A friend of mine gifted me a wonderful book by Ajahn
Brahm, Opening the Door of your Heart, There are many lovely learning
anecdotes in the book but one of them particularly struck me - being present, I
quote directly from the book:
"We often fail to savor the moment. Instead, while we are chewing on one piece of food, our attention is distracted as we look at our plate to choose the next thing on our fork. some are even two or three forkfuls ahead of themselves - one forkful is in the mouth, one is waiting on the fork, another is heaped up waiting on the plate, while the mind contemplates the morsel coming third on the fork.
In order to relish the taste of your food, and know life in its fullness, we should often savor one moment at a time in silence. Then we might get our money's worth in the fivestar restaurant called life."
The following day after reading this I observed myself at lunch. I was eating a lovely bowl of Vietnamese beef noodles and at the beginning I was doing exactly what Brahm said I would do, one mouthful was chewing, while my fingers where pulling noodles out the bowl to rest on the spoon waiting to be shoveled in while my eyes were thinking about what next. I was 3 mouthfuls away from reality! I was shocked! I put down my chopsticks, my spoon and refocused on my chewing. My lunch partner had long finished his meal by the time I was half way through but I have to say it was a much more enjoyable experience, I only ate half the bowl as I was able to sense I was full much more accurately than normal (so maybe a great way to watch your weight as well!), and I didn’t notice I got any hungrier because of it. I have been trying to make it an exercise in presence ever since and I have definitely slowed down my eating and improved my digestion as a result.
I think the longer term benefit is in helping me practice
presence – when we are present we slow down time, appreciate what we have and
enjoy life much more fully, rather than chasing after things 3 mouthfuls away! I have also noticed that in slowing down time
we give ourselves space to think and make decisions about the next steps we
want to take in life. Instead of having
to have the answer 3 steps away, we can make the decision when the time is
right. When I have fully swallowed one
mouthful, then I am in the right place to decide what to have for the next
mouthful. How will I know what I will
want in 3 mouthfuls time?
Comments