Eating Is Rebirth

To eat is to recreate yourself -- literally, not metaphorically.

Each meal is the beginning of a metabolic rebirth. The physical you that you currently are is about to die as you replace yourself with a new you that you are about to create with the help of what you are eating.

Each meal is also the beginning of a psychological rebirth -- unless you are eating mindlessly, on autopilot. The psychological you that you currently are -- your thoughts, feelings, sensations -- is about to die (change) with the experience of your next eating moment. If you are eating mindfully, if you are in the moment, the field of awareness that you are is about to renew itself. A single moment of mindful eating is a psychological reincarnation upon itself, a new mini-lifetime, however fleeting.

The wheel of eating is the wheel of psycho-physical rebirth.

As you sit down to your next meal, recognize yourself as your own creator. Feel the freedom and the responsibility that come with this act of eating recreation.

Adapted from "Reinventing the Meal" (Somov, New Harbinger 2012).

Pavel Somov, Ph.D. is the author of six mindfulness-based self-help books; he writes about how to use mindfulness to overcome anger, overeating, perfectionism and self-esteem problems. He is the author of "Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time," "Present Perfect: A Mindfulness Approach to Letting Go of Perfectionism and the Need to Control," "Lotus Effect: Shedding Suffering & Rediscovering Your Essential Self." Find out more about Dr. Somov at www.eatingthemoment.com