September has been a busy month at the new IC and we have been surrounded by great positive energy from this community. Thank you for being here with us during this special time.

In addition to opening our new space this month, our son is in preschool now and for the first time in our lives, we are among you parents feeling the crunch and anxieties that come along with the start of a new school year. To help calm my nerves, I have been reading Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, “Peace Is Every Step” because it’s organized into short chapters about different ways to practice mindfulness in everyday life. I have talked about emotional eating with you guys before, but this time instead of focusing on weight loss, I thought I would give you an excerpt from Thich Nhat Hanh’s chapter about mindful eating in the spirit of cultivating peace and family time at the dinner table.

Maya

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“Eating a meal in mindfulness is an important practice. We turn off the TV, put down the newspaper, and work together for five or ten minutes setting the table and finishing whatever needs to be done… After breathing, we smile. Sitting at the table with other people, we have a chance to offer an authentic smile of friendship and understanding… we look down at the food in a way that allows the food to become real. This food reveals our connection with the earth. Each bite contains the life of the sun and our planet. The extent to which our food reveals itself depends on us. It is possible to see and taste the whole universe in a piece of bread! Contemplating our food for a few seconds before eating, and eating in mindfulness, can bring us much happiness.

…In order to aid mindfulness during meals, you may like to eat silently from time to time. Your first silent meal may cause you to feel a little uncomfortable, but once you become used to it, you will realize that meals in silence bring much peace. Just as we turn off the TV before eating, we can turn off the talking in order to enjoy the food and the presence of one another.

I do not recommend silent meals every day. Talking to each other is a wonderful way to be together in mindfulness. But we have to distinguish among different kinds of talk. Some subjects can separate us: for instance, if we talk about other people’s shortcomings at the dinner table. The carefully prepared food will have no value if we let this kind of talk dominate our meals… So, while eating, we should refrain from discussing subjects that can destroy our ability to be present with our family and with our food… When instead we speak about things that nourish our awareness of the food and our being together, we cultivate the kind of happiness that is necessary for us to grow… Eating mindfully brings life in and makes life real.”

-Thich Nhat Hahn (Zen monk nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King, Jr.)