It was on the Kabat-Zinn model of mindfulness-based cognitive behavioural therapy, and its use in depression. But muchly more interesting- it was also on how to eat a raisin....mindfully.
Seriously.
An entire lecture theatre of grown adults- grown psychiatrists, at that- took 15 minutes to eat one raisin (except one dude up the front. who accidentally ate two. for shame)
We were 'aware' of it in our palms...we felt it between our fingertips...we 'listened' to it, we squidged it, prodded it, looked at light glistening off it, felt it on our lips. You get the point. At the end you are allowed to chew and swallow and 'feel it moving down your oesophagus and feel yourself becoming one raisin heavier'.
I actually thought the whole thing was rather embarassing and intimate, a roomful of strangers feeling a raisin with their tongues.
This has a purpose, apparently... it comes from Jon Kabat-Zinn's method of mindfulness-based CBT and stress reduction.
In the first session of the eight-week course run at the Stress Reduction Clinic in Massachusetts, participants are invited to eat a raisin mindfully, an experience which takes 10 minutes and is designed to open them to the full repertoire of their sense of taste when they pay it full attention. The exercise emphasises that mindfulness is not about sitting in one posture, but about creating a particular relationship to their experience and to all their senses.
I know, I know. All very Hassedesque. But twas cool. And I got free lunch.
2 comments:
but did you eat that lunch mindfully?
Damn. I forgot.
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