Eating Standing Up

And other eating disorders

Recently I stumbled across some information from some long-bearded Indian mystic that, according to the title of the missive, was preaching that eating standing up was energetically negative and depleting. I had a brief moment of excitement because that is something that I have always believed.

I try not to have any beliefs but I quickly realized that I had one. I was not sure where this belief came from but thinking about it I remembered that one of my grandmothers always used to say, “If you eat standing up then everything goes down to your feet.”

Even as a small kid I realized this was pure bullshit. If you eat something it will go down to your gastrointestinal system and then be eliminated from your body long, long before it ever gets down to your feet. Am I right?

But I also realized that eating was a sacred thing and how we eat helps determine not only the energetic value we receive but also the level of enjoyment we experience in the sacred act of eating. I have long felt that eating is something that is best done in a very relaxed and joyous state. Those who have read my blabberings for any length of time also know that I think eating is always best done out of doors.

When I eat I try not to be distracted by anything. I never eat with the TV on. I never eat while I am doing something else. I never eat while driving. I never eat while walking. I never eat while writing. I never eat standing up. And I sure as hell never eat in bed!

I try to always be in a state of conscious presence while eating. I try to put all my focus/attention on the sacred act of eating. I not only want to savor every flavor of the food I am eating but I also want to FEEL the energy contained in what I am eating. I prefer eating to be a consecrated act of consuming energy rather than a compulsive act of stuffing an energetic hole my body is expressing. I take eating seriously.

(I also take cooking seriously. I consider it an integral part of eating.)

But as I listened further to what this Indian guru-dude had to say I was surprised when he said that whenever we eat we should always have our legs crossed.

WTF?

This is something I have never heard before. As I read further I realized that he made some very good points, as far as energy goes. It is all about energy, right?

This made me think and I realized that when I usually eat I do indeed have my legs crossed. But unless I am out in nature, where eating produces the highest levels of energy, I am usually sitting at a table eating… and I almost always have my legs crossed. For a brief moment I felt as though I have been doing things correctly.

But then the bearded guru-dude said that the very best way to eat was sitting on the ground with one’s legs crossed Indian style. By ‘Indian style’ he was not referring to the Western notion of sitting like a Native American (which is probably very similar). He was referring to the Yogic concept of sitting in a lotus position. He also stated that it was always best to eat with one’s fingers rather than with metallic utensils.

I suddenly felt like a pathetic failure. Thanks to a horrific war injury I sustained way, way back in the 1970s I am literally, physically, mentally, and emotionally incapable of sitting in the lotus position. (It is why yoga instructors will have nothing to do with me.) I am simply unable to sit like that (without ending up in the emergency room).

But when I eat I do sit in a chair with my legs crossed at a table (which I learned is the best way to eat on a first date with a woman) and this is far, far better than eating standing up. So maybe I am not lost forever to any hopes of enlightenment. I never eat standing up so just maybe there is hope for me yet.

I learned that eating in a state of profound presence with my legs crossed grounded to the Earth — and obviously in nature is optimal — that we can optimize our eating habits and thereby increase our vibratory frequency by following a few guidelines, and this can send us into greater spiritual awareness and move us ever forward into spiritual enlightenment.

Seriously, how aware are we of how we eat? In today’s culture it is all about what we eat with little to no focus on how we eat.

How do you eat?

Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved. Thanks for reading.

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