For how much food is such important to every person’s everyday life, I think it says very important things about the life I am able to live where I don’t need to worry about my hunger. Because I don’t need to worry about my access to food it and answer to questions I have about my hunger may seem as simple to me as, “if you are hungry, then eat.” It is often difficult for me to think about the such substantial amount of hunger that is in the world if I have never experienced it myself. It was very important for me to take time to listen to and digest the thoughts of how abundant hunger is in the world and how debilitating it can be.

One thing that I think really helped me better understand the point of this contemplative practice was that I went into it having barely eaten anything in almost 24 hours. In the buildup to this exercise I found myself being able to barely focus on anything other that how hungry I was. I felt more tired, it was more difficult to concentrate on classes, and my body felt uncomfortable.

Once I was able to settle and listen to the contemplative practice I was able to think more deeply not just about how hunger was affecting me at that moment, but how people experience that feeling that I had nearly every day without the ability to even know when they could eat next or how much they are able to eat. I think in a class like ours when we take the systems approach to things like hunger, it can often be difficult for us to think about these issues more individually, I think it can really help us understand what people are going through if we take time and really think about how hunger can affect ourselves and others.

Photo Credit: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/oct/13/food-diet-what-you-eat-affects-brain-health-dementia#img-1