Here we have a learning application for you. The exercise of eating a raisin or something else if you prefer or are allergic is a simple way to begin and understand mindfulness and the potential impact of mindful thought to your daily life.
Find something for you would prefer to eat and participate in this exercise. You can also find the video link in the study guide.
If you are seeking a certificate of completion, you will need to complete the Mindful
Eating Exercise that is located in the appendix. You will also need to lead this meditation with others on three occasions. Refer to the self-assessment tool and collect evidence of your performance as you develop your teaching competencies.
The supplemental activity video is not available. Is there another link somewhere to access this?
Hi Stephanie – It seems to be available for us… What do you see? Why do you state it’s unavailable?
For what it’s worth, here is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=19&v=5YkjoXuCfWY&feature=emb_title
Thank you!
Hi Sean! When I click the link in the doc that whole section turns grey with a frowny face and says “www.youtube.com refused to connect.” I just tried it again. I will try to copy and paste the link you just shared and let you know. Thank you so much for your quick response.
I am sorry, Sean, maybe I wasn’t clear. The raisin exercise is working just fine. I was talking about the supplemental activity Ted Talk by Andy Puddicombe. The link to that exercise isn’t working.
I see. Please copy the link and paste it into a new tab, or right-click it to open in a new tab. Thank you!
Sean,
It finally worked! Thank you so very much!
Thanks for the clarity. I had similar experience when I clicked on the link.
Hi!
I had a question, is there a link to where we can print out the Meditation guidance script for “eating a raisin exercise” ?
Thank you!
Hi! I found the following script on your dashboard under RESOURCES>>SCRIPTS: https://teach.mindfulnessexercises.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Mindful-of-Your-Food-and-Eating-Guided-Meditation-Script-MindfulnessExercises.com_.pdf
I am not seeing the Appendix nor the Self Assessment Tool. Can you guide me to them? Thanks.
Yes, they’re the last chapters of the course. Please scroll down the course table of contents. Thank you!
Hi there! You can find the resources of the Appendix under the section in the course entitled ‘Guided Meditation Scripts & Guidance’. The Self Assessment Tool is here: https://teach.mindfulnessexercises.com/course/self-assessment/
Let us know if you have further questions!
I used a grape. It was a green grape but also had brown on it. It was juicy but not much smell. I enjoy it although it was only one grape.
I loved how this shows how cool it is to thoroughly enjoy the experience of eating. I made a conscious effort yesterday to practice mindful eating. I felt more appreciation for the meal, and I felt like my whole body enjoyed the meal too !
I loved this exercise. I didn’t think I liked raisins but to eat one like this made me aware of the real taste and very different to what I thought it would be.
So AMAZING to experience how many things are really going on when you pay attention. Every sense door was engaged!
I appreciated the statement “mindfulness is simple but not easy.”
Great insight on what Mindfulness is about and the meaningful impact on people’s life. thank you
Hi 🙋🏾♀️,
Is there a video for the eating mindfully and eating meditation? Is the Mindful Eating Exercise the same as the self assessment ?
Hi Paris! The Eating Mindfully and Eating Meditation are in the form of scripts. You can find them here: https://teach.mindfulnessexercises.com/course/appendix/
However, above you will find a short mindful eating exercise in video form using a raisin. Alternatively, you can watch it on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YkjoXuCfWY
The Self-Assessment Rubric is to be completed once (with an overall assessment of at least Competent). It can be found here: https://teach.mindfulnessexercises.com/course/instructions-application-for-certificate-of-completion/
Let me know if this helps or if you have further questions.
Thank you for your assistance. This link didn’t work https://teach.mindfulnessexe/ . Can you resend it for me to get please .
Paris,
Thank you for asking this question. I was struggling to find the appendix. This was a great help.
Such a clear, intriguing and inspirational beginning. Thank you!
Applying Mindful thoughts while eating did enrich my experience about eating and what I was eating.
I have done this exercise before therefore, the experience was not a new one but a good one to do it again. I reminds me to slow down and enjoy what I am eating.
The mindful eating exercise was a very nice introduction to mindfulness for the beginner. I’m reminded of watching videos of soto zen monks at supper. The narrators describe a similar process for how the monks are to eat every meal.
I too have done this eating exercise several times before, however, mindfulness is a moment to moment practice so it’s always beneficial to do it again. There is something different in the experience each time.
