“Om… Annapurne sadapurne… Om saha navavatu…”

It is the beginning of the prayers we sing every day, 3 times. Before breakfast, lunch and dinner, we say these prayers out loud together. It makes us aware that it is not so common to have food on your plate. In our case: it has peeled, squashed, cooked and served for us. How lovely is that? Why not be thankful for that?

Mindful eating

Do you take a moment before having your first bite? To be conscious what’s before you? How it gets there (thank at least yourself), how it was manifested (through sun, rain, care), how many people were involved to make this happen (Picnic, Crisp, family members, farmers,…).

In the mindfulness training there is an exercise of ‘exploring a raisin’. It might sounds dull now, but doing it? You will get a totally new experience of tasting this little piece of dried fruit… The homework that comes next is: be conscious of your first bite of every meal. I thought, when I got my first mindfulness training in 2012, super easy! 12 years later, it is still very seldom I am conscious at that VERY FIRST bite. Hilarious. I dare you!

One thing is true: this is perfect to lose some kilo’s if this is something you want. Because you eat more conscious and slower, the body is signalling earlier the ‘I am full’ hormone.

Tongue tickling

Yeah, maybe here, at the ashram I am aware of what I eat. Less distraction. No laptop in front of me. I didn’t bring my phone to the table (some of us do). We eat in silence. I like that. So lovely, to really taste what you are eating. The meals are straight after meditation. Because in the meditation we recharge the chakra’s -hence the senses- so much, the taste and smell are way better. And, of course this exotic food is difference from home: the spices are tickling my tongue a lot.

So in stead of being distracted by the outside world, even eating becomes a meditation and I turn my attention inward. Smell, taste, chew and swallow the food and feel the effect of the warm veggies nurturing my body. Yummy! And the prayer makes me more conscious of myself. We are not praying towards a God or Goddess, but it’s a reminder of what the deity stands for and mirrors in us.

I witnessed before that my ego can be a bit hasty, eating to greedy, wanting to have another plate. The pace here is really slower than I am used to… So also the ego is unwinding of its quick nature. The question came up: Why do I eat? For pleasure or really nourishing the body?

Why do you eat? And, when you eat, are you conscious of the sensations in the mouth and eve what’s happening in the thought space?

Nice practice this week: during one meal, eat consciously or be super conscious of the very first bite you eat of your meal. I would love to read your experiences about that exercise 😊 Enjoy!

26 mei geef ik een Stiltedag in de mooie Meditatietuin in het Amstelpark in Amsterdam! Van 13.00-18.00 uur kun je je onderdompelen in mindfulness meditaties die we liggend, zittend, staand en lopend zullen beoefenen. Verder... mindfulness yoga en een eetmeditatie zijn onderdeel van de middag. Gun jezelf te onthaasten en gewoon te zijn. Je hoeft geen ervaring te hebben met mindfulness of meditatie.