My Mindful Eating Experience Essay

The mindful experience of eating involves multiple processes. Every process has to take a certain amount of time and be savored just long enough to be defined as mindful. Physically, the food has to be eaten slowly, eaten in small pieces, chewed several times, and swallowed gradually. Mentally, each bite of food has to be filled with enjoyment, focused on with all attention without any judgement, and it is very important during mindful eating to know what exactly is being put in your mouth and where it came from. It is extremely important to mentally accept the beauty of the food and to appreciate it. Emotionally, you have to engage in all your senses: sight, sound, taste, texture, and smell. Engaging all your senses is the most important principle of mindful eating! Let me take you through the process of mindful eating by explaining to you my mindful experience on eating a MilkyWay bar. This process, when done right, takes about 10 to 15 minutes. First, I unwrap the chocolate and focus all my attention to the creamy milk chocolate bar. As I look at the chocolate it looks delicious, intriguing, and I speculate about whats inside. Next, I take a small bite and experience the first taste. It tastes smooth yet hard and as I experience this first bite I push the chocolate up to the roof of my mouth. Feeling the chocolate being pushed up against the roof of my mouth, I can feel it break apart exposing the warm creamy caramel filling. As it begins to melt, my body craves for more and I can start to smell the sweet aroma of chocolate. When swallowing the chocolate I take in the texture of it slowly going down my throat. It feels soft and gentle as it begins to disappear into my stomach. This leaves me craving for more causing me to take a second bite! This process repeats itself with the next bite of chocolate, the feeling of creamy caramel being pushed up to the roof of my mouth, the swirling of my tongue mixing the chocolate and the caramel together making two components become one, and lastly feeling the sensation of the chocolate being pushed back to my throat where it disappears leaving only the strong smell and the craving for more! This long yet joyful, stress relieving experience is defined as the mindful experience of eating and should be rewarded to everybody!