How Does a Strawberry Taste? (and other important questions)
Aurelia West
January 2017
For me, winter break typically equals sitting around all day either on the computer or watching television, mindlessly eating and playing silly games on my phone. But while I’m engaging in these activities, sometimes I’m not even invested in them to the fullest, instead feeling guilty about not having done enough chores around the house, HOL homework, or reading. Whether or not you believe new year’s resolutions are useful, it’s good to have goals to strive for, and one of mine this year is to be more mindful.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is really exactly what it sounds like. It is the absence of mindless activities, such as attempting to multitask or always having wayward thoughts running through your mind while trying to do something else. It is concentrating on one thing and everything that has to do with that thing. It is letting yourself and your worries go for just one minute in order to experience something else wholly. There are many ways to combat mindlessness and truly live in the moment, experiencing everything to the fullest.
Why Strawberries?
I used to attend a bi-weekly therapy group in order to help with my anxiety, which is the reason I often have so many worrisome thoughts bumbling around my brain, and one of the sessions that really stood out to me was the day we ate strawberries. Eating is one of the things we are often the most mindless about. It is easy to just consume food, whether it be in the middle of a dinner conversation or a television program, and not concentrate much on what we’re eating at all. That day, the leader of the group session encouraged us to really observe the strawberries we were eating. Were any of them similar? How were they different? She urged us also to pay attention to their texture and to chew more slowly or more repeatedly than we usually would.
This is not an uncommon practice used to enhance mindfulness. After the session was over, I went home and researched other mindfulness activities to hopefully help put the thoughts in my head to rest for a spell. One of the activities I found was to use all five senses and find three things each sense was experiencing at that point in time. In doing so, we are so much more aware of the environment surrounding us instead of blocking it out in favor of other things.
Of course, if you need to focus on important tasks or work, it’s difficult to practice mindfulness, and that’s okay. It’s just essential to make sure not to get caught up in avoiding the world and make sure to step back and observe it once in a while.
For me, winter break typically equals sitting around all day either on the computer or watching television, mindlessly eating and playing silly games on my phone. But while I’m engaging in these activities, sometimes I’m not even invested in them to the fullest, instead feeling guilty about not having done enough chores around the house, HOL homework, or reading. Whether or not you believe new year’s resolutions are useful, it’s good to have goals to strive for, and one of mine this year is to be more mindful.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is really exactly what it sounds like. It is the absence of mindless activities, such as attempting to multitask or always having wayward thoughts running through your mind while trying to do something else. It is concentrating on one thing and everything that has to do with that thing. It is letting yourself and your worries go for just one minute in order to experience something else wholly. There are many ways to combat mindlessness and truly live in the moment, experiencing everything to the fullest.
Why Strawberries?
I used to attend a bi-weekly therapy group in order to help with my anxiety, which is the reason I often have so many worrisome thoughts bumbling around my brain, and one of the sessions that really stood out to me was the day we ate strawberries. Eating is one of the things we are often the most mindless about. It is easy to just consume food, whether it be in the middle of a dinner conversation or a television program, and not concentrate much on what we’re eating at all. That day, the leader of the group session encouraged us to really observe the strawberries we were eating. Were any of them similar? How were they different? She urged us also to pay attention to their texture and to chew more slowly or more repeatedly than we usually would.
This is not an uncommon practice used to enhance mindfulness. After the session was over, I went home and researched other mindfulness activities to hopefully help put the thoughts in my head to rest for a spell. One of the activities I found was to use all five senses and find three things each sense was experiencing at that point in time. In doing so, we are so much more aware of the environment surrounding us instead of blocking it out in favor of other things.
Of course, if you need to focus on important tasks or work, it’s difficult to practice mindfulness, and that’s okay. It’s just essential to make sure not to get caught up in avoiding the world and make sure to step back and observe it once in a while.