A Raisin

A Raisin

After two days tough nursing research lectures the professor gave us an interesting class this afternoon. After introducing the college which she is working at,

she gave every one in the classroom a raisin in a bag and didn’t allow us to eat it right now. I hold the raisin in my hand and wonder what the professor wanted to do.

“Please take the raisin in the bag with your hands and pay all your attention to your breath with a comfortable position in your chairs.” She asked. We all followed her.

“Thinking you are looking at a boat sailing on the sea with your eyes closed.”

She said with a soft voice.

“Try to imagine what in the bag in your hands and look at the bag.”

“Open the bag carefully and smell, but don’t take what’s in the bag out, just

look and smell with deep breath.” Her voice was lower and lower.

“Take the raisin out of the bag and hold it with your hand and smell it again.”

“Put the raisin in your mouth, but don’t bite it just keep it in your mouth for a few minutes.”

“Bite it once, only once, and taste what it is like.”

“Now you can eat it fully.” She smiled and enjoyed her own raisin.

After all the procedures she asked us what we were feeling at that moment. Of course every one had her own answer.

She told us that this was mindful eating and they helped people who had substances abuse quit the bad habit with this approach in the US. She found it was very

interesting that we wrapped one raisin with one bag. In her country, however, people always put ten or more raisins in one bag, and they eat all raisins in it once.

“Most of us pay much more attention to our future and past, not present moment,

and what we always say is that we don’t have time to enjoy the present moment

and we have a lot of things to do in the next step. It is really a pity.” She said.

Have you tried the method before, dear friends here?

Warmly, Dragonfly