Things I Did When I Was Hangry by Annie Mahon

Author:Annie Mahon [Mahon, Annie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781937006990
Publisher: Parallax Press

Yoga teacher Judith Lasater, perhaps best known for her promotion of restorative yoga for relaxation, once told a class, “The only emergency is when someone is almost dying. If they are dead already, it’s not an emergency, and if they aren’t almost dying, it’s not an emergency.” Luckily, most of us in the developed world aren’t experiencing those kinds of emergencies, but we often act as though we are. When we take the time to pause, see things in perspective, and enjoy a moment, we allow our brains to absorb positive feelings, to remember what’s right and not just what’s wrong—and to lay the groundwork for even more positive moments. As I have heard several mindfulness teachers say, “Don’t just do something—sit there.”

Given the human negativity bias, we can achieve balance by becoming experts in generating joy. It takes somewhere between twelve and thirty seconds of experiencing a positive state of mind for it to sink in and change our brain chemistry. That’s less time than you might spend sitting at a red light. As Glen Schneider describes in his little book Ten Breaths to Happiness, the time it takes to breathe in and out ten times is all you need to fully absorb a pleasant experience.

It takes only twelve seconds to let even the smallest pleasant situations—like the way the sun is coming in our kitchen window, or the smell of the apple we are slicing—truly sink in. Those extra seconds spent in awareness while cooking a dish will eventually sensitize your brain to notice more pleasant moments in the kitchen and elsewhere.

Moreover, even if it’s not our natural state, we can learn to relax in the kitchen and at the table. When we are relaxed, our parasympathetic nervous system sends more blood to our digestive organs. Neurobiologist Hanson says that even simple things like relaxing our tongue while eating can help move us into the parasympathetic nervous system and allow us to digest our food more fully and feel better while we do it.

But when we are stressed or rushed, our sympathetic nervous system activates and draws energy away from those organs to prepare us for a fight, flight, or freeze response. I remember feeling this happen a few years ago at a noodle restaurant Paul and I frequent; we hadn’t been there in a while, and Paul, who doesn’t normally go out for lunch, felt rushed. I said something about his bad mood, which got us going, and by the time my dish arrived—my favorite Drunken Noodles with Spicy Basil Sauce and Tofu—I was annoyed and fighting back my tears. But rather than using my meal to numb my feelings, I stayed aware of my inner pain while I took my first bite. I noticed that my stomach was in knots and my noodles tasted like anger.

Thich Nhat Hanh has often said that if you are thinking about your problems when you eat, then you are eating your problems. When I wasn’t mindful, I covered up my discomfort with food, but when I stayed present with my feelings, I couldn’t finish my noodles.

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