One Bowl Method: Container

In One Bowl, Don Gerrard writes (page 36):

"As you set off on your One Bowl food exploration, I want you to choose a single bowl from which to eat. This means temporarily giving up eating from a plate in your normal manner. Instead, you will eat your meals only from the bowl you've chosen for the quest. You will use your bowl extensively during this initial learning period, to help you learn to keep your attention focused on your internal food messages.

Eating from your bowl in this way will both enclose and personalize your food experience. One person told me that by always eating from a single bowl, she found a way of 'containing' her eating experience."

I identify with this notion. I am someone who tends to be more spaced out than most. I have worked to find metaphorical "containers" for myself in order to be able to focus and accomplish things in the world. So, over these past couple of days using my small bowl, this is one of the concepts I keep in mind. Containing my food in a little space imparts information to me about myself and my experience that I wouldn't have otherwise. One example is to actually see how this small amount of food satisfies me and in more ways than I would have imagined.

Today, as I sat in the sun room eating my oatmeal, I, who already chews my food many times, chose to chew it even longer to enjoy the textures and flavors and to get in more intimate touch with the process that takes place once the food has been swallowed. While paying closer attention I thought of how containment plays such an essential role in my life. I look for and use
ways to channel my thoughts, actions and plans into self-fabricated mental structures in which to facilitate moving in a linear direction instead of feeling like I'm simply suspended in space unsure of where to direct myself next. With food, it's similar. My boundaries are too expansive. My choices, limitless.

All this is to say that this little bowl, this small container affords me much relief. The boundaries are set for me. I can put whatever food I want into the bowl, but because of its size, my choices are limited. More, I have procedures to follow while I eat that give me additional ways to gauge amounts and the kinds of food I want. I can take the time to ask myself what will nourish me most. I am the receiver of a welcome gift of new perception, another range of ways to look at what I've done with food, what I'm doing now and what I can do with a future filled with fresh possibilities. This approach is compatible with who I am. This is an approach from which I have already learned so much.