Today’s Excerpt:

Take one mindful bite during a meal today. What do you notice?

To learn more about what a mindful bite is, watch “Mini Meditations | Experience Your Food” (1-min video) from Headspace, which succinctly explains the process.

Activity: One Mindful Bite
Explain that you will now practice taking one mindful bite.

Here are the steps:

1. Get a small piece of food — a raisin, an orange slice, a berry, or a small piece of bread, etc. — and distribute one piece to each person to hold.
2. Ask: “What does it look like? Feel like? Smell like?”
3. Ask: “What steps did it take to get this food to us today?” (For example: Someone planted a seed, which received nutrients from the soil, sun, and rain. Then someone harvested the food and transferred it to a grocery store where we bought it.)
4. Invite each person to put the food in their mouth without chewing and explore what the food feels like now.
5. Now invite each person to chew very slowly, focusing on which parts of their mouth feel sensation as they chew.
6. After everyone has swallowed their food, ask if they experience any aftertaste.

Explain that mindful eating can make meal time more pleasant because we focus on the sensation we’re experiencing in the moment.

Discuss:

• What did you notice that you don’t notice when you eat quickly?
• Was this a comfortable or uncomfortable activity?
• What did you learn about the food? What did you learn about yourself?