Mindful Eating (Deep Play For Kids)

Enjoy this 7-minute mindful eating practice with Missy, wherever you are in your day. Missy Brown, founder of DPK, is devoted to serve and feels deeply honored to have the privilege of sharing these practices with others. This track contains instructions on how to focus on your meal.

Transcript

Hi, It's Missy with Deep Play for Kids. I'm really excited that you're here and that we're here together. Are you curious what's in the picture? There's a raisin and a chocolate chip. Did you figure them out from seeing them? So for this experience that we're about to share you'll need either a raisin or a chocolate chip. So you can pause this recording, Go get one of those or both of those and then come back and start the recording again. Okay are you ready? Find somewhere to sit comfortably so you can sit on your bed, On the couch, At a table, Anywhere that you can sit comfortably for a few minutes and have the food you chose with you. We're not gonna eat it yet and we're not going to eat it for a few minutes. So let's together take the biggest breath in that you've taken all day and then let it out with a big sigh. We're going to have a mindful eating experience. Have you heard the word mindful? So to me mindful means to be right here, To have my mind right here and my body right here and to be present. So I'm going to invite you to have the food you chose and be right here with it with me. Place the raisin or the chocolate chip on the table or desk in front of you or rest it on the palm of your hand looking at it. And imagine that you just came to earth from a distant planet and you've never seen a raisin or a chocolate chip before so you don't know what it is. You have no idea what it is and I want you to begin to explore it with your eyes. Look at it, See it, Scan it and observe what you notice about it. Is it big or small? Does it have a shape or a color? And in your mind imagine what it might feel like, Smell like and taste. Now place it in your hand and begin to explore it by touching it and observe how it feels. Is it hard? Is it smooth? Is it sticky? Is it squishy? If you roll it between your fingers or move it around does it start to feel like it melts or does it stay the same? So looking at it and feeling it and now bring it up to your nose and smell it. Bring it close to your nose and smell it. Does it smell sweet? Yummy? Does it have no smell at all? And notice if anything happening inside your mouth or your belly and then bring it up close towards your ear and move it around the outside of your ear and see if you can hear anything. Yep I'm asking you to listen to a raisin or a chocolate chip because remember you don't know what it is because you came from outer space and if it were something that could talk what might it be saying to you? Now move it up to your mouth. Don't put it in your mouth yet and notice is your mouth starting to water? Can you imagine it inside your mouth? Do your taste buds feel like they're more awake? Do you have saliva in your mouth? Is your mouth getting wet? Now we'll do this really slowly so place it in your mouth onto your tongue but don't yet chew it. Hold it on your tongue and notice and then slowly begin to move it around your tongue and really pay attention to what's happening inside your mouth. If you feel like you're doing it slowly try to slow it down even more as slowly as you can and then begin to suck on the raisin or the chocolate chip. Begin to notice how it tastes and then so slowly begin chewing it. Don't yet swallow it but chew it as if it were something that took a really long time to chew and notice does it feel like your mouth is having an explosion inside of it? A party inside of it or are you feeling frustrated because you're having to wait and be patient and you just want to eat it really quickly and when you feel ready you can now chew it and swallow it. So that was a mindful eating experience that might be the most slow you've ever eaten one small raisin or one small chocolate chip and just check in and think about these questions. Was there anything that was surprising? What did you notice and where was your mind? Was it challenging or difficult to be patient or were you getting excited? Did the raisin or chocolate chip taste different than any one raisin or chocolate chip you've ever eaten? Was it silly to think about not knowing what it was and what it might say to you or how did it smell? I'm just curious for you to ask yourself these questions and notice that we've now spent five minutes together and your mind might have been on oh I really want to eat this or how long is this gonna take or this is so silly but your mind was here and even if you heard noises in the background like the phone ringing or somebody talking I wonder if your mind felt like it was here. That's what I'm talking about. That's being mindful. You were right here with this raisin or this chocolate chip and with me. So next time you're doing something whether it's watching something on television or reading a book or brushing your teeth or eating dinner see if you can come back to this experience and pay a little more careful attention to what you're doing when you're doing something to be a little more mindful and a little more present.