Cookies and Mindfulness

Last year, before COVID, I began studying mindfulness at a wonderful program at UCLA. The Mindful Awareness Research Center-MARC https://www.uclahealth.org/marc/  

Mindfulness seems to be becoming a fad now, but I have gained so much from it.  In the second session you are given a grape and asked to experience it.  It sounds silly, but, when you do, when you can experience what is happening to you right now, it is remarkable. That’s why I make cookies and not something more complicated.  There is so much profundity in a house that smells like baking, just as in there is so much joy in music.  If you are fortunate enough to have someone who loves you, give them a cookie ; )

We would like you to try to eat one of your cookies mindfully.

Take one of your cookies and don’t eat it just yet, hold it in your hand, smell it, study it, and take some notes: 

What do you see? __________________________

What do you feel? __________________________

What do you smell? _________________________

Now hold it up to your mouth and touch it to your lips.

What do you feel?___________________________ (warm, flaky, excited, hungry, comfort?)

Does it smell any differently? _________________

Now set a timer for 30 seconds. put the cookie in your mouth, close your eyes and eat it, slowly. 

As your chewing, are there any flavors that are different than when you first started? Are they different than what you thought they would be? How is the texture? 30 seconds is a long time to chew something isn’t it. If you find that your thoughts are wandering and thinking about something else, that’s okay, let that happen and then pull your thoughts back to the chewing. When the timer goes off, think about what you just ate? Did it hold up to any expectations and hopes? Was anything different? 

“With enough butter, anything is good ” 

 - Julia Child

Eat a cookie Mindfully