Seeing freshly

This guided mindful eating practice invites you to slow down and experience food with curiosity. You’ll explore taste, texture, smell, and sensation one step at a time. A reflective practice that deepens awareness and gratitude.

Why this helps? Mindful eating builds awareness, patience, and appreciation for everyday experiences.

Transcript

Welcome And Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Inner Strength Meditations. Let's take a moment.

Choose A Small Bite

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Find something small and good to eat. For this exercise, you will need something small and edible to explore in greater detail. This can be a snack like a cracker or a grape or maybe a cookie or a piece of candy. It depends on what you have handy in the kitchen today. Before you listen to the guided practice, find something small to eat and have it ready as you explore the experience of eating it in a fresh and completely new way. This will be a tasty experiment. Seeing freshly. Often we don't think much about this experience, yet, if we observe carefully, we can learn a tremendous amount. In this session, we are going to practice mindful eating. To begin, please go into your kitchen and find something small and edible that will help you practice seeing freshly. This can be a cracker, a grape, one piece of candy, or any small edible item that you have easily available, and you can hold in your hands while you practice mindful eating. You can pause this practice as you go and find something right now. Welcome back! Now please don't eat it just yet. I'm going to walk you through eating this object one sense at a time, and you're going to experience firsthand what it means to practice seeing this object freshly in a completely new way. As we begin this practice, make sure you're sitting comfortably with an upright posture and you are gently holding this item in your hand.

Why Mindful Eating Matters

SPEAKER_02 2:41

It's important to bring curiosity and some playfulness to this activity. Imagine you have just arrived from outer space and you have never seen this object before. You are going to examine it very carefully, taking it in one sense at a time. Let's start with seeing. Notice, what do you see? Silently to yourself, name all the minute details of what you see. It might be color, texture, shape, dimension. Simply name all the aspects of this object that you see in this moment. Is it round, square, or oddly shaped?

SPEAKER_01 3:34

What color is it? Does it look bumpy,

See The Food With Curiosity

SPEAKER_01 3:39

smooth, rough, wavy? Is it translucent or opaque? Now let's move to the sense of touch. Notice what you feel. Notice the texture of the object. Is it rough or smooth or bumpy or sticky?

SPEAKER_02 4:09

Is it hard or soft?

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Simply observe what you notice when you focus on the sense of touch. Now let's listen to the object.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

You might have to move the object around in your hand or between your fingers to get it to speak to you. What do you hear?

SPEAKER_01 4:39

What words can you use to describe the sound?

SPEAKER_02 4:50

Next, you can explore smelling the object. Hold it very close to your nose and take in the scent. It might be very subtle. Or it might be a stronger smell. Simply take in the scent and notice what the experience is like.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

What does the smell remind you of? What words can you use to describe it? Is it sweet smelling or spicy? Is it a sharp smell? Or perhaps soft and delicate?

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Notice what the experience of smelling is like when you pay attention in this very precise way. Now let's just hold the object for a moment between thumb and index finger. But don't move it. Just imagine putting the object in your mouth.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

But don't do it just yet. What do you notice? Do you notice any changes in your body? For example, do you notice your mouth watering? What do you notice in your mind?

SPEAKER_02 6:20

Do you notice any specific thoughts? Like, when is she going to say, eat this thing already? Do you notice any feelings?

Touch And Sound Exploration

SPEAKER_02 6:32

For example, frustration, patience, or boredom. There's no right or wrong. Simply be aware of the details of your experience when you're asked to think about eating the object, but refrain from eating it just yet. Now I invite you to bring the object to your mouth and put it on your tongue, but don't bite down yet. Just feel it in your mouth. What is the experience like? What do you notice in terms of physical sensations, thoughts, or emotions?

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Now bite down once. What happens? What do you notice? Notice the urge to continue chewing, but don't just yet.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

It's just an urge that you can notice. You don't have to give in to the urge at this moment, but rather you can play with this experience and decide for yourself when to finish chewing this bite. When you are ready, you can slowly begin to chew, and make sure to chew very slowly as you notice all the details of the experience of chewing. Notice the

Smell And Memory Cues

SPEAKER_02 8:10

flavor that is unleashed on your tongue as the taste buds are activated. And notice any feelings of pleasantness and wanting more that may arise as you take in the experience of tasting. Continue chewing until there's nothing left of the object, paying attention to the experience of chewing and swallowing the object and all the detailed sensations you are noticing. As you finish eating the object, you can bring your awareness to the many other details about this piece of food. For example, where this food item came from, what ingredients went into making it,

Anticipation And Body Signals

SPEAKER_02 9:00

and where and how these ingredients were grown, the bees that pollinated the plants, the worms that aerated the soil, the rain that irrigated the plants, the people who harvested the ingredients, packed and shipped them to the facility where they were processed. The people who cooked and made this item packaged it and shipped it again to the store. The truck drivers that transported it to the market, the people who unloaded it and packed them on the shelves of the market. Your family member that went to the market to purchase it and bring it home. The cashier. And finally you, the person aware of eating and appreciating

Pause Before The First Bite

SPEAKER_02 9:48

this food. It takes many, many people in the earth and the sun and water to make this experience possible. Taking in this system of interconnection can help us appreciate food in a very different way.