How to Train a Wild Elephant_ And Other Adventures in Mindfulness - Jan Chozen Bays [63]
I met a woman two years after she attended a mindful-eating workshop and was surprised to see that she had lost forty unneeded pounds. I asked her what she had done, and she said, “I asked myself why I ate. I realized it was because I wanted to bring my body to a sense of peace. So I began eating every meal mindfully, checking in with my body frequently as I ate. As soon as my body felt at peace, I stopped eating.” Mindful eating opens our awareness to the full experience, the full satisfaction of eating. Mindfulness applied to all our activities opens our awareness to the full satisfaction of living a human life.
Some people confuse anxiety with hunger, because many of the sensations of those two experiences are the same—a gnawing feeling in the belly, difficulty thinking, feeling shaky or light-headed. If they eat when anxious, their unease may increase, because they are eating against their body and against what they know to be healthy. When we apply mindfulness, we can separate what the stomach is telling us (“I’m still full and busy processing lunch”), from what the mind is telling us (“I’m anxious because we have to finish that report by five o’clock”), from what our heart is saying (“I’m feeling lonely because my sweetie is out of town for three days”). Only when we know which part of us is hungry can we nourish ourselves in a healthy way. The food we need might be a sandwich, but it might just as often be a phone call to someone we love.
Final Words: Listen to the wisdom of your stomach. It can help guide you to better health and greater satisfaction.
50
Become Aware of Your Center
The Exercise: Become aware of your center of gravity. It is located in the center of the lower abdomen, about two inches below the navel, and midway between the front abdominal wall and the spine in back. In martial arts this center of gravity is called the hara (in Japanese) or tan tien (in Chinese).
Whenever your mind wanders, bring your attention back to your center of gravity. Try to initiate all physical actions from this spot in your body—whether you’re reaching, walking, bending, and so on. You can even chop food in this way. Let each chop of the knife originate in the hara, flow down the arm into the hand, into the knife, and through the vegetable.
REMINDING YOURSELF
In appropriate places post the words “Center of Gravity” or pictures of a body with a red dot in the lower abdomen to represent the hara. You might wear something under your clothing on your lower belly that will create unusual sensations to remind you of the task, such as a soft sash or a Band-Aid.
DISCOVERIES
Ordinarily we initiate actions from our head. Our mind commands our arms and hands to reach out and pick up something that we want to use or eat. Our body is somewhat passive, waiting for the puppeteer in our head to pull the strings and hoist us up into action. In Zen practice and in the martial arts students are instructed to move in a more dynamic and integrated way, by becoming aware of their center of gravity, or hara, and allowing each action to flow from that imaginary spot. When they get up from a chair, it is as if the hara gets up and the rest of the body just follows. When walking, it is as if the hara is moving steadily forward, and the legs are merely moving beneath it. We can also stand with focus on the hara, knees slightly bent and weight equally distributed between the two legs.
People who play sports often make use of their center of gravity. A tennis player waiting for a return volley and a football player running with the ball both crouch to keep their center low. Their speed, flexibility, and agility spring from that center. A golfer rotates his body around that center when taking a swing. Paddling a canoe or kayak