chew my food more thoroughly

The first few bites of any meal are still not chewed very well, but I’ve been catching myself and it’s been getting better. Probably bc i feel sick and can feel the unchewed food trying to work it’s way slowly down my esophogus (sp?). It’s worst with sandwiches and hamburgers or anything I don’t use a fork for…

It becomes a habit. After you keep on reminding yourself to chew your food slowly you’ll eventually just naturally remember. It’s nice because then you’ll feel fuller at the end of your meal.

...to make an entry on Gestalt psychotherapy and chewing for some time. I did a little bit of Gestalt psychotherapy back in 1999 – 2000 only for about 18 months.

Basically, and anyone with greater knowledge or experience of Gestalt please step in and correct me if I’m way off the mark here, Fritz Perls (pictured) and his co-authors saw four main resistances to experience and/or contact/communication

• introjection
• projection
• confluence
• retroflection

introjection is like “swallowing things whole” whether it be ideas, or social norms or mandates. “Chewing” things over was seen as a healthy way to rid oneself of introjects, and this was to begin with awareness of the physical process of eating food but

When it is not a matter of physical but of ‘mental’ food, how does the matter stand? ...for instance, to your intake from the printed page. Do you skip over hard paragraphs or do you work them through? Is your taste for the sweet and easy alone – light fiction or ‘feature’ stories – which you can gulp down without active response? Or do you compel yourself to partake only of ‘heavy’ literature, though you get little pleasure for your effort?

What about your visual intake at the movies? Do you fall into a kind of trance and drink in the scenes? Study this as an instance of confluence. [Gestalt Therapy, Perls, Hefferline, Goodman pp 192-3]

I think I tend to introjection, and retroflection, but the main reason I want to chew my food more thoroughly is because it tastes better when you do.

It takes some getting used to but it’s very nice once you’ve gotten the hang of it.

...this week; and chew better as well:-)

...this week…difficult thing to do consistently.

...hungry as well, which is a good thing I suppose.

...doing this gives you more energy. Makes sense, and I do seem to have a bit more energy since chewing more consciously.

...feeling stressed!

...with the veg cooked just so, using less water for steaming. Hence a lot of delicious chewing involved; must have taken a half hour to eat a bowlful! But really good.