Back in February of 2004 I wrote a Mindful Moment titled More (you can read it here). Today I would like to discuss the concept of "even more".
Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn founded the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Recently, I've been listening to a very interesting audio-book of his, called "Mindfulness Meditation". In the audio-book, he describes an exercise they use at the Center, called "mindful eating", whereby the patients are given a single raisin and told to eat it with as much presence as possible. He reports that people are amazed at the results, since we all take eating for granted and we very seldom pay any attention to the actual process.
Dr. Kabat-Zinn then makes a very interesting comment on how we typically eat. Some of his patients have noted: "I'm often reaching for more before I've even finished chewing and swallowing what's in my mouth." To that, he replies:
"Let's get this straight - you've got stuff in your mouth...and now you want to put more stuff in your mouth to get more of what you already have - that you are already tasting? What's going on here?"
If I shift this observation away from food and apply it to life as a whole, I think the same is true. Most of us want even more out of life, even though we aren't really taking the time to enjoy what we already have.
Here's my challenge to you this week - if you are eating raisins or potato chips or carrot sticks, DO NOT reach for the next one until you have fully tasted, chewed and swallowed the one that is currently in your mouth.
Similarly, DO NOT worry about next year, next month, next week, next day, next hour or next minute until you have squeezed all of the flavour out of this present moment!
ENJOY NOW!
