In Week Two of how to have a 20-minute retreat at home, let’s look at something we do several times a day so we can consider its potential for self-care and self-love: daily meals.
Mealtime is a perfect opportunity to take an essential, everyday activity and use it for your 20-minute retreat. Your retreat time is when you let go of outside distractions and put the focus on yourself. It’s a time for you to slow down and get in touch with your body, feelings, and intuition.
Is Unconscious Eating Really That Bad?
Eating. It’s frequently a social activity shared with family and friends. Family dinners, networking lunches, and happy hours. Food enters our lives in many different ways.
For several months, we’ve missed out on gathering around meals due to social distancing. Perhaps some of your worse habits around eating and food have taken over as a result of working at home, connecting with others virtually, and general isolation. Even in “normal” times, you eat at your desks, when driving your cars, spooning food from the pot you’re cooking it in, with the television as a companion, reading, or talking on the phone. Me too.
When I’ve eaten lunch on the run or shoved a sandwich in my mouth while driving and called it dinner, did I even taste it? What was I doing while I was inhaling morsels of food? I was operating on automatic. Mealtime was akin to putting gas in my car: fueling up so I could keep going (where was I going?)
Gobbling your food while doing one or more other things is bad for you. It leads to:
- Weight gain;
- Risk of diabetes;
- High blood pressure;
- Overeating, because you don’t know when you’re full; or
- Not tasting or enjoying what you’re eating.
Conscious Eating Improves Your Overall Health
This retreat practice centers on conscious eating. You will come to recognize the space between bites of food, the difference between putting food in your mouth and tasting it, and, ultimately, intensely enjoying what you are eating. Other benefits include:
- Awareness of appropriate portions,
- Maintenance of healthy weight, and
- Do away with chronic binging.
How to Create a 20-minute Mealtime Retreat
In the beginning, do this solo. Later on, you can eat this way when you are with other people. And eventually, you can invite them to join you. I frequently eat my meals with the suggested technique when I’m out with other people. I’m unobtrusive, except for taking longer to finish my meal.
You don’t need social isolation, but you need privacy and a place that feels like a sanctuary. It can be outdoors, or an underused room in your home, or your bedroom.
You don’t need a hideout, but you do need time alone. Allow 20 to 25 minutes for your meal. You don’t need to quarantine yourself, but you do need quiet. You don’t need exile, but you do need freedom from interference to re-establish your relationship with food.
Follow These Suggested Steps
Consider using a timer if you sense you will hurry through this practice: in this case, a timer is a tool for giving you the recommended 20 – 25 minutes to follow the steps.
- Sit in a comfortable position.
- Set your intention to be present with your body, thoughts, and feelings.
- Begin by noticing what is on your plate.
- Express gratitude for the food; say thank if that is within your spiritual tradition.
- Notice the amount, the colors, the texture, and the variety of food before you begin your meal.
- Feel the weight of the fork or spoon in your hand, if you are using utensils.
- Notice as you move your hand towards the food and purposely lift it towards your mouth.
- Take smaller bites.
- Chew slowly and experience the texture and flavor of your food.
- Stop eating when you feel full.
- Do this 2 – 3 times a week.
Some things to reflect on:
- When you’re eating, you’re just eating. You’re uncluttering your mealtime. Is that calming? Uncomfortable? Scary? Familiar or unfamiliar?
- When you listen to your body, when do you feel full? (Note: it takes the body 20 minutes to register that you are full…so eat slowly.)
- Do you notice how different foods make you feel?
- Do any thoughts or memories about food show up?
If you haven’t read the first post in this sequence, you can read it here.
Please share your experiences with this mini-retreat in the Comments section below the blog post or on my Facebook page. You’re invited to share a mini-retreat of your own.
Stay tuned for a new 20-minute retreat coming next week.
