Beyond the Cushion: Food, Gathering, and Community as Mindfulness Practice
About this episode
This episode explores how food and community serve as profound mindfulness practices beyond traditional meditation.
What if one of the most profound mindfulness practices isn't found on a meditation cushion, but around a table instead? In this conversation, meditation teacher Meryl Arnett sits down with anthropologist, meditation teacher and author Dr. Ashanté Reese to explore how food nourishes not only our bodies, but our histories, our communities, and our capacity to care for one another. As Our Mindful Nature enters its final series after 11 years, this episode opens a rich exploration of food as a doorway into everyday mindfulness. Dr. Reese is the author of Gather: Black Food, Nourishment, and the Art of Togetherness, and together she and Meryl examine the gardens, family reunions, repasts, and mutual aid spaces where ancestors are honored, cultural traditions are sustained, and communities practice radical hospitality, all as expressions of mindfulness itself. What To Expect: - Why the meditation cushion is just one small entry point into a much larger awakeness - The meaning of nourishment beyond food: tending to our social bodies, preserving memory, and cultivating belonging - How gathering around food has historically been communal, and what we lose when we treat it as purely…
People in this episode
Host: Meryl Arnett
Guest: Dr. Ashanté Reese
Topics covered
- mindfulness
- food
- community
- nourishment
- cultural traditions
- hospitality
Keywords
- mindfulness
- food
- community
- nourishment
- hospitality
- cultural traditions
- meditation
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Gather: Black Food, Nourishment, and the Art of Togetherness
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