This meditation will change how you eat chocolate forever
How many of us simply just eat a piece of chocolate by popping it in our mouth, chewing and swallowing?
Probably, most of us and what’s wrong with that?
Have you ever thought about slowing down the process and being really mindful when you’re eating that piece of chocolate? Take your time to think about the textures, aromas, flavour and taste. If you do, not only will you only be focusing your mind on the chocolate for a few minutes, but you’ll probably enjoy the experience of eating the chocolate a lot more and possibly not need so much of it.
How do we do it?
I first did the chocolate meditation with Year 6 children before they did their SATs tests. I brought in a selection of Crunchy Rocks, Oreo Cookie bites and Curly Wurly snakes.
First I asked the children to choose one piece of chocolate and place it on the palm of their hand and just stare at it for 15 seconds. In that 15 seconds they had to imagine the chocolate had fallen from Mars and landed on their hand. What did it look like? How did it get there?
Next, they could touch the chocolate and feel its texture. What happened to the chocolate as they touched it? Did it start to melt in their hands and leave a mark? Did it feel hard, soft, gooey? What was happening to their senses as they were doing this for another 15 seconds?
They were then allowed to smell the chocolate for the next 15 seconds, but not place it anywhere near their lips. What smells were they getting? Had they ever thought about the smell of chocolate before? What was happening to their senses now as they smelt it?
Next they could place all, or some of the chocolate on their tongue, but not chew or swallow it. This is probably the most difficult part, because it is so tempting to chew. They have to hold it on their tongue for 15 seconds. What is happening to the chocolate? With the Crunchy Rocks, the honeycomb starts to sizzle on their tongues through the melting chocolate. With the Oreo Cookies, the biscuit starts to breakdown on their tongue through the melting chocolate. And with the Curly Wurly snakes the chocolate starts to melt off the toffee, leaving a sticky texture in the mouth.
They are then allowed to chew, making sure the whole of the chocolate is moved all around the mouth. This process also needs to take 15 seconds, and they can’t swallow it. This is when they really get a sense of what type of chocolate and filling they are eating, the full flavour. It is so tempting to swallow.
Finally, they can swallow, but savour every bit as it goes down your throat and into your stomach. This process may not take as long as 15 seconds, but can sometimes take that long.
The whole process of eating that small piece of chocolate takes 1 and a half minutes, but in that whole time the mind has purely been focused on the chocolate and the end result. My studies have so far indicated that the mind hardly ever wanders during this meditation and if it does it is soon reigned back in to the challenge in question, because each element of the challenge is only for 15 seconds at a time.
What happens when your mind is focused on something else?
In stressful situations especially, if your mind is able to focus on something else, like a simple habit releaser, such as a chocolate meditation it helps to switch off from other stresses that you may have going on. In this situation it helped to take the kids minds off their tests, which they had coming up that morning, but the meditation was short enough to hold their attention span.
As well as this being effective with stress and with kids, it can also help with cutting down on how much chocolate you eat, and you can use the chocolate meditation as a form of mindful eating.
You can do this meditation with all types of food and drink. It works particularly well with cheese, fruit and coffee.
