BLESSING YOUR FOOD

While perhaps seemingly small and intangible, blessing my food has become an important part of eating for me. While I can’t say I remember to do it every time, and sometimes I have to do it invisibly as I feel self-conscious, this practice has really helped me connect with my food, my body and the moment, and has made a subtle but noticeable difference to how much I enjoy my meal and how I feel afterwards. 

I first learned to bless my food in 2010 on a retreat in the Philippines. It was beautiful. I was on holiday, so chilled out and enjoying nature. The food was specially prepared, local and a rather small portion for my appetite. I was in the country of my mum which felt magical in itself, and it’s a country that experiences a lot of poverty, so it wasn’t hard to follow the example set by a teacher to respect the food that I was grateful to have and to give thanks for that food that I was about to put into my body — especially when it was so deliciously tropical, I wasn’t in a rush, and I didn't have to lift a finger!

Ayurveda believes that food is a gift and eating it should be a reverent experience with ritual mantras and prayers and the encouragement to eat with contentment and delight. Blessing your food means taking a breath before eating, relaxing into the moment and expressing gratitude for the food on our plates.

Growing up, I had always been taught to respect food and avoid food waste. While I’d experienced saying grace before a meal and waiting for the whole table to be served before tucking in, taking that moment, that beat to acknowledge every meal soon fell by the wayside on my return to the UK after that holiday when life became fast again, and food was abundant, convenient and affordable.

So often we take that first mouthful of a snack or meal completely distracted. When we’re at work perhaps we eat just to get the job done and ticked off our list. Or we eat out of boredom. If you’re like me, then feeling wired or stressed about something has me eating something, anything and then I’ll deal with the issue at hand’ afterwards — so food becomes a source of distraction.

In the last decade, though, the continual return to this practice of blessing my food has had a profound effect. It has connected me to what food really is — something physical, mental and spiritual, which becomes me physically mentally and spiritually. It has connected me to the present moment, the perpetual rushing state I am in more often than not has a chance to reset, which tells my digestive system that it’s safe to let my guard down and take the time to eat. I move from the sympathetic state of fight, flight or freeze to the parasympathetic state of rest and digest. The figurative tiger has stopped chasing me for the time being and suddenly the daily niggles of symptomatic stress, eating too fast and overeating (with the associated acid reflux, feeling of lethargy or indigestion) are left behind.

What's with the connection? Well, roll back to a time when the process of acquiring food and a good meal was very much interactive for you, when you or a family member would cook it fresh every day, you would have been involved in growing it or processing or storing it or haggling or hustling for it while selling it or trading it as a form of currency. You would know exactly where it came from and because it was natural and in season, you wouldn’t have been able to have whatever you fancied or craved or desired. You would have had to wait a whole year for many types of food and you would have experienced shortages, which gave you anticipation and appreciation. It would be highly perishable, would not have come cheap, and you would have innately understood its importance and value for your health and life. When you are in tune with your food, you can feel satisfied before feeling overly full and make informed decisions on what's right for you. All your senses are involved — sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell — and you can feel empowered about what you and your body need that day.

Nowadays, affordable food is abundant, factory-farmed, factory-prepared, and for the foodstuffs as opposed to the ingredients, people in lab coats have been tinkering with them to create the most perfectly addictive flavour while paying no attention to their nutritive value. Some of this stuff can sit for years and usually does in the back of your cupboard in tins and packets. Some of it is imported, travelling a million miles, and some of it might have been irradiated in order to kill off all important enzymes — in order to stop it ripening, and therefore ageing, to give it a longer shelf life. Often the working conditions of those involved in getting this food to you are also less than satisfactory. Add to this you eating it on the hoof, and no wonder digestive issues abound and our relationship with food is often negative. Through the wisdom of Ayurveda, we are taught that what we choose to do in the moment can exacerbate or bring balance to a situation, which is why I find blessing rather than stressing is such an important tool.

So how can we connect? I’ve got two ways:

1. The quick beat

Placing my hands over my plate of food, I say a quick thanks to the food that will nourish my body (which usually makes me soften and smile) and if I’m feeling a little self-conscious in public I simply pick up my spoon, take a long inhale and exhale and take time to look at my food and appreciate it before taking that first mouthful.

2. The one-on-one

If I’m not with people or talking or having a mad hour (it’s better to drink something warm and not-caffeinated than it is to eat if you are in fact having a mad hour), then I just have a one-on-one with my meal and appreciate its qualities and textures and taste.

Head outside or to a window if possible, away from your desk or busy chatty people (basically avoid any situation that you wouldn't want while you prepare to sleep, seeing as rest and digest are on the same mode).

I cultivate awareness of how the ingredients of my meal were grown and raised, the people involved in getting it to my bowl. If I cooked the food, then this process starts earlier — as I prepare my meal I get into the moment and focus on the act of cooking and enjoying the process, mundane as it can feel at times, rather than the default mutii-thought and multitasking that tends to take over every other waking hour. This can impact our physical and mental health and contribute to feeling dissatisfied with life — and consequently your plate of food not “doing it for you!”

Where possible I eat with my hands — another way to connect with your food and slow you down, so that you can live in the moment and fully experience it while taking care of your digestion and both your long and short-term health.

For more tips on taking care of your Agni, or digestive fire, check out Secrets of a lively digestive fire on page 282 in East by West.