Zen and the art of drinking beer

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I receive the question quite often about meditation in my clinical practice. What is meditation? How do I do it? And what are the benefits? Quite simply, meditation is the intentional practice of experiencing life in the present moment. It's about realizing the power of now vs. the power of the past or future.

When we meditate, we can feel our breath trickle past our nose, tickle our throat, and expand our lungs and diaphragm. It is the moment when we lie down in bed after a long day, and luxuriate in the warmth and comfort of the sheets. And it is the sipping and enjoyment of a frosty mug of beer.

Drinking beer can be a meditative practice. Or not. The binge drinking of our college years in which we slurped down cans of Natural Light was mindless. What we are seeking is mindful activity. If you go to a pub and request an aromatic Pliny the Elder or a Brother David's Double, first observe the beer. Watch the colors, the swirling of the amber liquid, and the haze created by unfiltered and cask-conditioned ale. Then bring the glass to your nose and take a whiff. This can actually be one of the best parts of drinking beer, enjoying the nose.

On an IPA or Pale Ale, you'll usually enjoy a floral or citrusy bouquet followed by a sweet and then bitter taste when drunk. On a nut brown ale, the smell will usually be more subdued and slightly nutty. The flavor profile will be sweet and malty. As we sip our beer, wash the liquid over different parts of the tongue. Taste the different flavors as the beer is finally swallowed and note how "thick" or "thin" the flavor is. And as we open our eyes, we've finished a meditation session.

During this time, we haven't thought about our job, holiday shopping or our weight loss diet. We've focused on each moment as it passed before us and experienced it fully. That is the power of meditation: to embrace each moment and not yearn for something else.

We can meditate on anything we choose. Some people meditate using their breath or on yoga poses. Anything can be used for the practice of meditation, for the practice of mindful living. So next time you lift up a frosty glass of beer, just tell everyone around you that this is part of your spiritual practice.

posted by Sung on 12/23/2008 10:23 pm | COMMENTS (3)

Comments (3)

This is great! It's encouraging to know that meditation can be practiced anywhere, any time. My brother brews reallllly goooood beer, so I definitely can appreciate this post. Thank you!

posted by heartofnature on 12/24/2008 6:48 am

I love to make my own beer. Especially makeing the best pilsner. That perfectly light neutral hop and malt sparkling kind. Unfortunately you have to drink 5 gallons within a few days.

But since having a pace makeer implanted a few weeks ago I cannot drink. This is more to do with exatic meds than this device.

I agree one can contemplate, imagine or even deep concentration excercises of beer, but just living in the stuper of a great taste does its own imagination.

Far from what I reserve for the cosmic light of meditation. But words are in the hands of the beholder. Words are only important as a means to the end of understanding or in this case enlightment with others. But then on a journey of the one self to one all what are words anyway.

posted by cayuse on 12/25/2008 10:04 am

Collegiate excess has repercussions far beyond hangovers and missed classes, and should be of concern to members of the surrounding community. "Binge drinking hurts not only the drinker but also others near him," says Henry Wechsler, Ph.D., a lecturer at the Harvard school of Public Health, where he was also the director of the College Alcohol Study, and author of Dying to Drink: Confronting Binge Drinking on College Campuses. "The binge drinker disturbs the peace, through noise, vandalism and sometimes violence. Like secondhand smoke, binge drinking pollutes the environment."

"The [social] cost of alcohol is in the billions of dollars. Roughly half the total is related to what's called alcohol addiction," says Paul Gruenewald, scientific director of the Prevention Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, which is funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

"The other half is related to other harms that happen to people when drinking; primarily drunk driving, drunk driving crashes, pedestrian injuries, violent assaults, and various criminal behaviors and various injuries," Gruenewald said.

"It's not a pretty picture. It's quite ugly from the public health point of view. It's a much bigger problem than crime related to illegal drugs," he added.

Alcohol, not marijuana, is the most abused drug in the United States. There are an estimated eight million known alcoholics in America, and the number increases by 450,000 every year. One survey reported that 75 percent of all crimes and 60 percent of all divorces have drinking in their background. The National Safety Council reports 50 percent of all traffic deaths are caused by drunk drivers.

According to Dr. John MacDougall, over seven percent of the adult population in the United States suffers from alcoholism, resulting in decreased productivity, accidents, crime, mental and physical disease and disruption of family life. Excessive consumption of alcohol leads to liver disease, cancer, birth defects (fetal alcohol syndrome) and multiple vitamin deficiency diseases.

A report by the World Health Organization states that "Alcohol is a poison to the nervous system. The double solubility of alcohol in water and fat enables it to invade the nerve cell. A man may become a chronic alcoholic without ever having shown symptoms of drunkenness." The conclusion of the report is that nobody is immune to alcoholism and total abstinence is the only solution.

Dr. MacDougall writes that excessive consumption of caffeine leads to an elevated heart rate, irregular heart beat, increased blood pressure, frequent urination, increased gastric secretion, nervousness, irritability and insomnia. Caffeine is known to cause birth defects in animals, and may do the same in humans. Caffeine stimulates the growth of breast cells, causing benign lumps.

Excessive intake of caffeine may cause a rise in blood fats. Cancer of the urinary bladder has been linked to caffeine use and it contributes to loss of calcium from the body. Moreover, the body actually becomes physically addicted to caffeine. Withdrawal symptoms include headaches, drowsiness, tension and anxiety.

Pregnant women who consume caffeine -- even about a cup of coffee daily -- are at higher risk of giving birth to an underweight baby, researchers said. The findings published in the British Medical Journal also linked any source of caffeine, including that from tea, cola, chocolate and some prescription drugs, to relatively slower fetal growth.

The findings are the latest in mounting evidence indicating the amount of caffeine a person consumes may directly impact one's health, especially when pregnant. In January, U.S. researchers found that pregnant women who drink two or more cups of coffee a day are at twice the risk of having a miscarriage as those women who avoid caffeine.

Babies born underweight are more likely to develop a range of health conditions when they grow older, including high blood pressure, diabetes and heart problems.

Women who drank one to two cups of coffee daily, or between 100-199 milligrams, had a 20 percent increased risk of having a baby of low birth weight, the study found. This was compared to women who consumed less than 100 milligrams daily.

"Caffeine consumption during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of fetal growth restriction and this association continued throughout pregnancy," Justin Konje at the University of Leicester in Britain and colleagues wrote.

"Sensible advice would be to reduce caffeine intake before conception and throughout pregnancy."

Konje and his team -- which included researchers from the University of Leeds -- looked at 2,645 women at an average age of 30 who were between 8 and 12 weeks pregnant.

The women reported an average caffeine consumption during pregnancy of 159 milligrams per day, lower than new recommended limits of 200 milligrams in Britain.

The likelihood of having a low birth weight baby rose to 50 percent for women who consumed between 200 milligrams and 299 milligrams each day, about two to three cups of coffee.

The impact was about the same as from alcohol and the association with low birth weight was maintained throughout a woman's pregnancy, the study found.

Even small amounts may prove harmful but Konje said in a telephone interview the best advice was to limit caffeine consumption to below 100 milligrams a day.

"We couldn't say that there was a lower limit for which there is no effect," he said. "My advice is if possible to reduce caffeine intake to a minimum. You have to be realistic because you can't ask people to stop taking caffeine."

posted by vasumurti on 1/ 6/2009 1:08 pm