Tuning into Feeling 3 - Taste - What do You Feel when you TASTE things?
How did you get on yesterday with the 'Hearing Awareness?'
I noticed today as I was walking on the beach, paddling in the sea that the seagulls were squawking rather loudly! They often are, but sometimes we tune out when we are occupied with other things.
I also thought the waves were crashing quite loudly for small waves, and then I became aware of the splashing I was making as I was walking through the sea, so it was like all noise had been amplified with my focus! Did you notice this too?
Being in the Moment
The more we are aware of all of our senses then the more we are living through our feelings and actually 'Being in the Moment'. This is talked about a lot as something to achieve if you're wishing to be spiritual or aware, so what exactly is it and does it mean?
Well I'm sure many people will have their own opinions and viewpoints on this, but to me it means 'Your feeling is louder than your thoughts.'
I mean when you think about it, for most people, how often does that happen? The mind chatter is usually going loud in our heads 24/7, and you manage to quieten it for a while, but not for long before it pops back and is driving you crazy again!
So actually experiencing FEELING over MIND CHATTER is quite special, and quiet an achievement! The reason this is so needed, apart from a sanity break, is that our soul, intuition, guidance and discernment cannot always make it through the mind chatter. The more we can still our minds and feel peace and stillness, then the easier it becomes for us to feel, hear, see or know the guidance and messages that are being sent to us all the time throughout the day, but we usually miss a good 80% of them through mind chatter and being busy.
If you find it hard to quieten your mind then do check out my Free Audio - Peace & Stillness in Your Mind. Playing this before doing some of the feeling exercises in this series will really help you to feel over thinking!
So moving on to today and we are working on Taste.
What do You Feel when you TASTE things?
Quite often we eat in a rush and we're not really fully tasting and experiencing our food, which is such a waste of high vibrations that we're not connecting to!
Those of you who know me quite well will know that I love dark chocolate! It tastes delicious and sometimes it tastes heavenly, ie the feeling I get when I eat it makes me feel so good that it feels like I'm in heaven!
This feeling of 'feeling like I'm in heaven' is so beautiful and heart opening, sometimes it makes me feel really happy and connected to my true home and other sides I might feel a bit homesick because I miss being there, but either way this feeling feels good overall and one I like to feel.
Tastes like our other senses are tools for us to really fully experience life in a human body! They all allow us to feel and these feelings are helping us to tune into deeper feelings that are there underneath the surface, but we don't feel them when life is busy and our minds are the dominant energy.
Why Tune into Tastes?
Life is about enjoying and appreciating the little things and taste gives us lots of opportunity to that, if we are 'in the moment' and noticing what we are tasting! So taking note of what you are eating and really feeling the taste is a great way to slow down and be present in the moment. It is almost impossible to feel your soul when you're in rush mode, racing around and not paying attention to what is actually happening now. So tasting is about 'being present' and enjoying the little things!
Back to chocolate, because . . . chocolate is my 'go to' taste to raise my vibration!
When I was really ill with the chronic adrenal fatigue I saw a naturopath to help me heal. He completely changed my diet and the one thing that upset me most was no milk chocolate!! I could cope with no wheat, no caffeine and no alcohol ok, but no chocolate was going a step too far! He said I could dark chocolate, but that did not pacify me, as I didn't like dark chocolate at the time! As I missed not eating chocolate more and more, and on finding out that dark is full of magnesium, which was on my 'eat lots of list' then I started to try and nibble bits of dark chocolate. At first I wasn't impressed, but after I while I adapted and started to like it. Now I love it, and I can really enjoy eating my dark chocolate with no guilt, because it is sugar free and full of magnesium, so pretty healthy to eat!
I'm not sure if you noticed, but I touched on a really important point just then about feelings and that is guilt!
Do you allow guilt to spoil your good experiences? If you do then this needs to stop! Guilt is so destructive! It is a low vibration and we don't want to be feeling or collecting any of those! If you're going to eat your favourite food then enjoy eating it! If you have issues with guilt and eating food then try and remember to ask yourself this question before eating:
Am I going to allow myself to enjoy eating this?
