Mindful eating is a process of paying attention to your actual eating experience, without judgment.
Knowing that you are eating is not the same as eating mindfully.
Let’s take that example of eating and look at it a bit further. When we are purposefully aware of eating, we are consciously being aware of the process of eating. We’re deliberately noticing the sensations and our responses to those sensations. We’re noticing the mind wandering, and when it does wander we purposefully bring our attention back.
When we’re eating unmindfully we may in theory be aware of what we’re doing, but we’re probably thinking about a hundred and one other things at the same time, and we may also be watching TV, talking, or reading — or even all three!
So a very small part of our awareness is absorbed with eating, and we may be only barely aware of the physical sensations and even less aware of our thoughts and emotions.
Because we’re only dimly aware of our thoughts, they wander in an unrestricted way. There’s no conscious attempt to bring our attention back to our eating. There’s no purposefulness.
This purposefulness is a very important part of mindfulness. Having the purpose of staying with our experience, whether that’s the breath, or a particular emotion, or something as simple as eating, means that we are actively shaping the mind.
What happens to the people when they binge?
When people binge ,they go into a trance, sort of food hypnosis, when they don’t aware of anything and their mind just work on basic reflexes of opening the mouth, biting and swallowing . All the other senses and consciousness get switched off while binging.
Well, mindful eating technique is the opposite of this and makes you aware of every bite, every sensation in the body while eating.
The trick in mindful eating is that you generally have to be mindful to be able to eat mindfully. Anxious, full of fear and stress person can’t do that. Therefore, practicing mindful awareness should be a daily practice. Meditation and progressive muscle relaxation should be your daily practice. It is not just about eating, it is all about a whole life.