Reiju – Mindfulness
One of the blessings of Reiju is Mindfulness. Here are some ideas you may consider for putting mindfulness into your everyday life. If you feel you do not have time to spend in mindfulness, think of all the other things in your day you make time for – do these help you to be happy, peaceful, calm? You do not have to ‘make time for’ or ‘create space for’ mindfulness. Just bring it into everything you do during the day and evening. For instance:
- When preparing a meal, take a deep breath as you gather the ingredients; as you chop and mash and stir, set a positive intention that this will be a lovely meal, full of colour, vitality, textures and all things to make the food enjoyable and which will nourish all the bodies that partake of it
- In Chinese Medicine the attitude, emotion and energy of the person preparing the food is important as it is believed these transmit into the food and ‘angry’ people make ‘angry’ meals. Putting your heart and soul into the preparation and cooking offers positive energy to the people eating it – which can be experienced. I know which cafes I prefer to visit because when I eat my cake I can ‘feel’ the love that went into the preparation and baking of its deliciousness – whereas in other cafes the food doesn’t ‘feel’ of anything
- Before you pick up your eating implements, pause, notice your inner sense of anticipation, notice your salivation, the smell of the food, then choose a piece of food with care, and place it in your mouth, resisting the urge to begin chewing, biting or sucking, just let it ‘be’ in your mouth and then slowly start to chew. Put down your cutlery between mouthfuls and check your body; if there is tension, relax. Keep doing this throughout the meal – for those who have been affected by Covid/Long Covid, then your smell, taste and salivation may not be what you can utilise for this, so choose what other aspects you can to make the meal mindful – colour, texture, wet, dry, and there are many other adaptations to make the food richer
- As soon as you notice you feel full – stop eating. Mindfulness has been proven to help people eat only what they need. Then sit and take time to let your body absorb the food
- Now clear up the table, maintaining a sense of awareness and present in this moment of clearing, preparing for the washing up with enjoyment, the lovely sensation of the bubbles and warm water or for those of you who are like me and prefer to wash dishes in a dishwasher, the transformation of dirty dishes to clean ones. Open yourself to the pleasure and other sensations that are available around the satisfaction of clearing the kitchen and completing this task – before moving on to another task
Start small and think about taking the same approach to any task you need to complete during the day, from washing, bathing and cleaning your teeth to filing papers away, to dusting, to meeting people at your work.
And pay attention to the difference in you and in others as you apply mindfulness more and more in your life.
Image – Yucar Studios – Unsplash
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