Mindfulness Eating Exercise
You don’t have to spend an hour in the lotus position trying hard not to twitch, whilst desperately fighting the urge to scratch that itch on your nose, to become more mindful…this easy everyday mindfulness exercises can be developed into a wonderful mindful experience – and you don’t need any meditation or mindfulness experience to do them just a satsuma or an orange (can even be done with chocolate!)
Mindful Eating with a little satsuma!
This is a great little everyday mindfulness eating exercise to start experiencing mindful eating. It can be as long or as short as the time you have, just spend the time really experiencing the senses.
How to do this everyday mindfulness eating exercise
Pick up the satsuma and take a good look at it. Notice the different shades of orange, any blemishes, dimples. The little ‘dots’ in the skin.
Concentrate on how it feels – is the texture slightly waxy, bumpy? Is it a bit squashy or fairly firm? Are there any indentations in the peel you can feel. Spend a few moments just touching and feeling the outside of the satsuma. If your mind wanders, no problem, bring your focus back to the texture.
Have a good sniff – really breathe in the fragrance of the fruit – don’t worry about trying to describe it, just breathe in and out nice and slowly.
Hold it up to your ear and give it a little squeeze – does it make a sound? Is squishy a sound? It doesn’t matter, it’s just how it sounds.
How do you start peeling it? Do you push a thumbnail in the softest part and then ease the skin off? Which way are you peeling it – clockwise? Anti-clockwise? Or is the peel coming off in little sections? Listen really carefully as you peel – is it a ripping sound? a tearing sound?
Before you get to taste the fruit, you could go through these senses again with the segments – what does one little piece look like, notice the ‘veins’ in a segment and the white bits of pith. What about the texture – kind of shiny smooth in places with fluffier raised bits. Does one segment smell differently to the whole unpeeled satsuma?
You could really spend a lot of time with one satsuma – and that’s before you’ve even tasted it!
Ok, now the tasting bit – as you bring a segment slowly up to your lips, is your mouth watering? What’s going on in there?! Place the segment on your tongue – what does that feel like, can you taste anything yet? Roll it around a bit and then take a bite. What’s happening now? Juicy? A bit dry? Is it sooo nice you just want to pop the rest in? Take a breath, take another piece and savour it slowly.