Ha sido una lección con conceptos sencillos pero muy claros.
El vídeo de la uva pasa es muy esclarecedor de cómo cambia hacer algo con atención plena a hacerlo de manera rutinaria.
A classic exercise that never fails. I really do savor my food so much more when it isn’t done as a multitasking experiment.
Great video and I love the Raisin Exercise. Can this work the same way with drinking something, like water or tea?
Hi everyone! I have done mindful eating exercises before, but enjoyed the raisin activity; having been diagnosed with COVID in February, I lost most of my taste and smell. Perhaps doing more of this kind of activity with each meal could help bring my senses alive again! Thank you!
I need clarification on what we are required to do to receive a certificate at the end, besides observing each section and sharing in the chat below. Do we complete the workbook and submit it or what?
Please find clarification regarding the certification requisites on your dashboard here: https://teach.mindfulnessexercises.com/mindfulness-meditation-teacher-certification/
I always appreciate going back to this simple practice as a reminder of how we can use our senses to bring us back to the present.
Thank you, I really appreciate and enjoyed both the lesson and raisin exercise. Reminds me how we overlook the small things and rush through life too much. Time to slow down and savor every moment while fully present!
I love doing this exercise with a Hersey kiss.
This is such a great exercise, I love that it can be used by all ages too. What a gift if we can start engaging children in activities that are fun…and in the process teaching them about mindfulness:)
The mindful eating mediation/practice has shown me how fast we eat, and how the would effect of digestion and also how eating fast would snowball into the rest of our day; rushing, tension, anxiety etc.
Such a fun exercise…I like its simplicity and that it can be used with people of all ages, from little ones on up:)
I have found it to be a great conversation starter helping people to identify other parts of their daily lives they might like to bring the practice of mindfulness to.
Hello, I just want to comment. The worksheets are not type-able is that correct. How am I supposed to share that my work is complete? Print them out, write on them and then scan them?
Hi, Faryal! When you download the PDF, you can type your answers in the worksheets. Thanks.
My two-part definition of mindfulness:
1) Consciousness is the perceiver, while the mind and body are perceived. Mindfulness is a practice of noticing the movements of the mind and body from the perspective that the mind and body are separate and distinct from the consciousness with which we notice them.
2) Mindfulness is a habit of making decisions with the awareness that we don't control everything that happens to us, or even everything we think, feel, and desire; but we do control how we respond to our internal and external worlds.
Really enjoyed this lesson! I used a walnut tough, but the experience was mindblowing! 🙂
What a great exercise, so basic yet when experienced helps to fully grasp the fundamental concept of being mindful in all that we do.
When listening to Andy Puddicombe I liked the " WE can't change what happen in life,But we can change how we experience it".
The way he used juggling tricks for illustration is just brilliant by latin people to relate to the storytellng.
Loved the exercise. From looking at it's colours, its shape and texture, through to the feel of it in my mouth, then the flavour and taste, then after taste.
Loved it all.
I feel a very different sensation when practicing this exercises,I perceived more the taste of the food
Where do I find the end of lesson:
Mindful Practice and Teaching Exercise
Let us take the practice of mindful eating deeper with the exercises that are located in the appendix. You will find two exercises: Short Mindful Eating and Long Mindful Eating Exercise. Try each in your own practice. Select the one you prefer to use in your teaching.
I went to appendix listed after Lesson 20 under the Resources/Appendix section and unable to locate.
Thank you,
Hello,
I'm new to this course and excited and , and , and …
I'm looking for the two mindful activities in appendix
1. Eating Mindfully
2. Eating Meditation
I have not been able to locate them. I've checked under appendix.
Is there more than one appendix?
Gratefully,
Patti
Hi Patti!
The Eating Mindfully and Eating Meditation are in the form of scripts. You can find them here: https://teach.mindfulnessexercises.com/course/appendix/
However, above you will find a short mindful eating exercise in video form using a raisin. Alternatively, you can watch it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YkjoXuCfWY
Thank you.
enjoyed this exercise. I need to practice more mindful eating myself and by really taking the time to observe the raisin with all my senses, I was able to better appreciate its sweetness and also taste some bitterness. I was able to focus on its tiny size and eat slower than normal, really appreciating the taste and texture. I have done a few exercises like this and it really taught me to slow down and appreciate, to take my time nd enjoy eating with all my senses. Also the longer we take to eat mindfully, the less we eat or indulge and the less unwanted symptoms we have, such as belly ache from overeating or plain overeating which leads to unhealthy habits and weight gain, among other issues that arise with it. Thank you for this lesson reminder.
