- Albert Tiong
We live in a fast paced world. Our mind is always thinking about doing something. The time we have in one day seems like it is never enough to do what we want. Because of this, we always rush through our activities, including eating.
We eat to satisfy our stomach and to get energy from the food. During breakfast, we normally finish eating quickly to get to work. We quickly finish our lunch so that we can continue work, and we quickly finish our dinner so that we can do some more activities before going to sleep. How often did you truly enjoy your food? Did you remember what it looks like? The texture? The smell? The taste?
Mindfulness can be used for eating too. Yesterday we discussed the example of observing your mother cooking breakfast for you. Today we shall continue on that example. She cooked your favourite hu tiu. She brought it to you and put the bowl of hu tiu on the table in front of you.
Instead of picking up the chopsticks and start eating, spend some time to really enjoy the experience of mindful eating. Use all five senses to fully immerse yourself in the moment without judgement.
1. Spend some time looking at the bowl of hu tiu with full attention. Starting from the outside. Look at the colour of the bowl, admire the colours of the noodles, the clarity of the soup, the vibrant colours of the vegetables. 2. Close your eyes and smell the hu tiu. Ask yourself what do you smell? Can you smell the herbs? Spices? Seasoning? Does the smell remind you of anything? Perhaps something familiar you experienced recently? 3. Using the chopstick, stir the hu tiu. Ask yourself if you hear anything? Using the spoon to pick up some soup and drip it back into the bowl. Pay close attention to the sound as the soup from your spoon joins the soup in the bowl. 4. Place some hu tiu and other ingredients in the spoon, and look at the contents in the spoon. Fully admire the colours of the food you are about to enjoy. Now put them into your mouth but don’t chew. Feel the texture and temperature of the food. Are they hot? Warm? Cold? Are they hard? Soft? 5. After a few seconds, start chewing the food. What do you feel? 6. As you swallow the food, think of how the bowl of hu tiu ended up in front of you. Think about where the noodles, vegetables, herbs, seafood and meat all came from. Many people worked very hard in farms, factories, fishing boats, markets so that you could enjoy this wonderful bowl of hu tiu. And of course, be thankful and think of how lucky you are to have your mother put all these wonderful ingredients together so that you are ready for the day ahead after this bowl of breakfast.
For us who are lucky enough to enjoy food, we should make it a habit to appreciate our food even more.
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