Learn to eat mindfully

The nine-day Vegetarian Festival takes place not only in Thailand, but also in most countries of Southeast Asia – these are the days of the full moon of the ninth lunar month according to the Eastern calendar. Turning fasting days into a real extravaganza, when the chefs of the best restaurants compete with each other in inventiveness, preparing vegetarian dishes, and the streets turn into one long buffet table, is a great idea.

It completely changes the mood during fasting: instead of severe austerity and taming of the flesh, it turns into a holiday where people take a vow to refuse animal food so as not to cause suffering to living beings – at least for a few days. This approach also changes the vector of attention: it is aimed not so much at caring for one’s own well-being and improvement, even if it is spiritual, but at the world around, at a feeling of empathy for all living things.

Vegetarian festival and the teachings of the Buddha

It is believed that the Vegetarian Festival marks the end of the Buddhist fasting – a three-month period during the rainy season, during which the monks do not leave the walls of the monastery, devoting time to prayer, meditation and self-improvement. To learn more about the history of the Vegetarian Festival and its spiritual roots, we went to one of the monasteries of Chiang Mai, where monks hold talks about dharma – about life, Buddhist philosophy, culture and traditions. Here is one of the most respected religious universities in the country – Mahamakut.

It turned out that the Vegetarian Festival is not related to the teachings of the Buddha. The roots of this holiday are in much more ancient beliefs and traditions that existed in ancient Chinese culture long before Buddhism. Like the Russian Maslenitsa, which precedes the Great Lent, this folk holiday is connected in the minds of people with the end of Lent and has acquired a religious connotation.

“Strictly speaking, there are no calendar fasts in Buddhism,” explained one of the monks, Fra Sinlapache Santikaro, a fellow at Mahamakuta Buddhist University. “In principle, we are allowed to eat meat. Temperance is an element of self-discipline: here more weight is given to personal choice than to general prescriptions.

Eat mindfully

Even leaving aside discussions about the religious content of fasts and their impact on spirituality, it can be noted that fasting – in one form or another – exists in almost all cultures. Perhaps the habit of giving preference to plant foods for a while really improves well-being and benefits health – both for the individual and society?

We have to admit that the natural relationship with food among our contemporaries has long been out of balance. Any vegetables and fruits are available in any season, we drink sterilized milk and eat products that have undergone complex industrial processing …

Nevertheless, argues Fra Sinlapace Santicaro, we can still regulate our relationship with food and learn how to supply the body with the optimal amount of food – based not on the prescriptions of religious or scientific authorities, but solely on our sensations and feelings.

The idea of ​​mindful eating, popularized by Buddhists, suggests that what we call the feeling of hunger can have a different nature. In Buddhism, different types of hunger are associated with different areas of the body. These are the eyes, nose, mouth, stomach, cells of our body (or the body as a whole), the brain (our consciousness, mind) and the heart that beats in time with feelings. Today, the idea of ​​a “hunger of the heart” no longer seems strange: a person who experiences emotional hunger often tends to satisfy it with food.

7 types of hunger (exercise)

Buddhist monk Fra Sinlapache Santikaro offers to master an exercise that will help you recognize which type of hunger we most often have and which one we feel at any given moment. Put a plate of food in front of you – no matter how much it is. A full meal or a single cracker, it doesn’t matter in this case. It is best to start this meditation without outsiders, alone with yourself. As you look at the food, ask yourself the question, “Who is hungry in me?” Take a deep breath, relax and look inside yourself. Perhaps you feel…

Eye hunger. Take a good look at the food lying in front of you, pay attention to its color, shape and texture, shadows, light, glare on its surface. Now ask yourself how strong the eye hunger is for this particular food. Try to rate it on a ten-point scale – from “I don’t feel like it at all” to “I would have eaten it right now.”

Nasal hunger. Smell the food – first in the distance, then bring it closer to the nose. That is why it is better to do meditation alone with yourself to avoid embarrassment. Move away from the plate some distance to refresh your senses, and then bring your sense of smell back to the food. Ask yourself how much your nose desires this particular food, and again rate this type of hunger on a scale of XNUMX to XNUMX.

Hunger of the mouth (tongue). Before you start eating, ask the same question to your tongue, which is responsible for the sensation of taste. Direct your attention to this area. Imagine how your taste buds feel – how much do you want to feel this taste?

Stomach hunger. It is the stomach that usually tells us that it is time to eat – this can be felt especially clearly in those situations when we are engrossed in some business to such an extent that we can skip a meal. But still, most of us do not wait for the real “hunger of the stomach”, giving him food before he requires it. Try to determine how hungry the stomach is by addressing it with the same question.

Cell hunger. It can also be called “body hunger” proper. How much does the body need those nutrients that you are ready to offer it in the form of this food? Try to pay attention to the body as a whole and determine the degree of its hunger for this food.

Mind hunger. Now try to listen to what consciousness says about this food. The mind has reasoning like “I shouldn’t eat this” or “It would be good for me to eat that”. It is the reasoning of the mind that guides us and often neglects other “voices”—namely, the desires of the nose, eyes, tongue, and body—that help all living beings make optimal food choices and stay healthy. “Hearing” the voice of the mind, you need to determine what the degree of his hunger for this food – and take it into account.

Heart hunger. This type of hunger is always associated with feelings. With a feeling of lack of something, a void that we want to fill. It is what Buddhists call “hunger of the heart” that is at the root of many eating disorders. And the tendency to “seize trouble” is well known to many of us. According to psychologists, we acquire it literally with mother’s milk: a close relationship between food and a sense of psychological comfort, security is fixed in us from infancy, during breastfeeding. Ask yourself the question: is there a “hunger of the heart” now? And try to rate it on a ten-point scale.

Learn to better feel the needs of the body

Mindful eating is a fairly simple meditation, Fra Sinlapache Santicaro explains, that once we master it, we can distinguish between different types of hunger and learn how to choose the most suitable food. After we have explored all seven types of hunger (it is assumed that this will take no more than 10 minutes), you can start eating.

For those who feel the need to improve their relationship with food – and maybe lose weight – it is recommended to do the exercise again, somewhere in the middle of a meal. And follow how the “satisfaction” of hunger of different types occurs. You may find that the hunger of the stomach has already been satisfied, but the eyes or nose are still hungry. Or the language still requires “something tasty.”

It is worth remembering the main thing: this meditation is absolutely Buddhist in essence – during it you do not need to “do” anything with individual types of hunger. No need to try to control or regulate them – only register, be aware. Watching yourself, being aware of your characteristics and accepting them is the most natural, most non-violent path to change, recalls Fra Sinlapace Santicaro.

This simple exercise teaches you to feel your body and its needs more subtly, which helps maintain health and high tone. In the end, this will help not only improve your relationship with food, but also lead to a greater awareness and satisfaction of true needs. Also, this conscious attitude to food helps to develop sensory perception – to get more complete satisfaction from food and more vivid sensations from life.