Reinventing the Meal: How Mindfulness Can Help You Slow Down, Savor the Moment, and Reconnect With the Ritual of Eating by Pavel Somov & Donald Altman Ma Lpc

Reinventing the Meal: How Mindfulness Can Help You Slow Down, Savor the Moment, and Reconnect With the Ritual of Eating by Pavel Somov & Donald Altman Ma Lpc

Author:Pavel Somov & Donald Altman Ma Lpc [Somov, Pavel & Lpc, Donald Altman Ma]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 1608821013
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
Published: 2012-09-02T00:00:00+00:00


Pleasure Is a Choice

To eat is to know. Back in the primordial days of our origins, we explored through mouth. Mouth was a hand—just like it still is for little kids, and for dogs that carry tennis balls for us to throw. Our earliest ancestors knew the world by tasting it. They would taste this and taste that to see what “this” and “that” were like, and once they found out, they would then “know the taste” and keep choosing the tastes that they liked again and again.

You have to choose to interact with what you are eating if you are to know its taste. A zombie mind makes no choices; it simply follows the well-trodden groove of habit. An eating zombie runs on a program: ignore the main course and then wake up for dessert because dessert is the thing to be enjoyed, whereas the main course is just to be eaten. Of course, the zombie mind doesn’t see its own inconsistencies. It overlooks the fact that the foods it chose for the main course were chosen on the basis of anticipated pleasure. Once the zombie mind is at the table and knows there’s dessert ahead, it goes on cruise control until it finally gets to that last-ditch effort to enjoy itself.

That’s old-school thinking. The new meal paradigm postpones no pleasure. Choose to enjoy yourself from the very beginning. There’s no need to wait until you feel too stuffed to care. Start every meal with the dessert of mindful pleasure.

Try This: Document Pleasure

The next time you sit down to eat, have a pen and piece of paper at hand and, as you eat, write a plus sign for each moment of pleasure you consciously register. If the page is conspicuously blank, ask yourself, “What is the pleasure potential of this moment?” Let go of preconceived notions about dessert and just focus on pleasure. When you arrive at the end of the meal and begin to habitually think about what you’re going to have for dessert, take a look at the record of the pleasure you’ve already had. You might just have a brain wave: “Hey, wait a second, I’ve already had my dessert. I’m satisfied.”

Try This: Rediscover the Dessert in a Dessert

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not opposed to dessert in the classic sense. If you want a traditional dessert, then by all means treat yourself to it. Just do so mindfully—or run the risk of missing out on the pleasure. Use pattern-interruption techniques, such as eating with a nondominant hand, and sensation-enhancing strategies, such as eating with your eyes closed, to leverage maximum pleasure out of the experience.



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