I think I understand. But remembering some of the secular mindfulness literature I have read, its generally emphasized that enjoyment is not the point, but awareness is. One should, so they say, not attempt to force experience in any particular direction, what you're feeling is what you're feeling, etc. If one does not feel any drama or excitement than the instruction as I understand it would be to notice that and any thoughts, emotions, feelings (hedonic tone) or "bodily sensations" associated with that, how they come and go on their own, etc.binocular wrote: ↑Mon Nov 20, 2017 5:26 pm I don't want to overstate things, but with food, I seem to have defaultet to a sense of "This is what this taste is like", but without any drama or excitement to it. And it's this lack of drama and excitement that make such a difference and which I resent. There are all these mindfulness folks, and celebrity chefs, and psychologists who talk about enjoying food etc. -- and I can't relate to them or keep up with them.
The "point" from the clinical point of view is simply to teach people to see thoughts as thoughts, feelings as feelings, etc, instead of reacting to them as substantial per usual, as this reaction and the cognitive distortion it is based on is what tends to trigger cascades of rumination ("I need to get rid of this, time to start ruminating") in those prone to depression or anxiety, cascades that are sticky for these folks precisely because they do NOT view thoughts as thoughts in the first place, for example, but as reality, which just feeds into another cycle of rumination ad infinitum.
(I know you know this, but I'm not advocating this approach per se, just reiterating what I've read these folks say)