Eating Mindfully, Eating Socially - The Tensions of Life!

I loved this article in the NYTimes about mindful eating, specifically focusing on a Buddhist community that invites people from the surrounding area to eat mindfully (and silently) with them twice a week. The article advocates for mindful, silent eating as a way to increase awareness and presence, and to reduce bingeing or eating when we're not really hungry.

I love the idea, and the practical tips at the bottom of the page, but I'm also thinking about all the articles and studies I've read that advocate family dinner time and the important conversations that go with it. In my family, we share the "best part of our day" with each other. It does connect us to each other and it asks us to be present to the moment...but it's not mindful in the way this article means, and it doesn't do anything to connect us with the food we're eating.

So I'm just feeling aware of the tensions we navigate every day as we--who are not Buddhist monks--try to be mindful and present to ourselves and to each other, and the awareness that at times those feel like competing needs.

I'll let you know when I figure out how to clone myself, so that I can both mindfully talk with my pre-schooler and mindfully concentrate on the bite of pasta I'm chewing.