Eventhough I know the raisin exercise along time ago, I realize now how being mindful means nurture yourself with the experience of eating, not just nurturing the body, but your mind and soul with the sensations of the texture and the flavours, bringing emotions to my aawareness also. Just as a phenomenon, as a experience instead of the autopilot movement of putting food in the mouth.
I used a piece of popcorn. I became aware of the corn essence, and visualized corn on the cob. I was surprised at how long the taste lingered in my mouth after I swallowed, and am present to the opportunity to slow down and taste the full exprience of each bite including aftertaste.
it was a great sensory experience for sure! I used and orange and shared the exercise with my husband who's always rushing with eating. He said it himself, the joy of savoring something so simple like an orange was eye opening. in the afternoon I repeated it with my 8 years old girl, but with an almond, her facial expressions and giggles of enjoyment of one of her favorite snacks ever was rewarding for sure in many loving ways.
Much love, Josmara
When we lead the mindful eating exercise, do we need a live audience? Or can we record audio/video of us leading it and use that? Thanks!
Hi Billy,
No – you do not need to be teaching to a live audience when you record your meditations for submission. However, it would be great to practice in front of a live audience so you can get their feedback, even if just for family and friends.
I am not finding the 2 eating meditations that are suppose to be in the appendix. Also, in my printed course book, there is a link to the Ted talk. It is not provided above anywhere (?)
That was an excellent exercise; I've used this with clients to educate them on mindfulness.
Thank you for the raisin exercise video. It’s made me realize how much mindfulness eating is so so important for daily living! I noticed to pay more and pay close attention to all 5 sense and how the body work!.When I touch he food., smell, taste and when I chewed the food. I noticed how the tung and teeth are working together! while I chewed the food. I feel full faster and feel satisfaction with food. Thank you so. much for a wonderful class!
I loved the raisin exercise!
It is amazing how something as simple as this raisin experiment can help you feel immediately centered and in the moment.
I appreciate the approach of using a mindful eating exercise up front. Other training programs I have done start with breathing, which can be difficult for some participants. Eating feels real, and tactile and can serve as a foundation experience to return to in a course or seminar. Thank you!
Wow! Such a very amazing exercise to have a deeper understanding of mindfulness and living in the moment.
HI! when I fill out the worksheets above, do I just keep them all together and submit them all at once at some point?
Hi Meg, yes, you will submit it all at once when you're done with all the requisites. Thank you.
well i don't' really like raisin but this exercise really made me think different of how the raisin taste, understand of texture, feeling, smell, and taste of taking my time to enjoy it then pushing it away. now when i get my grandchildren to try it i will get to follow the step to make them feel comfortable eating the raisin like i did. Thank for this exercise.
The raisin exercise is sooooo good! I used a raspberry and it was so tangy and felt soft. I have taught this exercise using chocolate but it was nice to use the fruit today.
You can also practice with a tangerine. Tangerine Meditation.
The experience of being mindful while eating a raisin is actually quite profound. It’s really a great practice as it caused me to slow down and to experience each separate segment of eating the raisin. Feeling it first. Noticing how it feels. Putting it in my mouth and feeling the texture, how hard or soft, and then chewing it and noticing the flavors in my mouth. Really paying attention to all aspects of eating it. I will try to start eating one meal a day mindfully. Love it.
The Raisin Exercise is a brilliant lesson that will allow one to focus on the present. I am greatly blessed by this exercise because it allowed me to understand that focusing on the present gives me the knowledge of what I am currently thinking. It allows me to look into "assess or analyze" my thoughts or whatever I am doing in a detailed manner.
In other words, paying attention to the present, gives me the complete insight into why I think what I think. Another way I can explain this insight is that focusing on the present moment, allows me to analyze what I am doing at the present time. It assures me that my thought process will lead to a conclusion that is unlikely to cause me to have negative emotions and thus lead negative actions or behavior. In other Words, a person that does on ongoing assessment of being present, evaluates and thus strengthens his or her thought patter. That person is actually making sure fruitless thoughts do not lead to fruitless conclusions (actions).
