As humans we experience competing demands. Demands for our time. Demands for our money. Demands for our attention and focus. Demands for our love and affection. As practitioners of mindful eating, we come to understand that our mind, our body and our heart have competing demands. Our mind wants chocolate but our body wants broccoli. Our heart wants love, but the mind demands ice cream. Sometimes, in an effort to address these competing demands, we create rigid rules and guidelines (think, diets) or we abandon all hope and give up (call that a binge).
Buddha understood that neither extreme works. He advised that we pursue a middle way. He called this practice “taming.” This middle road has its challenges of course, but with mindfulness we can see where those challenges are and help ourselves navigate them. Taming your appetite is the middle ground between restrictive dieting and excessive consumption. It is the road between all and nothing. It is the road to peace with food and mindful habits. Using mindful meditation as your foundation you can find your way in a world of ubiquitous food choices and unceasing demands.
