tools you can incorporate into your daily life to cultivate greater presence and mindfulness, and to help you improve your eating habits. To do this, you’ll learn more about your body and become more attuned to your senses. You’ll develop your own scale to determine whether you’re truly hungry, and ultimately be able to eat less and better.
The Grape Experiment
This exercise helps you develop your awareness of your sensations. Imagine you’ve never seen a grape before; you have no idea what this object might be. Look at it, walk around it—notice its color, shape, and texture. Touch it, smell it. Listen to what your mind says about it; listen to the sounds it makes. Bring it to your lips; notice how your hand instinctively knows exactly how to bring it to your mouth. Place it on your tongue and experience how you can feel it—its presence in your mouth. Hold it between your teeth, and when you’re ready, take a bite. Notice how the flavor fills your mouth, how your brain processes this sensation. Chew, savor it. Eventually, swallow it to follow its journey.
All that for a single little grape…
This way, you can start eating mindfully. You won’t need to eat as much as you used to, and you’ll enjoy your food much more. You can now listen to your body to know when you’ve had enough to eat.
The Hunger Scale
This scale from 0 to 10 helps you determine where you stand. 0 represents the hungriest you can imagine, 5 corresponds to a neutral state of optimal comfort where you feel neither hungry nor “too full,” and 10 represents the fullest you can imagine.
Everyone has their own way of relating to food based on their personal history and experiences. You’ll need to “calibrate” your own scale by practicing BodyScan, which helps you become more present in your body.
The Body Scanner
Take a deep breath. Pay attention to your body. Notice any tension or relaxation, emptiness or fullness. Focus your attention specifically on your abdomen. Feel your breath filling and emptying your belly. If your attention wanders and thoughts cross your mind—which is perfectly normal—simply bring your awareness back to your sensations. Be mindful of whether your stomach feels comfortable or uncomfortable. Accept things as they present themselves to you. Then simply ask yourself if you’re hungry and rate your hunger on the scale. Allow yourself to feel, with curiosity and interest, all the subtlest sensations that are present. Be patient and understanding with yourself; no one can know and experience all these things better than you.
In this method, we’ve explored three tools to use together to practice mindful eating. The “grape exercise” teaches you to use your senses to eat more mindfully. Next, the Body Scan helps you focus on your body and then on your stomach. The hunger scale helps you pay attention to your body’s signals to assess how hungry you are.
With these exercises, you’ll learn to recognize and interpret all the signals your body sends you. This will help you eat more mindfully and develop healthier eating habits.
Of course, all of this will only be fully effective if you also think carefully about what you eat. You may also feel curious enough to take it a step further, to question your own role in this, and to start choosing organic, ethical, or locally sourced products—for your own enjoyment and health, as well as for the sake of our environment.