Taste the Ice Cream!

Which brings me to Mindfulness. Being Present. Events are measured in time and space: when did it happen, how fast or how slow, where did it happen, how big or how small? But there is a third measure of an event that we often overlook and that carries much more weight on the scale of importance: Appreciation. The appreciation of an event varies directly with how present or mindful we are during the event. In our modern world of MORE, we find ourselves feeling empty and forever seeking more of a thing or a feeling to fill the empty. In fact the only more we need is more presence, more awareness, more mindfulness. 

When you scarf down a pint of ice cream and still want more, its not because you are still hungry, but because you weren’t there for the first pint! 

You don't really want ANOTHER bite of ice cream; you are still waiting for the FIRST bite! Instead, try to actually taste that bite of ice cream: feel the metal of the spoon, how it scoops through the ice cream, feel the weight of the laden spoon as you lift it, feel the cold as it gets closer to your lips, taste the sweetness, the chocolate, the caramel, crunch the toffee and taste the different, denser sweetness of the candy. When you remain present to the experience, you not only get more out of the experience, you are then also present in your body when that unicorn of feelings arrives: you actually notice when you have had ENOUGH.