By Claudia Ricci
They say that an apple a day
keeps the doctor away, but can eating an apple also make you happy?
I discovered today at lunch
that it can.
I walked in my office in one of those moods.
Tired of teaching.
Tired of being tired of teaching.
I reached for a book on my
shelf: THE MINDFUL WAY THROUGH DEPRESSION.
Thinking, this might be worth
reading over lunch.
And this is what happened.
The book suggested that when a
bad mood hits, don’t go down the road trying to think your way out of it.
Don’t try to solve it, trace it, tackle it, track it, fix it, get to the bottom
of it and by all means,
Don’t decide that because you
are in a low mood right now, that you are destined to be depressed the rest of
the day or the rest of your life.
Instead, slow wayyyyyyyyyy
down. Embrace the moment.
The moment in this case
happened to be
Me eating my sliced apple for
lunch.
So I did with the apple what
they suggest you do with a handful of raisins:
n Hold the apple in your hand and “imagine that you’ve just
dropped in from Mars and have never seen an object like this before in your
life.”
n See the apple, “take time to really see it”
n Touch it between your fingers
n Smell it
n Place a small amount on your lip, then place it in your
mouth, without chewing (hard to do!)
n Spend a few moments just feeling the feeling of having it in
your mouth
n Now really taste and feel it: slightly cool, slightly sweet
but with a little bit of tartness; the apple softens as it sits against my
cheek
n Leave it there a little longer, and say a prayer of
gratitude that you have a fresh apple for lunch!
n Now, with a little smile on your face, because you have been
able to bring yourself to a place of happiness eating a slice of apple, be
conscious of “the intention to swallow.” Be grateful that you have all the
muscles in your mouth and throat to swallow!
n “Sense how the body as a whole is feeling after completing
this exercise in mindful eating.”
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