Dear Reader,
I hope this love letter finds you well and definitely better than i was when i recently got food poisoning! Sudden it was, and i still don't know exactly what from. It knocked the heck out of me, though and it took me a long time to re-balance.
Apart from taking the usual rest, fasting, homeopathic medicine, probiotics, etc., one other thing happened when i returned to food. My first meal afterwards was 3 days later - a banana. 🍌
The experience was insane!
I sat down and mashed it with a fork. I knew i had to take small bites and eat slowly so as not to overwhelm my system. Once i lifted the first forkful to my mouth, i must have spaced out... I looked at it, took a whiff and remembered how good bananas smell... Mmmm... Images of the ‘80s struck me, when i used to eat banana Paddle Pops (fellow Australians will know what those are). I was totally encapsulated in the act of savouring a banana! I raised the fork to my lips and licked the mash... Sweet... Perhaps overly-sweet after so many days of sweet nothings in my stomach... Delicious, though! Complete and absolute comfort food. I felt a sense of peace… Got transported to a tropical island in the South Pacific... Not sure which one... It didn't matter. I felt the gentle breeze... the heat of the sun on my skin... saw rainbows and flowers… topaz-coloured skies… and clouds that held no rain. Goosebumps began to creep up from nowhere. It felt good... It was surreal.
When that banana finally went into my mouth, i felt it on my arms... in my arms! I sensed it gliding down my oesophagus like it was on a mission, albeit in slow motion... Then i felt an explosion in my brain! No, dear reader, i wasn't on drugs. It was called MINDFULNESS. Being in the NOW and no place else. No other moment in time. Just. Now.
I continued with another bite... and another... and another... feeling the nourishment running through my veins... coating my teeth... sending shivers down my legs... Yep. I even felt it down my legs. And all because i did nothing else while eating, than eat. Just. Eat. Switched my thinking faculties off and focused on one thing.
We miss so much!
The constant hustling we do... the multi-tasking... We rush our food, we drink while walking, put on our make-up on the train to work... Stare at our phones while riding a bike (please STOP DOING THAT, for safety’s sake!). We watch TV while eating, for the large part unaware of how much we eat or even what we’ve just eaten. Those fine details… those unplanned, unscheduled, unexpected details that we simply miss because we are focused on so many things at the same time.
It's not an experience that I'll forget any time soon; perhaps even never. Because not only did i digest that banana perfectly, but i learnt a valuable lesson from it. I know we're busy. I know that there are times when we have little choice but to multitask - and that also means catching up with family after a long day and talking at the dinner table while we’re eating, instead of savouring every bite in silence. How many times did we get up from the table having over-eaten and not realised how?... How many times have we skipped our lunchbreak at work and taken our lunch in front of the computer, having realised some time later that we’d actually finished eating?… 😐
The lovely late Thich Nhat Hanh was famous for his teachings on mindfulness, introducing millions of people to the act of sitting in silence and just observing our thoughts and feelings - without judgement; without expectations. Something our world could really benefit from right now, for it is in silence that we experience true understanding and peace.
I'll touch more on mindfulness in future newsletters, so feel free to let me know if there's any particular aspect of mindfulness you'd like me to cover.
Enjoy those bananas to the fullest! 🍌
Love & Decibels,
xx jo xx
MINDFULNESS EXERCISE:
Would you like to try it out for yourself with a piece of food that you like? I'd love to hear about your experiences!
It would be ideal if you could find a quiet place where you can just sit and be without interruptions.
Begin to slowly breathe in, then out, paying attention to the inhale and exhale of your breath. Relax. There is no need for you to do anything except observe your breath.
If thoughts come, that’s fine. Just observe them without judgement. Begin to observe your breath again. Do so until you are so relaxed, that you almost drift away.
Much like my ‘Mindful Banana’ experience, take a spoonful of food and bring it up to your face. Observe how it looks and how it makes you feel.
Observe how it smells and how that makes you feel.
Do this with all of your senses, just observing. (No judging!)
Eat the bite of food, sensing it going down your mouth, observing where you feel it and how it makes you feel. Does it bring up any memories?
That's all you have to do.
There's a very good chance that you'll be so fascinated about your experience, that you will want to write about it!
REFERENCES / RECOMMENDED READING (with clickable links):
Actually, I recommend any of Thich Nhat Hanh's books, as well as Jon Kabat-Zinn's books, but for the sake of this particular experience, I am going to recommend these two:
Great insights on the cons of multi-tasking. Overeating is definitely something common, and could be related to the rising obesity rates.
I'm glad you didn't actually suffer from food poisoning! I was worried after reading the subtitle.
First - love your art! It goes so well with your story. Next, I attended an 8-week mindfulness course several years ago. Part of the experience was an all-day event in which we brought our own lunch. We were instructed not to speak during lunch but only to truly notice what we were eating - the smells, the textures, the flavors. It was such a different experience than the way I often just put food in my mouth in order to get to the next bite, all while doing something else - surfing the web, talking, texting, watching TV...etc. Great reminder! Thank you.