Are you stuck eating lunch at your desk again? Lucky you.
You see, staying put can be surprisingly soothing compared to making a mad dash to
cafe for a sandwich and running back to your office, all
while worried that you’ll miss an important call.
If you feel chained to your desk, try viewing it instead as a powerful anchor that keeps you from drifting mindlessly.
Desk dining can be
epitome of mindlessness—or a remarkable opportunity to slow down, reconnect, and enjoy a delicious moment or two. You can choose a chug-and-chew cubicle lunch or settle in for a session of mindful mastication.
Mom always told us to slow down and chew our food properly. She was more worried about choking, indigestion and bad manners than she was about
possibility that we would grow up to be disconnected from our experience of dining.
As usual, Mom made good sense. New research indicates that becoming more mindful of every mouthful is a powerful way to reduce our food intake, increase our meal satisfaction, and savor more than just
taste of our veggie on rye.
Jean L. Kristeller, Ph.D., is professor of psychology and director of
Center for
Study of Health, Religion and Spirituality at Indiana State University. Over
last ten years, she has been working on ways to help overweight individuals develop greater awareness of their eating triggers using mindfulness meditation. Her program is being applied in a number of different settings, and
results have been quite promising.
There’s even a fancy term for her technique of paying attention to what you put into your mouth—Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training, or MB-EAT for short. It’s not rocket science—just a simple way to assess your needs and attend to
process of eating slowly.