Sunset Dinner a Mindful Eating Experience

What is mindful eating? It is the act of becoming aware of each sense as we engage with our food.

Smell – Sound – Sight – Touch – Taste

Our evening begin with introductions of ourselves accompanied by warm tea as we gather in a circle. The ocean waves crash against the shore in the background as bare bottom babies run around in the sand. On this beautiful Friday, like myself many moms have joined us for the evening all mimicking one sentiment how hard it is to take time away from our families.

Nevertheless moms, grandma’s and mom’s to be all women were here to give and receive energies that we all needed to end our busy week. Chef Peggy and Holistic coach Karina lead us through a mindful dining experience using Doterra essentials to highlight each sense as the evening progressed.  Beginning with our sense of smell using Wild Orange essential oil to uplift our moods, energy levels and evoke happy memories.  For an energizing boost, Karina dispensed one to two drops in the palm of our hands instructing us to gently rub palms together and inhale deeply from palms.  We start with our sense of smell since most of us can recall a specific memory when we smell certain scents. That is because scent is known to bypass the thalamus and go straight to the brain’s smell center, known as the olfactory bulb. The olfactory bulb is directly connected to the amygdala and hippocampus, which might explain why the smell of something can so immediately trigger a detailed memory or even intense emotion

This small act of inhaling wild orange essential oils helped to energize us and even bring up some old memories that we had forgotten.  

 

Moving on to sound using blind folds or our masks to cover our eyes we took in the sounds that surrounded us using our ujjayi breath to guide us into a meditative state of stillness.  One exercise that I really enjoyed.  Was we were each asked what was one phrase we would like to hear in our daily lives.  Things like “I see you and understand you”, ” You are right”, “YES”, “I appreciate you”, “I am grateful for everything you do”,  “I love you”, “You are amazing”, and “You are enough” rolled off the tounges of all these beautifully amazing women.  Then we were asked to partner up in which your phase was then whispered to you as you stood receiving in silence blindfolded, and vice versus.  This act of hearing the words you want to hear being repeated over and over to you had an overwhelming effect on many of us.  The words that some of us as women so desperately need and want to hear but often don’t.  During this exercise of expressing loving words to our partner we gave strength to each other utilizing the sound of our voices and hearing  whole heartily with shut eyes.  

 

Through this exercise I learned how much I, we, women need to hear out LOUD that we are seen, understood, appreciated, loved, believed, and valued for all that we do, try to do, want to do and am dreaming of achieving.  And It is okay to take the time to  validate you.  You can’t continue to fulfill everyone’s need until you fill your cup up first. 

A small reminder to each of use that how we speak to ourselves and each does matter.  Those words stay with us and replay like a broken record in the background.  

 

At the close of our evening we were instructed to leave the blind folds on and we would be served each item from that nights meal separately.  Then we were asked to savor each bite and describe what we tasted or felt while each flavor melted over our tounges.   The number one hit from that evening was the cashew cream cheese dip with quinoa chips.   What surprised each of use what how small each portion was and how full we all felt.  The next day i noticed how much slower I ate while attending another event that weekend.   

 

Thanks to Chef Peggy and Holistic coach Karina for asking me to be apart of such a lovely evening and I hope that we can host another event soon.  If any of these mindful tips resonates with you I would love to know.  Leave me a comment down below.  Or follow me on Instagram to learn about our next mindful dining experience.