On my Nurturing November mini retreat, we practised the chocolate meditation. This is a great practice to try if you want to experience mindfulness, and also if you like chocolate!

Here's how to do it:

1. Sit comfortably and place one small piece (about the size of a thumbnail or so) of chocolate in front of you.
2. Close your eyes and spend 5 breaths settling the body, mind and breath.
3. Open your eyes and look at the chocolate and imagine eating it; try to picture the sensations in your mouth of what chocolate tastes like, the feelings it produces in you. Spend about 5 breaths doing this.
4. Pick the chocolate up and slowly bring it towards you. Lift it to your nose, inhale the aroma, and linger with that for a few moments. Then look at the colour, texture, shape of the chocolate, and again focus on these aspects. What words and expressions come up in the mind? Are you looking foward to eating it? Does the smell remind you of a particular chocolate, a particular occasion?

5. Slowly open the mouth and place the chocolate on your tongue. Do NOT eat the chocolate! Just let the warmth of your tongue and mouth gradually melt the chocolate.

6. Close your mouth and let the chocolate melt a bit more. Only let your mouth and tongue move the chocolate around, don't chew, bite or suck it.

7. As it moves and melts in your mouth fully engage with the flavour, the textures, the aroma, the taste, all the qualities and sensations of the chocolate that come to you. Focus only on the chocolate and your feelings/thoughts, but remember to keep breathing (in and out through the nose).

8. Slowly the piece of chocolate will get smaller and smaller. As it shrinks stay with the sensations, taste, and experience. Does it bring up memories? Does it bring up any associations for you? If possible, watch these thoughts/feelings in as neutral manner as you can, although it can bring up quite strong emotions, particularly if you have (or have had) any eating related issues or disorders.

9. The piece of chocolate will eventually melt away into nothing. This may take two or more minutes. As it fades away, stay focused on the lingering aroma, taste and sensations as much as you can.

10. After a few more breaths become aware of your breathing pattern, aware of where you are sitting, the space around you. Enjoy a few more breaths with the eyes closed before you open the eyes and take your time to move on to your next thing.

The good news is that not only is this a great meditation practice, dark chocolate may even be slightly good for us. I recommend using a good quality vegan dark chocolate; you may want to look at a guide to ethical and vegan chocolates for a guilt-free experience. The Guardian cover the issue of child labour and other problems with chocolate in a recent article.

If you want to follow along with me, I've now recorded this as a video. Find it over on my YouTube channel to be guided in the chocolate meditation (6 minute video).

You can also try this with other food and drink items. I first practised the chocolate meditation on a 4-day yoga course with David Sye. It may have developed from the raisin meditation credited to Jon Kabat-Zinn. You can listen to a 5 minute guided audio raisin meditation rather than trying to read the instructions above and remembering what to do.

(Top photo of chocolate and raspberries by Lisa Fotios from Pexels)