The Chocolate Meditation may sound a little silly but give it a try, and you will soon see how applying mindfulness to something as ordinary as eating a piece of chocolate can make quite a difference.

Why eat chocolate mindfully?

Well, once you discover how to eat chocolate mindfully you will begin to understand what mindfulness is.

You can use this exercise to learn how to incorporate mindfulness into your everyday life.

Because, as you probably realise, mindfulness is not just about eating chocolate!

Mindfulness is a sort of ‘technique’ that can be applied to whatever you are doing.

Being mindful in your daily activities allows you to:

Experience each and every moment in your life fully.
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You will feel a sense of aliveness by practicing mindfulness in everything you do.

There are also many proven health benefits of mindfulness, such as the prevention of depression.

Chocolate and happiness – what’s not to like!

This exercise only takes about 5 minutes or less and one piece of chocolate (or any other small piece of food such as a sweet, a piece of chocolate, or a piece of fruit).

The key here is that whenever you find your mind wandering from the task at hand, return your attention to your piece of food and what you are doing with it.

Let’s begin the exercise:

• Put the piece of chocolate in the palm of your hand (or on a plate if it is hot so it doesn’t melt). Take a few moments and just look at the piece of chocolate and nothing else. Look at the piece of chocolate as if you have never seen one before. Study it. Look at its shape. Allow yourself to be extremely curious and notice everything about it.
• Take the piece of chocolate and move it around with your thumb and fingers. What does it feel like? Can you feel the different textures of the piece of chocolate? You should close your eyes so that you can use your different senses other than sight.
• Take the piece of chocolate and rub it across your lips. How did it feel? Did you taste anything?
• Now take the piece of chocolate and put in on your tongue. Let it sit there without chewing it. Leave it on your tongue so you can experience what the piece of chocolate feels like.
• Now, slowly begin chewing on the piece of chocolate. Take each bite and slowly, gently chew it more.
• What are you experiencing as you bite into the piece of chocolate? What does the piece of chocolate feel like on your teeth?
• What senses are you igniting as you experiencing as chew the piece of chocolate? Are you experiencing new tastes, textures or smells?
• Don’t swallow the piece of chocolate even if you feel the urge to do so. Allow yourself to hold the piece of chocolate in your mouth for a little while longer.
• Finally, the bit you have been waiting for, go ahead and swallow the piece of chocolate and give into the urge.

How do your senses feel and how is your whole body feeling after completing this exercise?

You may be surprised at what you discover with this simple mindfulness exercise.

Too often we live our lives on autopilot and ignore the multitude of sensations we experience even in the simplest of activities.

By slowing down and paying attention to eating a piece of chocolate your experience will be much more intense.

Mindfulness helps you pay attention to the details.  As the saying goes:

Happiness can be found in the little things in life.
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