I came across an article on Huff Post called Karen Carnabucci’s GPS Guide On Relieving Stress. In one portion of her writings she has a link to 100 ways to de-stress. I will slowly go through all 100 and see what works for me. We are all different and what works for one will not always work for another. Lets see what happens….
#1. Chocolate Meditation as found on Psychology Today. The goal is to meditate while eating a bar of chocolate. I do not have a chocolate bar so I will eat a mini Hershey’s Chocolate. The directions will be underlined and in italics and my comments will be below each step.
* Open the packet. Inhale the aroma. Let it sweep over you.
I must admit I never really took the time to deliberately smell chocolate. Very nice. I closed my eyes and took slow deep breaths and it was a soothing scent.
*Break off a piece and look at it. Really let your eyes drink
in what it looks like, examining every nook and cranny.
Light brown, dense yet smooth.
* Pop it in your mouth. See if it’s possible to hold it on your tongue and let it melt, noticing any tendency to suck at it. Chocolate has over 300 different flavours.
See if you can sense some of them.
I popped it in my mouth and yes I did notice the tendency to suck on it and I went for it. It did not last long. The flavor I came up with was chocolate:-)
*If you notice your mind wandering while you do this, simply notice where it went, then gently escort it back to the present moment.
OK, lets see if my mind wanders. I took another small piece. The only time my mind wandered was when Brodie came up to see what was going on.
*After the chocolate has completely melted, swallow it very slowly and deliberately.
Let it trickle down your throat.
Oh no! I am going way too fast. I have already melted, sucked and swallowed 2 bites.
I still have at least 2 more so let’s try the slowly and deliberate trick.
So what happened? I went directly to the sucking not the melting.
I did try to swallow slowly but that did nothing for me.
*Repeat this with one other piece.
I have one more piece. Popped it in my mouth, chewed and swallowed. Yummy:-)
*How do you feel? Is it different from normal? Did the chocolate taste better than if you’d just eaten it at a normal breakneck pace? Do you feel fuller that normal, more satisfied?
I feel fine. I do think I had a true chocolate experience. I don’t feel fuller then normal or more satisfied. I would say that if anything in this experiment was a stress reliever it would be the scent of the chocolate. Taking the time to smell the chocolate was pleasant.
In conclusion. I have found the scent of chocolate to be soothing.
Give it a try and let me know what you think.
God Bless,
KathieyV:-)
