A mindful experience brings multiple lessons and outcomes, and one of them is that there are no right or wrong answers about mindful eating because every individual is unique and free to make choices. The raisin eating experience of this course helped to learn the basics of mindful eating and interaction with food. According to Bays (2017), mindfulness is the ability of individuals to pay attention and be fully aware of what happens inside (the body, heart, and mind) and outside (the environment). This practice involves all senses and activates the nine aspects of hunger to enhance self-criticism and obtain inner wisdom separately from outer wisdom. This insight paper contains the description of a mindful experience with a raisin. A better understanding of mindfulness is achieved by combining inner and outer knowledge about food and its relation to the body, heart, and mind.
There are many ways of how to check the level of mindfulness independently. Bays (2017) introduces a line of experiments to establish the connection between a person and food, and the idea of investigating a raisin is a common method. A raisin was chosen to mindfully experience food through the body, mind, and heart. First, it was necessary to imagine that this product is a new one and examine it from the point of view of eyes (observe), fingers (touch), ears (listen), nose (smell), mouth (bite), stomach (taste), and cells (fulfillment). Each time, the level of hunger grew: for example, a baseline hunger rate was 6 and equaled the body hunger after seven evaluations. Mind hunger reached point 8, and heart hunger was between 9 and 10. The assessment of its qualities, from a strange appearance to a sweet taste, was organized. It was possible to eat a raisin in the first two seconds and get nothing except an ordinary feeling in the mouth. Mindful eating was applied to enjoy the offered food and its unpredictable associations.
Any mindful experience is important for people because of several reasons. First, mindfulness is hard to achieve in a short period, and people are obsessed with time and want to save it by any means. Bays (2017) underlines that developing mindfulness is a critical skill that requires diligent practice and time. Therefore, to obtain the benefits of mindful eating, time and space are required. Second, mindfulness is a chance to reawaken human pleasure and witness as many details, emotions, and thoughts as possible. Finally, mindfulness presupposes the realization of everything that is around people by means of touching, seeing, listening, or eating. This practice is based on the knowledge that any individual can develop either internally or externally.
In addition to the ability to recognize the role of mindfulness, the concepts of inner and outer wisdom were clarified. A mindful experience makes a person pay attention to the food, its quality, and other characteristics and use different types of knowledge. Inner wisdom is an awareness of physical needs and emotions that are developed in a person. Outer wisdom is the knowledge that comes from various outside resources like books, teachers, lectures, and other media sources. In addition to personal feelings and observations (inner wisdom), information and opinions (outer wisdom) allows creating a thoughtful image of a product and enjoying its potential.
In conclusion, the offered activity is a priceless experience that helps people comprehend a variety of tastes, smells, and feelings in this world. It is hard to imaging that mindful eating of a raisin may bring a number of positive outcomes like self-improvement, freedom, and advanced knowledge. Millions of people like to boast about their knowledge and practices neglecting the possibility to change their vision with one mindful experience. The establishment of the relationship with food is not a joke but a chance to look at life from another perspective.
Reference
Bays, J. C. (2017). Mindful eating: A guide to rediscovering a healthy and joyful relationship with food. Shambhala Publications.