Mindfulness is a huge part of today’s society with more health professionals now encouraging people to eat mindfully. Research shows that practising mindful eating has many benefits, including helping us to enjoy our food much more.
We believe chocolate should be seen as an experience and not simply as a “treat”. Eating chocolate is an enjoyable experience, however, when you combine your confectionery experience with mindfulness, it can offer you a wonderful incredible sensory experience.
How to practice eating mindfully
Eating mindfully in its basic form is eating with purpose, focus and awareness. This means eating free from distractions, concentrating solely on how the food makes you feel and thinking about where your food comes from.
For example, all of our chocolate is sustainably grown and harvested in Colombia before it is shipped over to our chocolate workshop here in York, North Yorkshire. Once it arrives with us, our team of experienced chocolatiers begin handcrafting and infusing each bar with the delicious flavours that you know and love. You can find out more about our values in business by clicking here.
To begin your mindful eating practice, look to do the following:
- Remove any distractions, for example, turn your television off, put your mobile phone etc
- Eat in a peaceful environment
- Eat slowly and don’t rush the experience
- Think about each step of the process, for example, snapping off a piece of chocolate, placing it in your mouth and concentrating on how it makes you feel, what you can smell, the texture of the chocolate and the sounds you can hear from the outside world (birds chirping, people mowing their gardens etc)
- Chew thoroughly
- Stop eating once you are full
Once the experience comes to an end take a few moments to yourself before looking to continue with the rest of your day. You should notice that you feel calmer and you should look to practice mindful eating regularly.
What are the benefits of eating mindfully?
There are plenty of benefits to practising mindful eating which can improve your mood and help you to develop a great sense of appreciation of quality confectionery. Some of the benefits of eating mindfully could include:
- Reduce stress levels
- Enhance positive mental health and wellbeing
- Improve your emotional health and wellbeing
- Increase awareness of food habits and fullness
- Help you to make better food choices, including where your confectionery comes from
These are just some of the benefits that eating mindfully can bring, however, it is not an exhaustive list.
What flavoured chocolates should you try to practice eating mindfully
Chocolate comes in a wide range of flavours and you should look to invest in chocolate that aligns itself with your beliefs.
We were recently awarded the title of Socially Responsible Business of the Year, we received this award due to our commitment to doing good through business, including providing inclusive employment opportunities for which we partner up with The Blueberry Academy. We also choose to pay an additional premium for every kilo of chocolate we buy to The Chocolate Dream. The premium goes towards reforestation projects in local cocoa-farming communities, which has become the home for many species of bird as well as several endangered species of animal.
All of our flavoured bars would work well as to begin practising eating chocolate mindfully, however, our favourites include:
90g Coffee Dark Chocolate Bar
James (our Southern Sales Executive) chose our vegan registered coffee dark chocolate, because he loves the subtle hint of the coffee flakes brings to the chocolate. The flavours of the dark chocolate rest on your palette, lulling you into a sense of security, before the hit of coffee kicks in, offering a surprisingly moreish experience!
90g Lime & Sea Salt Dark Chocolate Bar
Pauline (one of our Packing Assistants) went for our vibrant lime and sea salt bar, with its unique combination of flavours – cool, crisp and lively this one creates a dramatic pop for your tastebuds, awakening your senses. As with all of our dark chocolate, this bar is registered with The Vegan Society and is made using all natural ingredients.
90g Salted Caramel Oat M!lk Chocolate Bar
As a self-confessed salted caramel champion, Ellen (who supports us with our social media) has recently swapped from our Signature salted caramel bar, to our new bar on the block in our Oat M!lk range.
Offering a deliciously strong toffee-like flavour, ending with a hint of salt proves that great flavours can be appreciated, with none of the dairy. Registered with The Vegan Society, this salted caramel oat m!lk chocolate bar is proving to be a winning combination and a huge hit as part of our oat m!lk range.
We hope you have found this blog post useful. Do you have any recommendations of how others can further increase mindful eating or maybe you would like to share with us your own mindfulness journey, do get in touch with us through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.