Last month, I hosted a meditation meal.
The concept was pretty straightforward and also incredible opaque. Guided meditation X eating food. Even I wasn’t quite sure what it was going to be like. But I kept getting the idea in my head and… you know… yolo.
I knew why I wanted to try this though. The idea popped into my head, funnily enough, from one of the strangest apps I’ve ever experienced. When my SIBO was at its worst, a doctor recommended Nerva to me. This is a meditation/hypnosis app that is supposed to help manage stomach problems through a “science-backed digital program”. Basically you do six weeks of meditations where you’re guided into little universes where you imagine your belly working properly. Rivers, mountains, forests – across every ecosystem, the stomach functions.
Let’s face it: the app is undeniably weird. It definitely prompts some confusing mental discourse around the power of the brain in how we feel physically — still no answer there, tbh. But it did teach me something specific and valuable: when the nervous system is calm before eating, food digests better.
When we’re agitated (or just in a certain focused zone), they say that blood moves from our core to our arms and legs. This is connected to fight or flight – in other words, when we feel stressed (or even very awake and motivated) we’re ready to defend or run if need be. This makes sense, intellectually. It also kind of makes sense culturally – we’re typically in a hurry when we eat and also: we have been pretty conditioned to pay attention to what food we eat and focus on. Which means that when we’re ready to eat, even if our brains our excited, our bodies can often be like WILL THIS BE GOOD FOR ME IS THIS THE RIGHT THING? This is a reasonable phenomenon; food costs money, food affects the way our bodies look, food can often feel like the answer to an urgent question. This can invite some very human futility. This is partially why a person can even eat very healthfully, but still not be able to process food well.
And I certainly am a little bug that gets caught in this tricky web. But, when I’ve sought council, most of the methodologies I’ve been presented with to aid digestion honestly do not sound that fun. Chew 10000k times probably works but at the cost of immense boredom and who is trying to count?? Not me. I’ve also been told “zero distractions”. But reading while eating can be one of life’s great joys. And watching a show while eating? If you’re not doing it to go totally numb? Honestly can too.
So I was like: okay. What if we calm the nervous system, and then we eat? Of course, it risked sounding overly esoteric. But that wouldn’t be the first time, and it ain’t about to stop now.
In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker writes “the first step in convening people meaningfully: committing to a bold, sharp purpose.” Can something be sharp and opaque at the same time? The only thing I can think of is a sunset.
My mission was so clearly blunt and vague to me that this contrast is almost funny. I’m not belittling myself! I’m just saying that for me, there’s sometimes magic in mystery. Or perhaps I just love the thrill of rebellion.
The day that the event happened, it was immensely rainy. Honestly, in the days that preceded it, I was feeling vulnerable and considered cancelling about 8 times a day. However, people had signed up and I had at least broken even. In the car on the way over, I whispered to myself in my head: you don’t have to plan.
I had already prepped food, and the concept was still life/momento mori. This is sort of my forever-inspo: the Dutch still-life assemblage of things in the midst of dying, on their way to a different incarnation. Ripe, ripening, and then over-ripe. I had chosen bitter greens, fruits, seaweeds, cheeses in different stages of decay. I had made a focaccia with flowers. I rarely am totally satisfied with how my food turns out (not in a sad way, just in a way where I can always do better). For everything, I blamed the rain.
The event started as the sun went down, giving the feeling of endless early evening. The rain kept going, for the most part. I set up all the food on a table lit by a Hue lightbulb (I kept gleefully changing the color over and over, tapping my phone with my index finger, mesmerized like a child).
The vibe was this: I lead a guided meditation. As you feel moved to, you can get up and go get food. One by one, people did. The crunching was amazing. I won’t go into too much detail about the specifics of how it all worked out, but it was beautiful and you know what? It was easy. I was happy, but not terribly surprised.
Everyone slowly blinked eyes open, chatted, gathered leftovers, and went home. I forgot to take pictures, I was thankful in real-time for those who did. I noticed an inclination to speak in a whisper, not to be quiet but because of being close. We were in a loft, but it felt higher up than it was. Outside, the night felt warm. The rain had stopped, so all we had was mist.
Thank you for everyone who came <3 thank you to those who will come in the future <3 more soon xo