Practice with attention
This exercise is often the first you do in a mindfulness course: the raisin exercise. You are going to eat one raisin. And not bite, swallow, away, but with your full attention.
Of course you can mindlessly gnaw away a box of raisins. The point of this exercise is that you consciously study and eat the raisin. In this way you will become acquainted with mindfulness and you may start to look at the world a little differently.
All you need is a raisin and a quiet place. Follow all the steps at your leisure. Always take at least 10 seconds, longer is also allowed.
- Place the raisin on your hand. Also hold it between your thumb and index finger.
- Look at it as if you had never seen a raisin before.
- What do you see? Color differences, wrinkles, smooth spots, what does the shape look like?
- If necessary, close your eyes and carefully feel how the raisin feels. Hard or soft, smooth or wrinkled. What happens if you squeeze it or move the raisin between your index finger and thumb?
- Hold the raisin to your ear. Squeeze it. What do you hear? Or do you hear nothing at all?
- Bring the raisin to your nose. Do you smell anything? If so, what? Try to describe the smell.
- Are you already craving the raisin? How does that feel exactly? Notice what is happening in your body.
- Put the raisin in your mouth, on your tongue. Do not bite it yet, but feel very consciously how the raisin lies there. You may notice the weight of the raisin on your tongue.
- Move the raisin through your mouth. Left to right, front to back. Push it against your palate. What do you feel? Does the raisin feel different now than when you held it in your hand? Do you taste a certain flavour?
- Chew the raisin for a moment and notice what happens. The texture of the raisin changes, flavor and saliva are released.
- How do your mouth, teeth, jaw muscles feel? Do you sense tension somewhere?
- Where in your mouth or on your tongue do you taste the raisin best?
- Enjoy the taste, try to describe it.
- Do you feel like swallowing the raisin? First, notice how that urge or urge actually feels.
- Then swallow the raisin and try to keep an eye on it for as long as possible.
- Can you feel the raisin in your throat, your esophagus, your stomach?
- Consider how your body feels after eating the raisin and doing this exercise. Has something changed or not?
More mindfulness exercises
You have probably never eaten anything so attentively. It is therefore not surprising if your mind wanders every now and then. That does not matter and is part of practicing mindfulness. Do you notice that during the exercise you are busy with your next appointment or what you still have to do? Notice and calmly bring your attention back to the exercise. Doing it more often makes it easier to concentrate.
You can repeat this exercise, for example with other fruit, a piece of vegetable or a nut. Or try the mindfulness exercises body scan and a breather.
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