I take meal time very seriously. I am one of those people who finds no delight in bragging about being too busy that I don’t get to eat. I enjoy meal time, I enjoy setting out time in my day to sit, eat my food, take in the flavours and think about nothing more than each bite.

Unfortunately however I do not work in the kind of space where this is celebrated. In my line of work it is almost expected that you be willing to miss out on meal time in order to make this or that deadline. I am happy to say that amidst all of this pressure I have maintained my right to have a meal away from my laptop at least most of the time.

I recently watched an interview with Tracee Ellis Ross who was being interviewed by Oprah. Tracee as we all know has come to not only be known as a talented actress, a businesswoman, the daughter of a legend but also as a self care goddess living what she terms “a joyful and juicy life”. I am a big fan of Tracee, I have loved her and watched her since her time on Girlfriends where she played the role of Joan, who I can only describe as the poster child for the careful black girl. I identified with Joan, and I thought Tracee was hilarious (I also appreciated that she represented those of us who are lacking in cup size).

Anyway back to the interview. In the interview Tracee said something very interesting about meditation in which she said she defines it as “doing what you’re doing when you’re doing it” . I thought this view on meditation was brilliant because it made it possible to do it everywhere and in everything. As though reading my mind Tracee went on to describe how she tries to do this while eating her food, specifically soup, which forces you to slow down, sit down and eat.

Since watching this I have been even more adamant about my meal time. I am working through a lot of beliefs that I thought I’d let go off about what it means to be productive, worthwhile and valuable. I am unlearning the belief that in order for me to be any of the things I’d like to be for my team I have to become anxious, overworked and unable to take time off to eat when the time comes.

The commitment to this sort of resolution requires me to be okay with going at it alone. This means sometimes delaying my meal time until a task is done so I can be fully present with my food. It sometimes looks like sitting cross legged at my desk with my laptop closed and eating my food while listening to music. And sometimes it means having meal time by myself because no one else shares my beliefs around food and meditation. However the commitment to my resolution shows up, part of doing what I am doing while I do it is me accepting that it won’t always look the way I want it to be and sometimes I’ll have to be flexible enough to let go of my perfect picture. But sometimes, only sometimes, it also means insisting that it needs to be the way I want it to be, even if it is for myself and by myself.