Ever wondered what it really means to eat with intention and presence? It’s not about rules or restrictions, it’s about turning something as ordinary as a snack into an extraordinary moment of connection.
To help you get in the flow of mindful eating, we’ve laid out 7 simple steps to guide you. Start small and keep it simple: a walnut, a date, or a raisins can be all you need to begin this practice. Trust us, it’s a game-changer for how you experience food and yourself.
- take adequate time for the practice, creating a sort of food “altar”: a placemat that you like, perhaps a candle, and the arrangement of the food in a harmonious way and oriented towards the idea of beauty; it is possible to accompany the process with background music that helps you stay present;
- close your eyes and bring your attention to the body and breathing, so as to concentrate your attention on the rhythmic movement that breathing generates in the body; for a few minutes simply give yourself this space of meditation and attention to your breathing;
- first of all activate the sense of touch and smell: with your eyes closed and attention to your breathing, take the food you have chosen in your hand and slowly start touching and smelling it, focusing your attention on these two senses; perceive the roughness, the smooth parts, the consistency, the shape, the smells that the food gives off, and for a couple of minutes enjoy this connection;
- then activate the sense of sight and hearing: at this point close your eyes, maintaining contact with your breathing, and bring your attention to the food you have chosen, starting to peel it; perceive the slight sound when you peel the mandarin or crack the nut, carefully observe the colours, the difference between the peel and the fruit, the veins, the external and internal parts of the fruit itself, enjoying this connection as if only you existed with your fruit;
- activate the sense of taste: very slowly, start putting the fruit in your mouth, in small pieces, and chew it in total presence; feel the juice, perceive the movement inside the mouth, be present to the tastes and internal sensations, until you clearly perceive the process that allows you to swallow the morsel and make it arrive in the stomach, as if it were the first time in your life eating that fruit;
- close your eyes again, continuing to remain present with all your senses when eating the small fruit, and begin to imagine the origin of the fruit itself; for example, you can imagine the mandarin tree producing its fruit with love, thanks to the sun and the rain, you can imagine the meadow where the seed of the tree has landed to give life to something new, you can imagine hands kind people who pick mandarins just for you, so that you can have one in your hands; during this phase, try to perceive gratitude towards the mandarin, towards the tree that generated it, towards the sun and rain that nourished it, towards those who took care to make it reach you;
- visualize yourself together with the mandarin and the tree, together with the sun and the rain, together with the meadow, the earth and the sky, and give yourself permission to feel part of something bigger, which welcomes you and contains you , as in a perfect flow of love and sharing; as you finish eating your fruit, enjoy this gratitude and this sense of cosmic connection with the All.
At the end of the practice, take a moment to center yourself with three deep breaths, then gently open your eyes, feeling grounded, present, and connected.
