Hey there everybody,
This is Kristen from Teaching Balance and I'm here with you with this week's mindfulness meditation practice.
We are in the month of November,
The month of gratitude,
And in this month of course is Thanksgiving.
And if my calculations are correct,
This is the practice that will go out the Monday before Thanksgiving.
And so it felt rather apropos to touch on the topic of mindful eating and drinking.
So here's a little bit of regarding what I have to say about that.
So whenever I have taught formal meditation courses or classes in person,
I'm trying to think,
I think we did this even when I went on my very first mindfulness retreat.
Inevitably,
It seems that there's always this practice around the idea of mindful eating.
And the way that it goes usually is that it's about eating one raisin,
But you could do with anything.
You could do with a blueberry,
You could do with a,
I don't know,
Peanut M&M.
The point of the whole practice is that you consume this food item very slowly and with intent,
Mindful focus.
Now we're not going to do anything like that right now,
Of course.
However,
Here's my invitation to you when it comes to applying the elements of that practice and really just having some fun with it and seeing if it resonates with you.
So besides giving the participant a concrete object for them to focus on,
Which is sometimes a lot easier than maybe the breath or whatever it might be,
What you do in this case,
I'll reference the raisin,
You're looking at it,
You're touching it,
You're smelling it,
Does it make a noise,
All that kind of stuff.
And you're really doing nothing else but giving this food item your complete attention.
And there is something to be said for that because we do often consume our food,
Particularly if it's during the workday,
We consume it in a way where we're not always giving whatever we're eating or drinking our full attention.
Maybe you're like reading something,
Maybe you're watching TV,
Maybe you're in engrossing conversation with someone else and it just becomes a little bit more habitual to just eat and experience it,
But not really to have that full sensory experience be the object of your complete awareness.
And that's fine by the way,
No big deal.
I mean I love reading while I'm eating my lunch or something like that.
And there's also value to giving things your full attention.
And I would even go so far as to say on this holiday,
Which is very much around the consumption of food and drink and in particular sweets and things like that,
Is just to play with this idea of,
Perhaps you could think of it as the first bite or the first sip of anything that you consume on Thanksgiving or any other time,
To just pause and give it your full attention.
So let's say for example you're about to have some,
I don't know,
Spinach dip with like a cracker piece of bread.
You know what I would encourage you to do when you put,
You know,
If you put it on your plate is really just to look at it and look at the quality,
For example,
Of the green,
Of the spinach.
Is it bright?
Is it almost a little more oxidized,
Which of course happens.
Looking at the texture,
Is there a shine to the dip or is it more matte and not very reflective?
And of course as you put it on whatever you might be putting it on,
A cracker or a piece of bread,
Giving that item your attention as well,
Feeling it,
Smelling it and then just really taking that bite very,
Very mindfully.
It can be really interesting.
You might find yourself noticing textures and flavors that you never really noticed before in similar food items and it's the same too if you're having a drink of some kind or even wine or cider or whatever it might be,
Like really just giving it your full attention and noticing the qualities.
You know,
It is for wine,
For example,
You know,
Is this a lighter bodied,
Thinner when it comes to viscosity or is it actually heavier or is there a sweetness?
Is there a bitterness?
Is there,
You know,
All of those notes that people talk about when they talk about tasting wine and just having some fun with it.
Many people believe,
Just as a side note,
That the more mindfully we eat and drink,
The less we often find that we consume because we're giving it our full attention,
We're slowing down,
Our bodies signal us that we're full sooner than if we were kind of tuned out to the food and instead tuned into something else.
So it's just another thing to think about and to play with if that's appealing to you.
So let's go ahead and get down into our practice.
And I think I'm going to have this one be kind of spacious too,
Not too much talking.
I'm going to start my timer for 10 minutes.
Just allowing yourself to settle in.
If you're sitting,
Allowing yourself to sit in a posture that feels supportive to you.
So you might want to roll your shoulders back just to get a little bit more of that alignment,
Noticing the spine,
Having those vertebrae stacked one upon another so that they as well support you.
Closing the eyes or lowering the gaze.
Allowing yourselves just to settle.
Feel grounded to whatever is beneath you.
And if you haven't already,
Taking those deeper,
Slower belly breaths.
And just like with last week's practice,
Allowing ourselves to play with this quality of just accepting your sit as it is,
Not trying too hard,
Not striving,
But instead just relaxing and resting in that non-judgmental awareness,
That accepting presence of how things are.
Let's just allow ourselves to sit with that quality of mind for the next few minutes and I'll check in just to see how it's going.
Okay.
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