Integrated Practice:
At your next meal, practice mindful eating. Bring an open awareness mindset to this practice; see how much of the experience you can be present to including the flavors and textures in the food, the sounds occurring around you and as you eat, the colors and smells, etc.
Reflection Questions:
In what ways did the mindful eating practice affect your experience of eating?
How can you apply this type of practice to other areas of your life?
I enjoyed this meditation, very aware of drifting but yet coming back to the breath each time, body was at easy breathing was effortlessly and easy. Thank you
Valuable…I have historically been a fast eater given my upbringing and work environments and in the past year have become more aware of my pace of eating to be slowed down which in turn decreases amount of food intake.
Open Awareness and Focused Attention are two sides of the same coin. While practicing Open Awareness I have moments when I can start to journey down a distraction rabbit-hole and the breath work for Focused Attention brings me back to a spot where I can then become open, aware, and curious once more. I felt as though I was on a teeter-totter between open-focus-open-focus. The experience, however, was quite pleasant, relaxed, and it “completion bell” rang much sooner than I had expected since it only felt like I had closed my eyes 1-2 minutes prior.
Básica, sencilla pero no fácil práctica. Es muy interesante como podemos cambiar nuestro estado mental y emocional atendiendo a un proceso tan natural como la respiración.
También es muy interesante comprobar la flexibilidad de la atención y la espaciosidad de la conciencia al pasar de focalizar la atención en un punto a hacerlo en todos los fenómenos que aparecen en la conciencia.
This is an important lesson for me, because my mind wanders constantly and noticed more as I was eating.