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Final Words: Everyone has their own light. What is yours? Can you bring it forth to help give life to the world?

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Your Stomach

The Exercise: Become aware of sensations coming from the area you call “the stomach.” Check in with this area before and after meals. What can your stomach tell you about hunger and fullness?

REMINDING YOURSELF

Post the word “Stomach” or simple images of a stomach in various places, including where you eat.

DISCOVERIES

In our mindful-eating retreats, I ask people to become aware of signals coming from their stomach. We explore the question “How do I know I am hungry?” We also ask people to check in with their stomach before, halfway through, and at the end of a meal, to see how full or empty it is. Many people are surprised to realize that they have lost touch with their stomach. They are aware of sensations in the abdomen only when they are extreme, when the stomach is growling and complaining about being empty, or when it is “stuffed” full and complaining about being uncomfortably stretched. When people undertake mindfulness of the stomach, checking in with their stomach before meals, they often discover that they are sitting down to eat a complete meal even when the signals from the stomach say that it is already full. They are eating just because the clock says noon or six P.M.

Researchers from Columbia University showed that over-weight people have a much greater tendency to ignore the signals from their stomach and be influenced by external factors such as how attractively the food is presented or even what time they think it is. If a clock is manipulated to read noon when it is actually ten o’clock, they will eat a full lunch. Normal-weight people will not, because they are attuned to internal rather than external signals to tell them when they are hungry and when they are full.

People who chronically overeat or binge on food are overriding the “I’m full” signal from their stomach. If they do this long enough, the signal strength seems to fade, and they have to learn to “listen” to their stomach again. The people of Okinawa are among the world’s longest-lived. They have a saying, hara no hachi bu, which means “eat until you are four-fifths full” (literally eight parts out of ten). The first four parts support your good health, but if you eat that last fifth, it will support your doctor. People who learn to check in with their stomach several times during a meal almost always find that they feel quite satisfied with less food than they are normally accustomed to eating.

Mindful eating teaches us to pay attention to the wisdom of our individual body. Some people find that their stomach is quite relaxed in the early morning and that hunger signals do not arise until ten or eleven o’clock. They have been eating breakfast at seven A.M. for decades because as children they were told that they couldn’t do well in school if they didn’t have a hearty breakfast. To their surprise, they discover that if they put off eating the first meal of the day until hunger signals arise, their energy level remains good and their mind is clearer. They may also discover that their body is asking for vegetables or soup for that late “breakfast,” not their usual sweetened cereal or pancakes with syrup. Other people discover that they are like hummingbirds. They need an early breakfast and feel best if they eat small amounts often. Each of us is unique.

DEEPER LESSONS

One mindful-eating exercise involves eating just one small bit of food, such as a single raisin or strawberry, very slowly, with full attention. Many people who do this exercise are amazed, when they check in with their stomach afterward, to find that they feel completely full. They exclaim, “How can I feel full after eating only one raisin? I’ve never eaten only one raisin in my life! What have I been ignoring?”

There is one aspect of feeling full that is physical. But there is a much more important aspect, the experience of satisfaction, that