Mindful Eating: The Raisin Activity and Guided Meditation

Have you ever ever discovered your self reaching for a bag of chips or a sweet bar with out even realizing it? Or perhaps you’ve eaten a complete meal whereas distracted by your cellphone or tv? Right here’s a aware consuming guided meditation.

It occurs to us all! One approach to follow aware consuming is thru the “raisin” exercise, a aware consuming guided meditation that may assist you develop into extra aware of your consuming habits.

Keep in mind that meals is a lot extra than simply the bodily nourishment for our our bodies, it’s additionally about enjoyment, connection, custom, social expertise, cultural expertise, inventive expression, and pleasure! It’s regular for us to expertise consuming alongside feelings or distraction. 

Aware Consuming: The Raisin Exercise and Guided Meditation

Many people wrestle with senseless consuming or consuming with out being absolutely conscious of what we’re placing in our our bodies. However there’s a answer: aware consuming. By practising mindfulness whereas consuming, we will be taught to savor and revel in our meals extra absolutely, construct a extra balanced and peaceable relationship with meals, and even enhance our general well being. 

This train is a unbelievable approach to follow aware consuming and it may be performed with any meals!

I realized this follow from my latest coaching in MBSR (mindfulness-based stress discount). The raisin exercise is a typical mindfulness train used within the context of aware consuming. Whereas it isn’t totally clear who first developed this exercise, it’s typically attributed to Jon Kabat-Zinn, a professor of drugs and the founding father of the Mindfulness-Primarily based Stress Discount program on the College of Massachusetts Medical College. Kabat-Zinn is widely known as one of many pioneers of contemporary mindfulness follow and has contributed considerably to its integration into mainstream drugs and psychology.

What Is The Raisin Exercise?

The raisin exercise is a guided meditation that entails utilizing your entire senses to mindfully eat a single raisin. This train is designed that can assist you decelerate, take note of your meals, and savor each chew.

Once more, for those who don’t take pleasure in raisins or don’t have them readily available, use any meals you want and have.

Right here’s methods to do the raisin aware consuming meditation: 

1. Begin by discovering a snug and quiet place to take a seat. You probably have a particular or devoted meditation house in your house, use this house. Ensure you received’t be disturbed for the subsequent 10-Quarter-hour.
2. Take a couple of deep breaths and focus your consideration in your physique. Really feel your toes on the bottom and your again in opposition to the chair. Enable your self to loosen up and let go of any rigidity.
3. Take a raisin and maintain it within the palm of your hand. Look at the raisin together with your eyes, taking note of its form, coloration, and texture. Discover any ridges or wrinkles on the floor.
4. Deliver the raisin as much as your nostril and take a deep breath. Discover any scent or aroma that the raisin offers off.
5. Slowly place the raisin in your mouth, however don’t chew it but. Discover the feeling of the raisin in your tongue and the within of your mouth. Enable it to take a seat in your mouth for a couple of seconds.
6. Start to chew the raisin slowly and mindfully, taking note of the feeling of every chew. Discover the feel and taste of the raisin.
7. Swallow the raisin and spot the feeling of it taking place your throat.
8. Take a second to replicate in your expertise. How did it really feel to eat the raisin mindfully? Did you discover any new sensations or flavors that you simply wouldn’t have seen in any other case?

The raisin exercise is a robust instrument for practising aware consuming. By bringing your full consideration to the act of consuming, you’ll be able to domesticate a deeper appreciation in your meals and develop a more healthy relationship with it.

Why Follow Aware Consuming?

There are a lot of advantages to practising aware consuming. For one, it will probably assist you develop into extra conscious of your starvation and fullness cues, permitting you to raised regulate your meals consumption and preserve your distinctive balanced weight.

Aware consuming may assist you take pleasure in your meals extra absolutely and scale back emotions of guilt or disgrace round consuming. Moreover, practising aware consuming may also help you develop into extra conscious of your emotional triggers round meals and develop more healthy coping mechanisms.

Suggestions for Working towards Aware Consuming

Along with the raisin exercise, there are lots of different methods to follow aware consuming. Listed here are a couple of tricks to get began:

1. Eat with out distractions: Keep away from consuming whereas watching TV, utilizing your cellphone, or working at your pc. As a substitute, focus your entire consideration in your meals.
2. Decelerate: Take your time whereas consuming, and chew every chew completely. It will assist you savor the flavors and textures of your meals.
3. Take note of your physique: Test in together with your physique earlier than, throughout, and after consuming. Discover how these sensations really feel in your physique with no judgment and quite a lot of self-compassion.