One small morsel for mindfulness, one giant meal for a lifetime
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of taking a mindfulness meditation course with Carol Greco at the Center for Integrative Medicine in Pittsburgh, PA. It was a wonderful opportunity to practice being. Just being. Being in the moment.
One of the first things we did together was taste a raisin. (Well, we each had our own raisin 
We were asked to really experience the raisin, and to do so for an extended period of time rather than chewing it and swallowing in haste.
Savoring a raisin for five full minutes, noticing not just its taste, but its texture, its position in my mouth, its scent and every other sensation that eating engenders made me wistful about all of the hurried meals I eat. When was the last time I had so carefully considered a bite I put in my mouth? How much delectable food had I eaten without savoring it as much as I was now savoring this delicious raisin?
Mindfulness and the slow, deliberate attention to oneself and one’s experience of the world was a welcome yet foreign way of being in the world for me. I embraced the opportunity to learn techniques for slowing down and experiencing life rather than plowing through it without reflection. With all of the distractions of modern living, it is so easy to operate on autopilot, moving from task to task and place to place without reflection or awareness…have you ever been in the car and been so caught up in a string of thoughts that you hardly remember the last mile you drove?
I aspire to be more mindful every day; some days I am not even mindful that I’m supposed to be mindful. I fail more than I succeed. I rush and hurry and gobble and speed far more than I should. But each day is new. Each day, I can take a raisin from the box and begin again.
