“We have holidays for so many important occasions – Christmas, the New Year, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, even Earth Day. Why not celebrate a day when we can live happily in the present moment all day long? I would like to declare today “Today’s Day,” a day dedicated to touching the earth, touching the sky, touching the trees, and touching the peace that is available in the present moment.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
After a week of practice, you may have already experienced “the peace that is available in the present moment.” Just a few moments of stillness and a few deep breaths can be incredibly powerful.
So how do we carry that stillness with us throughout the day? How do we shift from the formal practice of meditation to making mindfulness our way of being in the world?
Everyday mindfulness is a practice, just like meditation. You may set the intention to bring your full attention to the act of cooking — noticing the sound of chopping veggies, the smells wafting over from the stove – and then soon find that you’re thinking about your meeting tomorrow morning, or whether you should post a picture of the veggies on Instagram, or how you got your bangs to stick up so high off your head in the eighties.
And, just like you would in formal meditation, you note that your mind has wandered, perhaps using the “noting” technique I described in the previous lesson: “thinking, thinking,” “planning, planning,” “remembering, remembering…” And then you bring your awareness, your attention, back to your task. Wash and rinse the veggies, repeat!
A fun activity to introduce the practice of everyday mindfulness is mindful eating. Eating is certainly one of those activities we often do mindlessly (“What happened to that whole bag of chips???”)
In this lesson, we’re going to practice mindful eating. Traditionally, this practice is introduced in mindfulness classes with raisins, but I think chocolate is far more appropriate. You’ll want a chocolate candy that is wrapped (because melting), although you could use virtually any food you’d like for this exercise. But I’ll be using chocolate – it boosts serotonin levels, you know!
Grab your chocolate and watch the video!
(ignore the reference to the Q&A video — we’ll be having our live coaching call on Friday!)
See if you can practice mindful eating once this week. It doesn’t have to be the entire meal — maybe just try spending the first minute of a meal in silence. What’s it like to really focus on the taste, the texture, the experience of eating?
Questions??? Share any questions about anything from this week on Facebook or send me an email.