The Intimacy of Chopsticks

When you engage with your food, are you taking time to savor the precious moments of succulent energy entering your mouth that restores, rejuvenates and heals the body? Or are you scarfing down food in a rush with little concern to how your body feels or reacts to it?

When I first arrived in Yicheng, China with my husband I wasn’t so sure about using chopsticks.

I raised concerns like;

“How will I get enough food in my mouth?”

“How will I be able to grab my food?”

“I can’t get the right combinations of food in my mouth with my chopsticks like I can    with a spoon or a fork.”

“Oh my gawdd..I am eating soooo slow!”

I didn’t quite understand in the beginning that using chopsticks were actually helping me digest my food better by only enabling me to grasp and chew small quantities of food with each bite. I noticed that I didn’t feel too bloated or heavy after meals, and I became full faster with much less food eaten.

The act of consciously eating unlocked a whole new door in my mind. I began to notice how I looked at the food when I was eating. How I actively had to look at every piece of food to grasp it as I put it into my mouth. In those conjuring moments, it cultivated a great sense of intimacy unlike I have ever experienced with food. The joy of every sensation, the beautiful colors and smells that electrified every nerve system in my body.  I adorned the rows and bundles of food cascading on my plate. I loved on the nutrients entering my body like never before. I looked at my food with pure happiness and joy sending high vibrational energy to my food which in return was sent back to me. It was pure ecstasy.

This experience was so profound to me that I began to think about why I never noticed this simple pleasure before. I had one of those great “ah hah!” moments that strung it all together. As an American born native, I grew up around fast food. I was surrounded by quick “in and out” stops and restaurants that promote high turnover of tables which in my opinion,  don’t nurture the act of bonding with your food. The food was cooked in a rush as I rushed with the accessibility to use a fork or spoon. Stacks of food bunched into one stabbing fork as waited at the red-light or crammed to finished a paper for college. It was pure madness in hindsight.

We often eat with forks and spoons that allow us to eat so fast that it can cut out so much of the intimacy and pure moments of connection with our food. Everything is energy, we ourselves are literally energy. What we transmit is what we get, what we focus our attention on attracts. Focusing my attention on a well-crafted meal, choosing to see each lovingly prepared piece as it enters my body aligned a deep sense of  interconnectedness. Something that you yourself could feel with the use of learning how to use chopsticks, allowing the magic to unfold. Food gives us life, it supplies life, it grows life, it is life. We should slow down when we eat and show gratitude whether it be with a fork, spoon , knife, spork, or chopsticks. I encourage you to try eating with chopsticks and see what differences you notice. It might just change your life.