Nourishing ourselves with food that is supportive to our wellbeing is an excellent way to bring intentionality to our lives. Happier has partnered with Forks Over Knives, who know that whole, plant-based foods are key to sustaining both ourselves and the planet in the long-term. We asked meditation teacher Dawn Mauricio to offer some tips on how to add mindfulness to the menu.
One of the things I love most about mindfulness is its versatility—it can be woven into anything we do. Even on days when a formal meditation session feels out of reach, daily activities like eating mindfully offers us multiple opportunities to be present.
For some, though, the topic of mindful eating can feel overwhelming. I know this because it was my experience for years. I had internalized the messages of diet culture so deeply that when I started reclaiming what healthy eating meant for me, I often resisted the idea of eating mindfully. It felt like just another set of rules to follow, restrictions to adopt, or more ways to practice self-criticism.
But mindful eating isn’t about rules. It’s not a list of “good” or “bad” foods, nor is it a rigid framework to master. Instead, it’s an invitation to slow down, tune in, and explore the intricate relationship between your body, heart, mind, and the food you eat.
Let me be clear: I’m not here to convince you to give up certain foods or commit to a particular way of eating. Over the years, I’ve experimented with nearly every dietary label—eating mostly white rice and processed foods for my first 25 years, then trying veganism, vegetarianism, pescetarianism, and eventually settling into what I now call “flexitarian.”
What I’ve learned is that it's about aligning your food choices with what feels nourishing, loving, and true for you. John Robbins, author of The Food Revolution, puts it beautifully:
“I don’t care whether your diet is politically correct. I care whether your food choices are consistent with your love. I care whether they bring you health, uphold your spirit, and help you fulfill your true nature and reason for being alive.”
Mindfulness is about meeting our life with a natural presence of kindness and curiosity. The simplest way to start eating mindfully is with your next snack, meal, or drink. Slow down the entire experience enough to pay attention to all that you can notice—the smells, colors, textures, sounds, thoughts, and body sensations.
Famously, the Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh used to lead an exercise in savoring a single raisin that could take up to 30 minutes. Getting tuned into our senses helps us to pick up the richness of our lives, allowing us to enjoy the crispness of fresh greens, the juicy sweetness of ripe berries, and the hearty texture of nuts.
That said, mindful eating doesn’t mean forcing yourself to eat painfully slow, especially when you’re hungry. If you’re ravenous, take a few bites to satisfy that initial hunger, and then, when you’re ready, ease into eating with more awareness.
You can even be aware of your reactions to trying to eat more mindfully: perhaps it’s exciting and interesting, or boring, or even annoying to attempt. And that’s very normal! Mindful presence allows us to bring a non-judgmental attitude to it all.
Another of my favorite ways to practice mindful eating is to reflect on everything and everyone who made the meal possible. As Maxine Hong Kingston said, “We're all under the same sky and walk the same earth; we're alive together during the same moment.” Farm-to-table is more than a catchy slogan–it’s a reminder of our interconnection.
Think about the cashier or waitress who served you, the cooks or loved ones who prepared the meal, the delivery workers who transported the food, and the farmers who planted, nurtured, and harvested the ingredients. Don’t forget the earth, sun, wind, and rain that allowed those ingredients to grow and added vital nutrients to sustain our wellbeing.
Taking the time to acknowledge these connections often fills me with a deep sense of gratitude and awe. It’s a powerful reminder of the countless ways we are all interconnected, even in the simple act of eating.
Have you ever found yourself wanting another bite of delicious food while you’re still chewing the last one? This is entirely human, tied to our natural tendency to seek more of what feels pleasant and avoid what feels unpleasant. It’s not a flaw by any means—it’s just how we’re wired. However, just because this pattern is normal doesn’t mean we don’t have agency over it. Mindful eating offers a way to pause, observe, and practice making choices with awareness.
When you sit down for a meal, take a moment before your first bite to notice how the food engages your senses. How do the sights and smells resonate with you? Perhaps they’re pleasant, like the aroma of a favorite dish. At the same time, notice any sensations of hunger, which may feel unpleasant.
Pausing in this awareness can illuminate a familiar cycle: the basic urge to eat arises from a desire to reduce the unpleasant sensation of hunger and increase the pleasure of eating. This cycle doesn’t stop after the first bite—it continues throughout the meal.
Now that you’re aware of this pattern, you can practice noticing what feels pleasant or unpleasant in your experience and the urges that come with it. Observe how your body feels: Are you still hungry? Are you full? Have you already loaded up the next forkful before you’ve even finished what’s in your mouth? Watch how the urges and habits arise, and see if it diminishes as you pause—or if it persists.
From this place of awareness, you have the freedom to choose how to respond. You might decide to savor another bite as soon as you’ve finished chewing. Or, you could wait a few moments before taking your next one. Either way, the choice comes from mindfulness, not from being on autopilot.
Knowing how mindful eating works doesn’t mean you’ll practice it perfectly all the time. And that’s okay! Mindfulness is a practice and exploration, not a destination.
Gamifying mindful eating can transform it from a task into something enjoyable and curiosity-driven.
Here are a few ways to playfully re-engage:
• Eat when you’re hungry, not just because it’s “time.” Instead of adhering strictly to mealtimes, try tuning into your body’s cues and eating when you’re genuinely hungry.
• Check in with your hunger level. Before, during, and after eating, rate your hunger on a scale from 1 to 10–where 1 is “hangry” (that unique manifestation of being so hungry you’re also angry) and 10 is uncomfortably full. Notice how your level shifts throughout the meal.
• Tune into your thoughts. As with any activity, eating can be fodder for a lot of thoughts and emotions. An easy way to break the spell is to ask “is it true?” For instance, I can notice an anxious thought like, “This might be the last chance I have to eat this!” Pausing to question whether this is true can help you decide what action to take.
• Extend the joy. If you’re no longer hungry but still want to finish something delicious, experiment with saving some for later to explore what it’s like to return to it. For me, I've found that it tastes even better when I’m hungry again. And, of course, sometimes I just polish it off, and that’s okay too.
Mindful eating isn’t about getting it right every time—it’s about noticing when you’ve drifted away from awareness, and gently returning. Each meal is an opportunity to explore, experiment, and deepen your connection to your body and food.
Have fun with it! Whether you’re savoring your favorite meal or trying to pause before the next bite, treat it as an invitation to slow down, notice what’s true, and choose with intention. Over time, you might find that mindful eating becomes less of a “practice” and more of a natural way to enjoy food—one delicious bite at a time.
