Mindful Eating and the Food Revolution!

Spacious Mind Dispatch, Green Beacon reporting on 2012 Earth Day Celebration in Los Angeles….

An old Chinese proverb says that if you want to correct the world, you must first correct the state; if you want to correct the state, you must first correct the family; if you want to correct the family, you must first correct yourself.

It was an honor to experience “Mindful Eating” with Deborah Eden Tull in celebration of Earth Day. In addition to being meditation teacher, she has been an organic gardener and farmer for many years and is certified in Permaculture Design, Bio-Intensive Organic Gardening, & Compost Education.  In addition, she has been traveling to, living in, or teaching about sustainable communities internationally for the last 20 years, including spending seven years as a monk at the Zen Monastery Peace Center in Northern California.

According Deborah, three key points define the Mindful Eating and Food Revolution:

— Everything we need can be found in nature.

— How you treat yourself and how you treat the planet are one in the same.

— In making the shift to a mindful life, it is less about changing the world “out there” and more about lifting the focus of our attention from the mind of “something wrong” and “not enough” to the present moment, where peace, clarity, and interconnection reside. Compassionate action arises from present moment awareness.

How do we realize these ideals? Deborah guided everyone through a meditation to get present to ourselves and to the world around us, then onto a mindful eating exercise that had us meditate on raspberries and strawberries. First to connect…look…. smell, then to reflect upon all that went into getting the fruit to us, such as the soil and sunshine that helped the food grow, to the hands that picked the fruit, as well as the distance and energy it took to get it into our hands.

After more farm fresh food savoring and writing about our experiences, she gave an eye-opening, interactive powerpoint presentation that chronicled a brief history of food cultivation and it’s delicate relationship to this planet, whereby the Food Revolution begins with each and every one of us. Suffice it to say there is so much more to this amazing workshop and is one that we will definitely host again, so stay tuned….

Deborah’s next Mindful Eating workshops are in Laguna Beach on June 16th (a daylong) and at Golden Bridge Yoga in Los Angeles on June 18th. To find out more about Deborah’s workshops and retreats visit DeborahEdenTull.com and check out her book The Natural Kitchen: Your Guide to the Sustainable Food Revolution and her next book: MINDFUL LIVING REVOLUTION: How to Live Sustainably from the Inside Out, is coming soon!

Mindful Eating Taste Test:   Try sitting outside with a simple piece of organic fruit (freshly picked if possible) in a non distracting place, where you can focus, get present and inhale.  Notice the texture, the color and when the pulp and juices pass from your lips into our mouth.  Notice how your taste buds respond.  You will be amazed at how much more flavor you will experience!

Image credit: Julie Solomon, EarthDay 2012, GreenBeacon.org

(Source: bodiesinspace.com)