Slow down your life with nutrition

Everybody is talking about the practice of mindfulness - literally, in our case. Mindfulness in the context of nutrition means to eat using all the senses. Find out how you can use nutrition to slow your life down a little.

In everyday life, we humans are exposed to many external stimuli. A tight schedule and constant availability via mobile phone means we are often subject to external control. This is also evident during a meal with friends. Although a meal in a cosy and enjoyable atmosphere is good for the mind, we run the risk of drinking and eating more than usual. Indeed, other situations arise where we overeat, simply out of habit. In this case we often consume food that then makes us feel bloated. This too is a sign of "not being present".

To listen to oneself, to feel oneself and to practise greater mindfulness in general can help counteract this. One learns to observe, to train one's awareness and to do this with all the senses, especially when eating, a time when all the senses go into overdrive. Smelling, tasting, touching, seeing... our senses are essential for enjoying food. However, the crispy sound of a salad leaf or crunchy crispbread also become a sensual experience that are appreciated through greater mindfulness. Mindfulness promotes a conscious approach to one's own body, the environment and social interaction, This is an important approach, especially in our busy everyday lives.

A small daily mindfulness exercise:
make a conscious effort to take a 10-minute break when your mind begins to wander. Grab an apple or a tomato. Dedicate 5 minutes to looking at its appearance. Look at the tomato, for example. What colour is its skin? Do you see small pores, dents, bumps? Or imagine how this apple grew, the kernel, the fruit. Then smell the apple: what does it smell of? Touch the fruit, what does its consistency remind you of? The texture? Then spend five minutes looking at the apple core. Take a bite of the fruit. Only one bite, chew slowly. Taste it, feel with your tongue. How does it feel? Chew for as a long as possible and take time to enjoy the moment. Enjoy!