The Yoga of Eating: Transcending Diets and Dogma to Nourish the Natural Self

Fictional works aside, I don't think I have never in my life have I so vehemently disagreed with some of the foundational assumptions of an author and yet agreed with so much. The Yoga of Eating is just such a book. My first time through, I couldn't stop reading and I had to wait for my second and third times through to actually take the time to fetch my underlining pen and highlighters. My biggest disagreement with Mr. Eisenstein is his premise that there is no Creator and the body itself is a fountain of divine wisdom if we'd only just listen. However, I found that when I substituted the idea that God had made our bodies with the ability to communicate to us what we needed to stay healthy and balanced and that we should just listen, I had a foundation I could work with. There were still places and ideas that absolutely didn't fit with my personal belief system; nevertheless, there was a lot that I think I needed to hear.For example:"The proper function of willpower and self-discipline is to extend wisdom and insight into times of imperfect clarity.""Often we use self-discipline to tell our inner voice to shut up, preferring to trust in the rational mind and its received beliefs. This is unfortunate: What if our inner appetites and urges are telling us something important?""Second-guessing and ignoring the body is what has gotten us into this mess in the first place, and we will not get out of it by imposing on the body yet another set of dietary principles, no matter how new-and-improved they might be.""Healing then is not the fixing of a miscreant body, but the removal of the impediments to self-healing, an unleashing of the body's natural repair systems.""If the body and soul are not separate, then to heal the body at the deepest level is a work of the soul."In short this book was a fountain of really good ideas for someone like me who in fighting a weight problem has increasingly picked up the bludgeon and turned it on herself. When a completely anonymous instructor on a completely impersonal video suggested that my wieght might be a reflection of a mind-body disconnect, I said (aloud) "well DUH!" At this point I don't even think of my body as part of ME. It's IT! And I am really unhappy with IT right now Thankyouverymuch. After so long a fight, so long a struggle, it should be patently obvious that it isn't diet or exercise that is my problem...or I would have be "fixed" a long time ago. This book has given me some real food for thought and perhaps the motivation to put down the bludgeon and just listen for a while. To be still. To be grateful.So what am I doing with what I learned so far? I am eating organic, minimally processed foods as much as possible (but not being dogmatic about it)...so that the signals my body receives from what I eat are as true to what God intended as possible. I have started calling artifical addditives "food lies" to increase my distaste for them. I am eating when I am hungry but paying attenion to what I am eating for as long as I am eating it. I am drinking when I am thirsty. And I am resolutely ignoring all of the myriad diet tips/dogmas that show up at this time of year. I am also pretending that this is just to make me healthy and balanced not to lose weight. Maybe if I pretend long enough I can make that last part true.If you have decided that you need to re-work your relationship with your body, with yourself, with food, this book can give you some very sound food-for-thought (in EVERY sense) for a new foundation to buttress that new relationship. STOP being pushed around by people who haven't spent a single second with your body and start to listen to your mind-body-spirit about what it needs to heal and be healthy AND support the way in which God you wants to be present in the world.

Love! It opens the perspective on food and diets in a digestible way. I’m not a very active ready and I find it easy to read.

When reading Charles Eisenstein's Ascent of Humanity a few weeks ago I was amazed at the depth and breadth of his scholarship. Unfortunately the book is so tremendous, weighing in at over 600 pages its enough to scare most people off. The Yoga of Eating is a focused piece of writing that takes all of Eisenstein's core philosophies of separation from core humanity and presents in an easily accessible 160 pages.However, while Ascent of Humanity is focused on the entire scope of existence, Yoga of Eating is solely about our attitudes and approaches to food.Charles begins by stating that, "the health crisis engulfing the modern world is a spiritual crisis, and a precocious opportunity as well. Pain and illness in the body can illuminate what is important in life." And it is that approach which forms the basis for his thesis. By listening to our body when we eat and truly, wholly trusting it we can begin to find our actual dietary needs. Modern western medical practice indicates that our bodies are imperfect and need discipline but as we have imposed more and more willpower the results have been continually diminishing.Only by practicing the occasional eating in silence, attentive eating and focus on breathing can we reunify with the sacred practice of consuming life in the form of plants and animals.To highlight one example, we will examine the sweetness of our food, something I have particularly noticed in US foodstuffs (with the emphasis on 'stuff'). This sweetness may be a result of the ever increasing desire to break free from bland lives filled with illusory "choices" between Kmart and Walmart, CBS and NBC, focusing on security above all else. The sweetness is a glimpse of the fullness of our true existence.Key to practicing the Yoga of Eating is understanding that our bodies are adapted perfectly to the conditions we have experienced. If we look at the world around us, we must understand that if I were you, I would do the same things you do. If God were you, he would do those same things. We must embrace this understanding of our perfect bodies. A body separate from a false image propagated by the establishment. By effortlessly trusting ourselves, we will likely lose weight, eat less and exercise more but without the pain and struggle of diets and willpower.Perhaps the Yoga of Eating will be too irrational for many, and if the approach Charles advocates will make you skeptical, challenge yourself by reading this book. You will not emerge from the final page the same. It is time for a call for true selfishness. When we are good to ourselves we can embrace the abundance nature provides and we can relax into the change the we most crucially desire.

This book is like your favorite band’s first album before they were signed to a major label: it has a homemade charm unmatched by the artist’s masterpieces. Eisenstein’s later work tackles huge things like progress, economics, interbeing, climate and Covid, but this little book humbly tackles all these things at once by talking about how we eat. I believe I heard Charles once dismiss this book as not one of his “real” ones, but I love it. Charles dedicates his masterpiece The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible to “the humble, whose invisible choices are healing the world.” Practically invisible among the millions of diet books, this gem is one of those humble healers.

this book contains a lot of wisdom about eating! It strongly resonates with me and has given me a healthy way to approach food. Would highly recommend, although it will also take some practice, kindness and self-compassion to really learn and apply in your own life what this book is telling.

Really good, a fresh perspective, read this if you have even the slightest of interests in health and eating!

Excellent voice but not enough variation in the songs and music

has really changed the way I eat, I now eat much slower and savour my food, its that simple, if you like it read his classic Sacred Economics - you can read it online as a gift

Fascinating book. I have applied the philosophy and methods and it has changed my way of eating. I really enjoy all sorts of food and remain a healthy weight.