 Hello and welcome today 61 of the Mindfulness Challenge. Today we're going to be talking about mindful eating. And welcome today 61 of the Mindfulness Challenge. 61 days. Wow, that's amazing. We've got another 39 to go at least. And today I want to talk about eating mindfully. We've talked about mindfulness and being in the moment and being on your breath and being able to drop into your body to have those moments of just being. And eating is really an opportunity for us not only to nourish our body but also to nourish our mind, nourish our mindfulness practice. And you can practice this anytime of the day when you're eating and it's there to help you to stay still and stay and be with your food and appreciate the work that's gone into it, not just to get it, you know, something in your kitchen's cooked it, but how it gets to that stage and what needs to take place for you to be able to have the abundance of food that you have on your plate today. So, you know, you can do this by simply sitting like, you know, you can do it with a piece of fruit or you do whatever you want to do, but begin by taking the foods visually. So, so what I want us to do really is I want us to think about how you know, we, when we sit down and we start to prepare for our food and we think about what's on our plate and a mindfulness eating really does give it a different dimension and there's certain, you know, there's the old mindfulness trick where, you know, people used to give a raise into pop in your mouth and when you pop the raise in your mouth, just close your eyes, you can do it now, you can do it with a strawberry, you can do it with a piece of fruit or whatever, just pop it into your mouth and you just slowly sort of roll the raise it in your mouth and feel the different textures and all of those things and when you're ready, just take a bite into it and you'll feel, you know, the taste and the juices and all of these sort of things, but it's really important that we think about eating mindfully because what we see food eating in particular is just another way of, right, what's next, what am I going to do, I've got time to eat, so what am I going to do today then, all right, I've got this food, all right, I'll be there in five minutes, let me finish this and I'll come there and you get there and you've got to take the food in front of you and you're not even with it. Try and eat without any phones around you, without anything that's around you and just be with your food and things like when we sit here today and there's no real meditation because it's more of a talking thing, but I want you to just, when you put the plate of food, be with the food, be with it. In fact, when you eat something, put your knife and fork down after every mouthful and just chew the food in your mouth, investigate the food, investigate how the food smells, how does it look, what is the texture in your mouth and be experienced of some of the smells of it as well and understand that everything that's on your plate has been in the main, hopefully, provided by nature, so look at all of the nutrients that you're eating or the rain and the sunshine that's helped this to grow and maybe somebody cooked and cleaned it and got everything prepped for you, bring to mind all of those various energies that come together to create this meal and then slowly pick the food up and if you're using intentionals, tune in to your knife and fork, feel how the knife and fork feels situated in your hands and as you put the food to your mouth, notice the desire to chew and swallow quickly because you just want to eat, you just want to get it done. Instead, start feeling the temperature of the food, holding the food in your mouth, you can feel the shape as I said, you can begin chewing, notice the textures of the food, does it change as you continue to chew, notice the flavours. Now, if you may have had a hard time doing this, then just stop and slow down and simply labelling some of the food as you're eating as well will give you and help you to build this mindfulness practice and when you eventually swallow the food, bring your attention to the experience of swallowing. How does it feel as it moves down your throat? Do you notice how quickly it disappears and pause and just be with that moment and sit with those flavours? Excuse me, I'm sneezing. Three for luck, I think. It goes to show I don't hurt with anything and I did it properly, I sneezed into my arm because that's what we need to do with coronavirus but to continually check in with your sights, your smells, your vision, your tastes and everything that's around you and when you finish eating allow yourself to finish feel that gratitude that the food is nourishing not only your body but nourishing your mind in a way that is just how many of us truly mindfully eat? Not a lot, I wouldn't have thought. So day 61 is a task day, not a meditation day. If this is the morning and you have your breakfast, good morning Julian, I love you but just eat your breakfast mindfully or drink a cup of tea mindfully, a cup of coffee and see the difference how it feels and just check in and be. Now I'm not saying all the time you can mindfully eat, it'd be great if you could but you're not going to be able to but let's just try and start today with a couple of you know meals and and and just be with that moment. Don't put your phone on the table, spend some time with your family, have it as a social gathering but when you're eating eat properly. Day 61, mindfully eating, I hope you've enjoyed it, your task and I would like you to know and put comments in to tell me how you got on and how it felt and what the differences were by you just tuning in to you eating your food or drinking your coffee or drinking your tea or eating fruit or whatever it is okay today. Let me know how you get out, put your comments in if you could subscribe to my channel that would be great and also when you subscribe if you hit the bell that'll tell you notifications if you want to be kept up to date every time a video pops up. Thank you very much for watching day 61, be love and give love, take care and I'll see you soon, bye bye.