Thank you, Mr. Sean,
Karen Mitchell
Where is the appendix? On page ten it states, "Let us take the practice of mindful eating deeper with the exercises that are located in the appendix. You will find two exercises in the form of meditation scripts: Short Mindful Eating Exercise and Long Mindful Eating Exercises. Try each in your own practice. Select the one you prefer to use in your teaching." I can not find where this is located. Is it supposed to be at the end of the workbook? I've looked through and cannot seem to locate it.
Hi Sean
Under what category the does breath awareness meditation practiced in mindfulness fall under – Open monitoring or Concentration?
One of the places in the site, it was mentioned that Vipassana comes under concentration category- I suppose Vipassana has a kind of body scan which is open monitoring and breath awareness – am I right
Are the breath awareness meditation of Viapassana and mindfulness different?
Regards
Rambabu
Hi..Here are my thoughts on what is mindfulness – Any reflections? 🙂
What is Mindfulness:
"Living mindfully entails allowing our intuitive awareness takes centre stage as our inherent mode of knowing, influencing and guiding our attention, actions, thoughts, conceptual thinking, emotions, and connection with life and world.
Intuitive awareness entails embracing our embodied, discerning, holistic, Intuitive, meaning making, heartful, contextual, interconnected state of being"
Unpacking the Definition:
Mindfulness involves our capacity for sustained attention coupled with our capacity for our intuitive awareness, where in intuitive awareness becomes our anchor/way of existing with all its qualities of embodiment, relationality, discernment, meaning making, context apprehension, holism, intuition while directing our fine-tuned attention to various things.
Jon’s definition talks about abiding in awareness and using our attention in a sustained manner and purposefully without getting caught up in reactivity to what we are experiencing with our environment and our body-mind on a continuous basis .
Scot’s definition talks about our attentional capacity to apprehend what is happening in the present moment and our capacity for openness/curiosity/acceptance to what we are experiencing.
Both highlight the importance of attentional capacity and our ability to hold what we are experiencing in our awareness while Scot is not explicit about awareness.
While both are useful definitions to contextualize mindfulness practices, it is important to recognize that we have two way of knowing/being – Being mode (intuitive awareness) and doing mode (where our attention, will, emotion and other functions are engaged with something) . Also recognize the importance of bringing our intuitive awareness faculties to centre stage so that our doing mode works effectively with in the benevolent embrace of our intuitive awareness mode.
The practices of mindfulness are instrumental in developing both these modes of being and more important bringing the Being mode to the centre stage and aligning doing mode with being mode. While doing the practices it is important to have this understanding so that we do not end up doing the practices in exclusive doing mode and miss out on deriving the intended benefits and shifts.
As a side note – it may help to know that doing mode is essentially at transactional level of our living where in every thing, ever person, is discreet and separate objects . At Intuitive level everything is interconnected and whole. In Eugene Gendlin’s language one is explicit and the other is implicit. And we exist on both the aspects/modes simultaneously and seamlessly.
This understanding resonates with the work of John Teasdale, Iain McGilchrist , the idea of Buddhi in Samkhya/Yoga,
It was amazing to see how my appreciation for the food I was eating increased dramatically, just by taking the approach given in this exercise. A simple but impactful exercise to start this journey.
The result of paying attention to one sensory experience at a time sharpens my sense of
all my body and mind do with the essential need for sensory pleasure and food intake.
I completely agree! The raisin exercise is incredible.
This is a great video to increase conscious awareness. It uses the most straightforward act of eating a raisin with curiosity about each detail of the small raisin, starting with the sight and feel to the size, texture, color, smell, and taste as I put it in my mouth. I am not swallowing it right away but savoring it physically, becoming aware of texture and taste before swallowing it. This was a great experience, as was learning what mindfulness is.
I enjoyed this exercise. I remember doing this before… This time it was with a frozen blueberry. Each time, I noticed how my first instinct was to chew/take a bite and swallow…so, I reminded myself to hold the blueberry, as frozen as it was 🙂 It was cold and hard to the touch, no smell, and the flavor was there, but was less profound, less sweet than a fresh blueberry. This exercise was great, as it really reminds me of ow to savor the moments in the present, living moment. Those are the "fresh" moments to enjoy.