Mindfulness in Eight Weeks: The revolutionary 8 week plan to clear your mind and calm your life. Michael Chaskalson
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Название: Mindfulness in Eight Weeks: The revolutionary 8 week plan to clear your mind and calm your life

Автор: Michael Chaskalson

Издательство: HarperCollins

Жанр: Эзотерика

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isbn: 9780007591442

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СКАЧАТЬ to eat very much – just one raisin in fact – and I’ll be providing fairly detailed guidance on how to do that as an eating meditation. So if you’re going to read on, now might be a good time to go and find yourself a raisin. If you don’t have one handy, a very small section of any fruit or vegetable that you can eat will do instead.

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      We’re going to begin this week with the eating meditation I talked about in the Introduction. By eating just one small raisin, mindfully, I hope you’ll get a deeper sense of some of what mindfulness is all about. So have your raisin or your small section of a fruit or vegetable handy and get ready to play ‘The Raisin Exercise’ (25874.jpg1 25869.jpg15mins) on your audio player.

      If you don’t want to listen to the exercise right now, you could read about it instead in Box 1.

      If you’re going to listen to the audio, get yourself into an upright and alert but relaxed posture, let the raisin or whatever you’re using instead rest on one of your open palms and play the audio now.

      Get hold of a single raisin and find somewhere quiet where you can sit for 10 or 15 minutes and give your full attention to this exercise.

      1. Holding

       Let the raisin rest in your palm. Take a few moments to become aware of its weight.

       Then become aware of its temperature – any warmth or coolness it may have.

      2. Looking

       Give the raisin your full attention, really looking.

       Become aware of the pattern of colour and shape that the raisin makes as it rests on your palm – almost like an abstract painting.

      3. Touching

       As best you can, being aware of the sense of movement in your muscles as you do this, pick up the raisin between the thumb and forefinger of your other hand.

       Explore the outside texture of the raisin as you roll it very gently between the thumb and forefinger.

       Squeeze it ever so slightly and notice that this might give you a sense of its interior texture.

       Notice perhaps that you can feel this difference just with your thumb and forefinger – the interior texture and the exterior texture.

      4. Seeing

       Lift the raisin to a place where you can really focus on it and begin to examine it in even greater detail.

       Notice highlights and shadows. See how these change as it moves in the light.

       Notice how facets of it appear and disappear – how it may seem to have ridges and valleys and how these may shift and change.

      5. Smelling

       Again aware of the sense of movement in your muscles, begin to move the raisin very slowly towards your mouth.

       As it passes by your nose you may become aware of its fragrance. With each inhalation, really explore that fragrance.

       Become aware of any changes that may be taking place now in your mouth or stomach – any salivation, perhaps.

      6. Placing

       Bring the raisin up to your lips. Explore the delicate sensation of touch here.

       Now place it in your mouth but don’t chew.

       Just let it rest on your tongue, noticing any very faint flavour that may be there –

       or maybe not.

       Feel the contact it makes with the roof of the mouth, perhaps.

       Now move it to between your back teeth and just let it rest there – again without chewing.

       Notice any urges or impulses in the body.

      7. Tasting

       Now take a single bite. Just one. Notice any flavour.

       Then take another bite. Notice any change in flavour.

       Then another bite, and another.

      8. Chewing

       Now slowly, very slowly, chew.

       Be aware of sound, of texture, of flavour and of change.

       Keep chewing in this way, very slowly, until there is almost nothing left to chew.

      9. Swallowing

       When there is almost nothing left to chew, swallow. See if you can be aware of the intention to swallow as it first arises.

      10. Finishing

       Follow what is left of the raisin as it moves down towards your stomach and you lose sight of it altogether.

      How does your body feel now as you’ve completed that exercise?

      What did you notice that you might not have been aware of before?

      There’s no telling what you will find when you do this exercise. We’re all different and we all come to the process with our own unique histories and ways of seeing. What’s really important here is that you allow your experience of doing that exercise simply to be what it was – there is no right or wrong way of doing it. What’s really key is that you notice and reflect on what you actually experienced. What was it like, in detail, for you?

      You might want to spend a few moments now turning the experience over in your mind. What did you notice as you went through the exercise? If nothing much comes to mind, here are some things you might want to consider:

       What struck you most about the exercise?

       How did the raisin feel on your palm?

       What did you notice as you examined its colour and shape?

       What did you notice when you explored it with your fingers?

       And when you looked at it more closely?

       Was there any aroma? What was that like?

       How СКАЧАТЬ