If your answer is no then don't eat it! What's the point if you're not going to enjoy eating it through guilt? The aim is that by asking this question you're giving yourself permission to enjoy it. (I'm not recommending unhealthy eating here at all. I do eat a very healthy Vegan diet, mainly organic, but we if want to have an 'eat treat' then we need to enjoy it or treat yourself in another way!
Tuning in to Tasting
Now today I'm not going to ask you to eat food you know you don't like, because that is not going to give you a good feeling and so isn't a very constructive awareness experiment! So what are we going to do?
Well you are going to choose 10 foods or drinks and you are going to rate how much you enjoyed them or how strong the taste / flavour was when you fully tuned in and focused on it.
If you're feeling negative emotions whilst eating then that is basically lowering your vibration which is not something you want to do! So do be aware when you are eating, and if you are eating for pleasure to enjoy the taste then fully enjoy the taste and raise your vibration, make it a celebration!
Ask yourself these questions, when tasting with full awareness:
- Does this taste as I expected it to?
- Does it taste better?
- Is the flavour stronger when I focus on it?
- Can I feel me energy / vibration rising as I enjoy eating this?
- Am I feeling guilty?
- Am I feeling any other emotions that are not positive?
- Does it taste different if I close my eyes when I'm tasting it?
Closing your eyes is actually a powerful way to tune into feeling. We all rely on seeing so much that we can neglect using our other senses and we will taste, hear, feel so much more with our eyes closed, so do give that a go too!
Ideas of what you can taste – eat or drink:
- Your first cup of coffee of the day!
- Smoothie – a new flavour
- Water – tap / bottled, does it taste different?
- Herbal tea
- Fresh fruit juice
- Chocolate – has to be on the list!
- Popcorn
- Salad
- Fresh fruit
- Ice-cream / frozen yoghurt
- A stick of celery or raw carrot
- Your toothpaste / mouthwash
Try and choose food, drinks or other things that have different textures and temperatures as well as tastes. As you’re eating:
- Can you feel the temperature of what you’re eating?
- Can you feel the texture?
- Does the temperature or texture enhance the flavour or your experience of eating it?
Feelings that you might experience:
- Yum – lovely!
- Feels and tastes like heaven!
- Delicious, feeling happy!
- Not really liking it, indifferent
- Not liking it at all, why am I eating this!
- Feeling memories of when you ate this before
- Memories of people or events when you ate it
- Desire to eat more and have more good times
- Lonely
- Content
- Happy
- Celebrating!
Do share your comments and feelings with me about you felt when tasting or from our previous days 'Tuning into Feeling' awareness exercises. I look forward to chatting with you!
(original images from pixabay.com)
If you've missed earlier posts then you can find them below.
Here is the whole 'Tuning into Feeling' Series
- Free Audio to Still Your Mind!
- Tuning into Feeling 1 - Sight & Seeing - What do You Feel when you SEE things?
- Tuning into Feeling 2 - Hearing - What do You Feel when you HEAR things?
- Tuning into Feeling 3 - Taste - See Above
- Tuning into Feeling 4 - Smell - What do You Feel when you SMELL things?
- Tuning into Feeling 5 - Touch & Feeling - What do You Feel when you physically TOUCH things?
- Tuning into Feeling 6 - Invisible Energies & Feelings - Can You Feel Your Soul & Inner Guidance?
- Tuning into Feeling 7 - Tuning into Your Soul
- Tuning into Feeling 8 - Truth, Integrity and Discernment
- Tuning into Feeling 9 - How Can We Discern?
- Tuning into Feeling 10 - Tips on Tuning into Your Soul!
Michelle you hit another one out of the park! Your post was wonderful on teaching all of us to be present and to tune into our senses. How can we appreciate what is before us if we don't focus on it? Life can be chaotic and rushed so we don't stop to "smell the roses." We don't notice the small things that make life worthwhile. Thank-you for sharing your wonderful gift! Have a great night!
Thanks @cabbagepatch! :)
Yes it is the small things that make us happy really, as you say taking time to 'smell the roses' and roses do smell so heavenly! I love roses!
I love working from home and feeling the freedom of no time schedules or not too many! Life is calmer, everyone should work less, earn more and have more fun! :) Enjoy your night too! :)