Mindful Eating: The Raisin

     My first day at the Mindful-Based Stress Reduction Program (MBSR), we all sat in a large circle with Saki Santorelli as our leader.  (Saki is now the executive director for the Mindfulness Program for medical students at U-Mass Medical School and this program to the public.  Jon Kabat-Zinn is traveling the country, the world, teaching the world, introducing this program to other medical schools as part of their education.)  He is a soft spoken, gentle man.  We all introduced ourselves and told why we were there.  I was amazed at the stories, the details of my story were unique, but the inner suffering was not.  So many people carry their pain with them everywhere they go as they try their best to get through their days, but to look at them, you would not realize their suffering.  Some people had constant physical pain for one reason or another.  Some people had tremendous stress.  One man, I remember, ran is own office and had a problem with anger.  We all had the same common goal, gaining control of these emotions or pain and finding inner peace.
     As Saki explained the program to us, he presented us with an example that would demonstrate mindfulness.  He gave us all one raisin and our instruction was to examine what the raisin looked like, I mean, really look at it, inspect it, smell it, etc, before putting it in our mouth.  Once in our mouth, we had to keep it there, not chewing or swallowing for awhile.  We had to experience how the raisin felt in our mouth, how it tasted without chewing, roll it around a bit, think about the raisin in our mouth at this moment.  Mindfulness is all about paying attention to what is going on in our lives at this moment, because, essentially, this moment is all we have.  We need to experience our lives right now as it is happening.  Keeping this raisin in my mouth was really hard.  Normally, I would pop one or more raisins in my mouth, chew, chew then swallow, gone!  After awhile, this raisin lost it's flavor and the texture felt strange.  Experiencing the raisin at that moment was very interesting and a good example for paying attention.  I encourage any of you to get a raisin and eat it mindfully.
     Since attending the program, I found a book entitled Mindful Eating by Jan Chozen Bays, MD at the Buddist Monastery gift shop in Woodstock, NY  (another blog, later), and the foreward was written by Jon Kabat-Zinn, explaining about the raisin example.  There I was, on top of a mountain in a private place in Woodstock and I found something familiar from my home, right there!  So, I bought it.  I have listened to the whole CD, but I have not read the whole book, which, now that I have dug it out, I will.  I give thought to eating mindfully all the time.  I try to not rush meals, to take the time to appreciate how the food looks, smells, and tastes. I try to chew slower, put the fork down while chewing and actually enjoying the food eaten.
     I have discovered the best food to eat mindfully is dark chocolate!  Dark chocolate is suppose to be good for us nutritionally, so I have no guilt when I add this to my diet.  So, I will buy a Hershey's Special Dark candy bar and break it into squares and pop a square in my mouth and just let it sit and melt, and it tastes as good at the end as it did in the beginning, and makes my present moment so nice! (I am guilty of, before mindfulness, eating a candy bar so fast while I was driving that I would not remember doing this, then look for my candy bar and find an empty wrapper and ask myself, "Did I really eat that?? I don't remember and I didn't taste it!")  Knowing that I was going to blog about mindful eating today, I just had to practice again so I could blog correctly, so I found a delicious chocolate truffle, popped it in my mouth, after looking at it, of course, and just let it sit there and melt. Mmmmmmmmmmmm.  I encourage you to get a square of chocolate and eat it mindfully!  Enjoy your present moment!