Chocolate Meditation

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In Today's Email:

• Chocolate Meditation: What is it and how to do it…

• Did you know? Lower blood pressure with meditation…

• Yogapedia: Today’s pose of the day...

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HOW TO:
Chocolate Meditation

For the majority of us, scrolling through a Twitter feed, casually browsing the web, or even going through a clogged email inbox doesn't have the same gravitational pull as sitting in a quiet room and silently focusing on our breath while quieting our thoughts.

The biggest challenge for people who want to consistently practice mindfulness is finding the motivation to put our addictively busy lives on wait for even a short while.

The brain doesn't want to stop working while it's solving issues, doing tasks, or just having fun.

Why Chocolate?

The tremendous advantages of utilizing chocolate for an eating meditation have become more apparent over time.

Many of the advantages of mindful breath meditation are also present in chocolate meditation, along with some extra advantages.

Practitioners calm their minds and concentrate on a single phenomenon in the present time, similar to mindful breath meditation, which improves their capacity to manage stress and anxiety.

Ready to Try It?

Grab a piece of wrapped chocolate (or a similar food item), and try this.

1. Observe your wrapped chocolate.

Pick up your wrapped piece of chocolate. Notice its color and how the light reflects off the wrapper. Notice its shape and the weight of it in your hand. Notice its scent.

2. Observe it unwrapped.

Listen to the sound as you unwrap your chocolate. Again, take note of its color, shape and scent.

Observe its texture: Is it hard or soft? Smooth or bumpy?

3. Observe your mind.

Bring the chocolate toward your mouth, but don’t bite into it.

Notice how your body reacts. Do you start to salivate? Do other parts of your body anticipate the bite you’re about to take? What thoughts go through your head?

Are you excited? Impatient? Hesitant? Observe your thoughts and feelings as though you’re watching them move through your head like clouds moving across the sky. (Learn more in You Are Not Your Thoughts.)

4. Take a mindful bite.

Take a small bite and let it linger on your tongue. Slowly roll it around your mouth.

How does it taste? Is the taste different on different parts of your tongue? Is it sweet, salty, bitter, fruity or nutty?

Refrain from judging the taste as good or bad, but simply experience the various taste sensations.

Notice how the texture feels in your mouth as you slowly start chewing.

Continue mindfully eating, slowly taking bites and experiencing the aroma, the textures and the flavors.

When you’ve finished, sit for a few moments and reflect on your experience of slowly and mindfully eating the chocolate.

DEAL OF THE DAY
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About: Want to discover how to use meditation to transform your life? Have you tried meditation, but had trouble sticking to a routine or finding the time?

With benefits like decreased stress, blood pressure, anxiety, and depression and increased sleep quality, immunity, and mood, meditation has deservedly made its way into the daily routine of virtually every top performer.

Every meditation in this bundle was professionally narrated and recorded to deliver you the ultimate meditation experience in the comfort of your home. All meditations have multiple options for background audio, allowing you to customize the experience to your liking.

This bundle contains:

15 Guided Meditations Recorded Professionally With Relaxing Calming Background Animations.

TOGETHER WITH BETTER BREATHING SPORT
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CRYSTAL OF THE DAY

POSITIVE NEWS OF THE DAY

Tennessee is Sending Free Books to 200,000 Kids to Keep Them Reading Over the Summer–Families Are ‘Thrilled’

Tennessee is subsidizing the distribution of surprise books to keep almost a quarter million children interested in reading in order to prevent learning loss over the summer.

The K-3 Home Library initiative of the Governor's Early Literacy Foundation (GELF) has been expanded to now include all incoming first-, second-, and third-graders enrolled in a public school. This summer, the program will send 1.2 million books to more than 200,000 students, teachers, and librarians in conjunction with Scholastic Publishing.

At no expense to families or the 152 school districts, six packages of grade-level books will be delivered directly to participants' homes.

DID YOU KNOW?

Meditation practice leads to mental and physical relaxation. This spurs the production of nitric oxide in the brain and reduces blood pressure. At least, that was the finding of a study done by Massachusetts General Hospital. Specifically, 64% of patients who participated in the study and spent three months meditating regularly saw enough of a drop in their blood pressure levels to enable them to decrease their prescribed medication. This means that studies are showing that mindfulness-based interventions such as formal meditation can actually be an alternative medicine to pills.

YOGAPEDIA
Locust Pose (Salabhasana)

What is Locust Pose?

Locust pose, or salabhasana, is a back-strengthening posture. From a prone position, the feet, legs, head and chest are lifted upward using the strength of the back.

Instructions

Lie on your belly with your legs together.

Bring your arms by your sides, palms facing up.

Lift your feet, legs, head and chest with an inhale.

Stretch your head and toes away from each other.

Breathe while holding the pose.

MEME