Questions You Can Ask to Bring Mindful Eating into Your Life

This weekend I worked with two questions in regards integrating mindful eating into my life—an area where I've made huge progress but also still have much healing and awakening.

The first question was, when feelings of "hunger" arose was simply, "Am I really hungry?"  Rather than being reactive, non-aware, and assuming that feelings and thoughts and images that might arise were, or are, ipso factor, real physical hunger, I resolved to look into that arising.  I stopped, and looked into it.  What did I feel? Where did I feel it? Was this feeling I was calling "hunger" in my stomach?  Was it in my mouth?  Was it in my throat? If I stopped and just sat with what was arising, under my full, compassionate attention, did the feeling stand up as being a physical need—actual physical hunger?  (If one has become out of touch with what genuine hunger feels like, then compassionately but courageously looking into the reasons and motives for that can be extremely helpful—indeed, necessary—in bringing eating and the body back into balance.)

Interestingly, of course, I saw that sometimes I was in fact hungry, with a physical hunger, or need arising out of the body's biological needs.   But more often, the hunger was seen to be, with mindful attention, something else entirely—an emotional thing, a feeling, a craving, an emptiness, that had little if anything to do with what actual physical hunger feels like.

Then, my second question was this: "What do I need to do to take care of myself?"  If I really did need food, then I would seek out food, but mindfully, and with awareness of what was going on with the food choices, and mindfulness of when I was actually full from eating, giving my body time to register the food and send the signals to my brain that I was satiated.  (Science tells me that this chemical signal is not instant but takes at least 10-15 minutes from the time you start eating; which is why it can be easy to over eat if you are not also listening to how full your stomach feels and what feels "just right.")  I also often found that the "hunger" was really thirst and that what drinking some water or having some green tea was just what I needed.

If, on asking,"What do I need to take care of myself?" I see that food is not what I really want, or need, then I stopped and looked into what the craving was all about. What did I really need?  Often I would find that I was very tense, and that a "habit energy" (a term my teacher Thich Nhat Hanh often uses) of eating to get rid of stress and attention had arisen.  The seeming "hunger" was in fact a call to take care of some "crying baby" in my feelings or emotions that needed my attention.  It was clear that eating food to quell the emotional need, or stress, was a big mistake, bad for my general health, and did not feed the "crying baby" but rather only made it more ravenous and frustrated.  (In my case, I know that this is how binge eating has arisen in the past.)

In any even, the point of "What is it that I really need" is to stop the causal chain of action and reaction and to become aware of what's arising and the causes and conditions that led to that arising (insofar as you can see that with even a little attention.)  Sometimes I found that what I really needed was to stop and take a short walk, and just relax, and let go. At other times, I sensed what I needed to do was to take care of something I had been avoiding, instead of eating to narcotize my stress and anxiety.  And so on.

The important thing in all of this was to *stop* and become mindful of the causal chain one was caught up in when the feeling of "hunger" arose and to look into that arising.  That skillful response to hunger helps bring balance into one's life by helping one to get rid of the mental and emotional toxins that lead to addiction and loss of self presence.  (In my experience, emotional hunger and needfulness tend to arise out of a lack of being present for oneself; when we lose track of ourselves and don't show up for our own life, so to speak, we tend to be swept along by powerful emotional and mental forces that are, in fact and according to the buddhadharma, not-self.)

I hope what I've shared has been helpful.  For most of us, eating and self-nurture are tied to very powerful feeling and memories, good and bad. Mindfulness is a powerful tool for awakening, and it all begins when we stop and pay attention to what is really going on.

Asking skillful questions like "Am I really hungry" and "What is it that I really need?" can further our investigation into what's happening and what's going on below the surface of things.  Mindfulness and skillful means illuminate the road to freedom and foster a genuine self-control that is the result of letting go of thoughts, feelings, and actions that are, in fact, not-self, but merely transient self-fabrications.

For more in-depth dharma articles and instruction, visit: METTA REFUGE

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What Is Your Mind Feeding On?

"If you're observing the precepts, practicing concentration, and developing discernment into what the mind needs to feed on, what it doesn’t need to feed on, what kind of feeding is good for it, what kind of feeding is bad for it, and then feed it in such a way that ultimately it gets so strong that it doesn’t have to feed any more, it can let go. And at that point an entirely new dimension opens up in the mind that you couldn’t have even conceived before.

That’s ultimately where the practice leads. It takes this mind—which is feeding on the body, feeding on feelings, perceptions, thought constructs, and consciousness—and tells it that there are better things to feed on. If you feed on these things, you’re going to be really sorry because your food source is going to run out on you very quickly. It’s going to keep changing—and with that sense of uncertainty and instability in life, how can the mind find any sense of well-being? At the same time it turns out that a lot of that food is junk food, which keeps you weak and unhealthy. So you teach the mind better ways to feed through the practice until the path finally issues in a point where the mind is at total equilibrium, doesn’t need to feed anymore, and you can let go.

So that’s where we’re headed. As the Buddha said, the only things he teaches are suffering or stress and then the end of suffering. That may seem like a narrow ideal. What about helping humankind and all the other great issues? He said to straighten out your own mind first and when that’s straightened out, when you’re really free, the type of help you can then give to people is the best kind of help.

There’s no hidden feeding agenda, no hidden need to feed on the sense of pride that comes from being a very helpful or very important person, which can actually spoil the help, spoil the compassion. You’re operating from a sense of compassion that comes from total freedom, total independence—which is ultimately the only compassion you can really trust."

Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Excerpt from "New Feeding Habits for the Mind" (click to download)

For more in-depth dharma articles and instruction, visit:  METTA REFUGE

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If You Overeat, Take a Look at “Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life”

If, like most of us, you’ve struggled with overeating, then the practice of mindful eating can be a huge help. In Buddhist practice, full attention and awareness of the thoughts, sensations, feelings, and emotions that arise in the physical act of eating are highly important.

Perhaps the most comprehensive treatment of mindfulness and eating in print is this new book by Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh:

Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life

 Written with nutritionist Dr. Lilian Cheung, Savor is handbook for not only changing the way one eats, but one’s whole outlook on food and life. As the Booklist review states:

“So essential to healthy eating is a healthy perspective that Zen Buddhist master and prolific author Nhat Hanh joins forces with nutritionist Cheung for a truly holistic approach. The duo pairs the latest nutritional information with the age-old Buddhist practice of mindfulness—that is, of being fully aware of all that is going on within ourselves and all that is happening around us—to draw attention to what and how we eat. 

Guidance is offered for recognizing what barriers—physical, psychological, cultural, and environmental—prevent us from controlling our weight, and readers are encouraged to savor food in order to fully nourish both the body and the mind. To that end, Nhat Hanh provides guided meditations on everything from eating an apple to coping with stressful situations, along with advice on selecting and preparing food, staying active, and avoiding self-criticism. Complete with a discussion of why healthy eating is also good for the environment, this is a uniquely insightful and positive program for wellness: a book of tested wisdom; practical action; and intellectual, emotional, and spiritual nutriments.“

I’m in the midst of reading Savor and can’t recommend it enough. Even if overeating is not a big problem for you, the compassionate wisdom you’ll find in this book can revolutionize and transform your life. Highly recommended!

For more in-depth dharma articles and instruction, visit:  METTA REFUGE

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