Coaching practices for Hara Hachi Bu at Work

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Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • I lurch straight from whatever I was doing into shoveling food down, already half-checked-out before the first bite
  • With the serving bowls sitting right there on the table I just keep absentmindedly spooning out more without ever deciding to
  • My meals are built around the meat and the heavy stuff with vegetables as an afterthought, so I either leave the table overfull or I’m hungry again in an hour
  • I eat almost every meal staring at a screen, and I’ll suddenly look down to find the plate empty with no memory of tasting any of it
  • I instinctively fill the plate and then feel I have to finish it, so a sensible portion always looks sad and skimpy and leaves me feeling deprived

Practices that may help

  1. Hara Hachi Bu, Made Practical
    Hara hachi bu is the Okinawan practice of eating until you are about 80% full rather than stuffed — a cultural rule of mindful moderation, not a clinical protocol. The evidence is observational and cultural: it is one habit associated with longevity in the Okinawan "Blue Zone", which makes it suggestive rather than proven cause and effect.
  2. A pause of gratitude before eating
    Begin the meal with a brief acknowledgment, the way hara hachi bu was traditionally spoken.
    Hara Hachi Bu, Made Practical
  3. Serving from a distance, not the table
    Plate food away from where you eat so seconds require a deliberate trip.
    Hara Hachi Bu, Made Practical
  4. Making vegetables the default base
    Build meals around plants and let richer foods be accents, as the Okinawan diet does.
    Hara Hachi Bu, Made Practical
  5. Eating with full attention
    Eat without screens so you can actually notice taste and fullness.
    Hara Hachi Bu, Made Practical
  6. Eating from smaller dishes
    Use smaller plates and bowls so a full serving is a moderate amount.
    Hara Hachi Bu, Made Practical
  7. Dropping the koan into the body
    Sense the koan as a felt question in the belly and chest, not only as a thought in the head.
    Zen Koans: Inquiry Beyond Reason
  8. Personal Kanban, Made Practical
    Personal Kanban (Jim Benson & Tonianne DeMaria Barry) adapts the industrial lean-production Kanban board for individual and small-team use. Its two rules are: visualize your work and limit work in progress (WIP). The Kanban method in manufacturing has strong evidence; the personal adaptation is a practitioner system with mechanistic grounding in cognitive load and attention research but limited formal trials in personal productivity contexts.
  9. Slowing down with handmade and natural materials
    Spend time working with materials that resist efficiency — clay, soil, wood, tea — as a counter to the speed of optimised life.
    Wabi-Sabi: Finding Beauty in Imperfection
  10. Use the Done column to learn about your work patterns
    Periodically examine completed cards for patterns in what gets done, what gets stuck, and how long things actually take.
    Personal Kanban, Made Practical

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