THANKS TO JON KABAT ZINN, PhD and the proliferation of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) practices in research groups, medical centers, universities and Yoga studios and sanghas (spiritual communities), a practice popularly known as the raisin meditation has become both a symbol of mindful awareness and an oft-repeated mindfulness exercise. We take many foods for granted, but this may be the case for the humble raisin as, when we eat it, it disappears before we even notice the color, the wrinkles or the sweet and sour flavor of the dried fruit. In the raisin meditation, rather than simply popping it in your mouth unconsciously, you develop a relationship with the raisin. In the exercise, you gaze at the raisin, notice the color and texture, feel it, smell it, inhale its fragrance and then gradually move it towards your mouth. Before placing it in your mouth, you become aware of the moistness of the saliva in your mouth preparing your body to receive the food. Then taste it. Really taste it.
The raisin exercise is one of the cornerstones of the MBSR practice. It can be repeated with other flavors, other fruits or even a small square of chocolate, which is how I first experienced this flow of awareness on the tongue. It’s a visceral experience of both the power of attention and a way to take awareness to the act of eating. In “Delight in the Delicious,” also in this month’s issue, Dr. Lorin Roche describes another version of the raisin meditation, one poetically expressed in one of the sutras of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, a meditation practice that asks you to notice, taste and savor your food.
The raisin meditation is an integral part of the teachings and educational programs of a mindfulness center focused appropriately on food: The Center for Mindful Eating (TCME). According to TCME Cofounder and President of the Board, Jean Kristeller, PhD, the raisin meditation can open the door of awareness laying a foundation for a person to experience all foods very differently than they may have in the past.
It’s a foundation essential for people who may be struggling with eating disorders. Mindful awareness as a form of meditation is a practice with a robust dossier of research behind it. MBSR practices have been studied for everything from helping children focus more effectively in class to improving immune system function and reducing chronic pain. A preliminary study done at the University of New Mexico specifically examining how a modified mindfulness intervention affects binge eating showed a decrease in binge eating behaviors by people participating in the mindfulness practice. People also reported reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression. (1)
A study done in Australia focusing on Yoga as a treatment for binge eating, also showed positive results from a body and mind-centered physical and spiritual practice. (2)
Can you change your relationship with anxiety or depression, or even binge eating based on how you eat a raisin? As Dr. Kristeller says, the practice “opens a door of awareness and you can experience a raisin very differently from how you have in the past.” Through eating the raisin mindfully, “You can gain as much pleasure from two or three raisins as you could from a whole handful.” In a few moments, people have a different way to relate to food.
To say that with one raisin, a person’s eating disorder is cured would be overly simplistic. Through the teachings imparted by TCME, a person works with a group or facilitator to move into cultivating an awareness of the hunger experience and even takes the raisin meditation to increasingly more challenging foods, including the problem foods around which a person may have previously engaged in binge behaviors. Patterns and behaviors that were automatic start to become more consciously chosen and driven by a person’s inner wisdom rather than their emotional autopilot, by physical hunger rather than the host of other reasons that can drive different types of hunger.
“Part of what ends up happening,” as Dr. Kristeller says of people with eating disorders is that they become caught up black and white thinking about foods, caught up in an emotional struggle. Part of developing a different relationship with food is having a relationship that is not bound up in this struggle, but rather grounded in nourishment, hunger, satisfaction and satiety. When we really pay attention to taste, we may actually eat less, since, according to Dr. Kristeller, taste buds lose their sensitivity to food rather quickly. So the first few bites we eat are often the most tasty. When we overeat, we are not always actually tasting and savoring the flavor of the food. By slowing down and listening to the sensations of our taste buds, we may eat less if we have a tendency to overeat, or the extreme of this, binge eating. This is the premise of mindfulness-based practices as applied to food. Dr. Kristeller cites research data shows that people with weight problems or eating disorders are less attuned to the signals of taste in terms of degree of sweetness (for most people, overly sweet foods are unappealing). “As we are training them to tune into that experience of pleasure and satisfaction from what they’re eating, they easily begin to reconnect.” It’s about shifting relationships.
For more information about The Center for Mindful Eating, resources and training programs for therapists, visit: tcme.org.
(1) Smith, B.W., Shelley, B.M., Leahigh, L., and Vanleit, B. 2006. A Preliminary Study of the Effects of a Modified Mindfulness Intervention on Binge Eating. Complementary Health Practice Review, (11) 3, 133 – 143.
(2) IcIver, S. 2009. Yoga as a Treatment for Binge Eating: Triangulated Finds from a Mixed-Methods Controlled Trial. Abstract presented at the North American Conference on Complementary and Integrative Medicine Consortium, May 12 – 15. Imconsortium-conference.org.
By Felicia M. Tomasko, RN
