Exploring Mindfulness Through Taste

There are so many ways to play around with mindfulness in your daily life but today I want to talk about a fun way to teach kids about it with something they do every day, taste! By taking time to notice and explore the foods they eat they’ll be introduced to the concept of really focusing on a moment and mindfully paying attention to something that they do every day. 

The Exercise:

For this specific exercise, you can use any type of food. I’ve found that crunchy or squishy foods work best. 

Have them eat the piece of food slowly and really pay attention to everything that’s going on in their mouth. You may want to start out by sucking on it and noticing things first, then follow it by taking just one bite and noticing what that feels like, sounds like, and tastes like. Follow that by another bite and so on. 

During this exercise ask them a series of questions so that they know what to focus on. Let them know not to answer but to simply think of the answer. You can repeat the questions after the exercise and let them tell you what they experienced after they have finished their piece of food. 

Questions to ask:

Can you feel how rough/soft is it?

Does it feel crunchy or squishy?

What stands out the most?

Is there anything you notice right now that you had never noticed before about this piece of food?

Is it sweet or salty?

Can you feel the ridges with your tongue?

What does it sound like when you bite into it? 

Of course feel free to add in any fun questions you may have! 

Observations:

Write down anything that you noticed about their experience. Funny moments, good insights, or just something you’d like to share with them. If you’re a caretaker then write down anything you’d like to share with the parents.

Mindfulness is something so simple that it’s sometimes hard to grasp, and I’ve found that practices such as this one help us wrap our minds around the types of things we want to be noticing. 

Remember that it’s ok if the exercise didn’t go as expected the first few times, as you repeat it your little humans will start to grasp the idea slowly and after a while they will find themselves practicing mindfulness when they weren’t even intending to. 

Happy tasting!