Conscious Consuming: The Raisin Exercise 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 possibly 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 strategy to follow aware consuming is thru the “raisin” exercise, a aware consuming guided meditation that may enable you to turn out to be extra aware of your consuming habits.

Do not forget 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. 

Conscious Consuming: The Raisin Exercise and Guided Meditation

Many people battle with mindless eating or consuming with out being totally conscious of what we’re placing in our our bodies. However there’s a answer: aware consuming. By practising mindfulness whereas consuming, we are able to be taught to savor and luxuriate in our meals extra totally, construct a extra balanced and peaceable relationship with meals, and even enhance our total well being. 

This train is a improbable strategy to follow aware consuming and it may be carried out with any meals!

I discovered this follow from my current 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 fully clear who first developed this exercise, it’s usually 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 Faculty. Kabat-Zinn is well known as one of many pioneers of recent mindfulness follow and has contributed considerably to its integration into mainstream medication 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 will help you decelerate, take note of your meals, and savor each chunk.

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

Right here’s do the raisin aware consuming meditation: 

1. Begin by discovering a cushty and quiet place to take a seat. When you’ve got a particular or devoted meditation space in your house, use this area. Ensure you received’t be disturbed for the following 10-Quarter-hour.
2. Take a couple of deep breaths and focus your consideration in your physique. Really feel your ft on the bottom and your again towards the chair. Permit your self to calm down and let go of any pressure.
3. Take a raisin and maintain it within the palm of your hand. Study the raisin together with your eyes, listening to its form, shade, 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 provides 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. Permit it to take a seat in your mouth for a couple of seconds.
6. Start to chew the raisin slowly and mindfully, listening to the feeling of every chew. Discover the feel and taste of the raisin.
7. Swallow the raisin and see 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 just wouldn’t have observed in any other case?

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

Why Apply Conscious Consuming?

There are a lot of advantages to practising mindful eating. For one, it could enable you to turn out to be extra conscious of your starvation and fullness cues, permitting you to raised regulate your meals consumption and preserve your distinctive balanced weight.

Conscious consuming may also enable you to take pleasure in your meals extra totally and scale back emotions of guilt or disgrace round consuming. Moreover, practising aware consuming may help you turn out to be extra conscious of your emotional triggers round meals and develop more healthy coping mechanisms.

Suggestions for Working towards Conscious Consuming

Along with the raisin exercise, there are numerous different methods to practice mindful eating. Listed below 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 laptop. As a substitute, focus your entire consideration in your meals.
2. Decelerate: Take your time whereas consuming, and chew every chunk totally. This can enable you to savor the flavors and textures of your meals.
3. Take note of your physique: Verify in together with your physique earlier than, throughout, and after consuming. Discover how these sensations really feel in your physique with no judgment and numerous self-compassion.