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It’s about doing with less, because you realize that having more and doing more doesn’t lead to happiness. Living a simple life is about paring back, so that you have space to breathe.

At times, the complexity of my life grows, and I renew my commitment to living simply.

N.Y.For the last dozen years, I’ve been living a (relatively) simple life.

You learn what food best fuels your exercise and work and play.Īgain, there are other benefits, but these are some of the most important, in my experience.

You learn how food affects your mood and energy throughout the day.

It can become a mindfulness ritual you look forward to.

You begin to enjoy the eating experience more, and as a result enjoy life more, when you’re more present.

Social overeating can become less of a problem - you can eat mindfully while socializing, with practice, and not overeat.

This takes a bit longer, but it’s important.

You begin to sort through the emotional issues you have around food and eating.

As a result of the above three points, you will often lose weight if you’re overweight.

You slowly start to realize that unhealthy food isn’t as tasty as you thought, nor does it make you feel very good.

You learn to really taste food, and to enjoy the taste of healthy food.

You learn to eat when you’re hungry, and stop when you’re sated.

Many of these are from personal experience, but many of them are supported by research (I’ve linked to some of the research when I had the link handy). I’m going to go over just a handful of the most important benefits, though as you learn the practice I’m sure you’ll find many more. The benefits of eating mindfully are amazing, and it’s important to know these benefits as you consider the practice.

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We’ll go more into how to learn to eat mindfully in the video, How to Learn Mindful Eating. But with practice and attention, you can become very good at this. It takes practice, and there will be times when you forget to eat mindfully, and there will be starts and stops.

This is a skill, a form of meditation really, that you don’t just acquire overnight.

Where the food came from, who might have grown it, how much it might have suffered before it was killed, whether it was grown organically, how much it was processed, how much it was fried or overcooked, etc.

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How full (or sated) you are before, during and after eating.

How it makes you feel as you taste it, as you digest it, and throughout the day.

The look, smell, taste, feel of the food you’re eating.

What you’re eating, and whether it is healthy or not.

Why you feel like eating, and what emotions or needs might be triggering the eating.

Instead of eating mindlessly, putting food into your mouth almost unconsciously, not really tasting the food you’re eating … you notice your thoughts, feelings, and sensations. Simply put, my approach to mindful eating is learning to pay attention. I take a very simple approach, and that’s what we’ll be mainly talking about in this course. There are a variety of approaches to mindful eating, some rooted in Zen and other forms of Buddhism, others tied to yoga. Lilian Cheung), and a growing body of research showing the benefits (more in the next section). There is a growing field of people adopting the approach and writing about it (I’d recommend Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life, by Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr. I certainly didn’t invent mindful eating, but it has helped me tremendously. Once I made this change, other changes finally happened, after years of trying. The changes came slowly, but paying attention turned out to be the key habit change. I paid attention to my eating urges, to the emotions that triggered the eating. I paid attention to what I ate, the textures and flavors, how it made me feel during and after eating. The biggest change I made: I learned to pay attention. I realized how hard it was to change, simply because eating was filling so many needs, and because I ate mostly without thinking. When I finally started changing my eating habits, I realized how bad things were. These bad eating habits built up over time, after years of eating to socialize, to relieve stress, to make myself feel better, to satisfy cravings. What I ate (junk) was a big part of it, but just as big a part was how I ate - emotionally and mindlessly. I was overweight and unhealthy, addicted to snacks and fried and fatty food, and would mindlessly overeat. There was a time when I stuffed my face with junk food and fast food on a daily basis. What is Mindful Eating? Post written by Leo Babauta.

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