All 5 Senses

Hello, and welcome to lesson three of Mindful Eating. Today we're going to be talking about our senses. When mindfully eating, it's important to engage our senses throughout the whole process, from deciding what to eat to savoring what we're eating. We have five basic senses, all of which can be called on to help us eat more mindfully. The sense of sight enjoys the color, shape, and overall beauty of our food. Just looking at food gets the salivary glands going as the body gets ready to eat. The sense of hearing can pick up the sound of popcorn popping, onions sizzling, or chips crunching. In fact, research has shown that the sounds produced by food can strongly influence how pleasant we find the flavors of certain foods. The sense of smell plays a central role in deciding whether we want to eat something or not. Think about your physical response to smelling something delicious cooking, compared to smelling something burning. Through the sense of touch, we feel the texture and temperature of food as it meets our hands or lips. And finally, we have the sense of taste. While the importance of taste may be obvious, as you learn to mindfully eat and really pay attention to your other senses, some of the foods you remember liking won't actually taste as good as you previously thought. By tuning in to each of your senses, you can start to shift your relationship with the experience of eating from beginning to end. So the next time you eat, take time to mindfully explore using all of your senses and enjoy....