Exercise 2: Three Raisins
- This topic has 11 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 1 month, 2 weeks ago by .
-
Posts
-
-
-
Three pieces of banana
I really enjoyed this exercise. I spent about 10-15 minutes focusing on my fruit each time. Josh said that it took him over 30 minutes. I felt like I explored as much as I possibly could but I guess there’s always more. I found myself chuckling both times. On one hand I was laughing at how silly it seemed to be examining a piece of a date/banana, and on the other, it was the type of laughter that comes from feeling really content and happy. I’m not sure if anyone can relate to what I’m describing.
I chose to do the exercise a second time because when I did it Sunday, I was in a bit of wonky headspace. I felt like I couldn’t give my full attention to the date pieces and like there was more I could get from the exercise. I used a banana tonight because I did it at the office after work and there were bananas available. In addition to examining three pieces of the banana, I spent some time inspecting the entire banana with the peel still on. I noticed that different parts smelled differently — the stem was super woody smelling, the skin was fruity, and the bottom was sort of nondescript. I reveled in the fascination I felt with the bruising of the peel and wondered how and why that happens (not so much the chemistry behind it, but more about the bigger picture). My fascination carried on when I peeled the banana and broke it into three chunks (admittedly larger than raisins). I saw little black/brown beads in the center of some of a couple of the chunks and I had fun breaking them down into smaller pieces, looking at how they change each time.
When I did it on Sunday with the date, I noticed a smell I had never noticed from a date before. It was almost a meaty smell, like dog food! This was really interesting because dates are like nature’s candy and I’ve never thought of them as anything other than super sweet. At the same time, or perhaps after smelling this new scent, I noticed the pieces looked a little meaty, too. It was quite strange!
What is the value of seeing your son’s or other loved one’s expressions?
I feel like seeing the expressions of people I love is invaluable. The value of truly seeing what they are feeling cannot be measured. This question evoked images of my best friends and family smiling, laughing, and being silly. Now I’m smiling thinking about the joy on their faces. On the other side of that is seeing when loved one’s are frustrated or sad. Detecting those emotions are equally valuable because it means I can adjust my own attitude, words, and actions to potentially help them or simply show them I care.
Who notices if you miss them?
I guess I wouldn’t notice because I’m the one missing them. But maybe I’d notice at a later date, perhaps much too late to be relevant. The loved one who is making the expression certainly notices if I miss them. Maybe others in the room notice if I miss the expressions on someone else, too.
What about the nuances of your boss’s communications?
Missing these could be the difference between a great, healthy working relationship and a miserable one. That might be extreme but I’m sure it could be true.
What can you do if you sense them?
Picking up on subtleties in others’ communications is really valuable because it allows you to connect with them on a deep level. I think it opens the door for both people to be more vulnerable about whatever they may be unconsciously communicating with their tone or other nuances. If I could pick up on those more effectively, I could try to relate to my boss and feel empathy towards their perspectives or situation.
What did you observe about your senses and attention?
I observed that I liked dialing into my senses and attention. I can be more curious and have more acute sensations if I just set aside a little bit of time and focus. For example, when I chose to send my attention to the smell, I could smell more specific scents. The date and banana each had unique smells that went beyond my previous knowledge of.
What did you observe about your ability to focus?
My ability to focus is okay. I would love to be able to focus more strongly. My mind wandered throughout the 10-15 minutes I spent doing the exercise. The main thing that stole my attention was thinking about this reflection; what would I write, how would I write it, when would I have time to write it? But I could always bring it back to the fruit.
Where and how might you apply your experience in the rest of your life?
I think I’d like to bring this to the way I eat all my meals. More curiosity is always a good thing; it always brings more joy and excitement to life. There’s never-ending possibility to learn more. Though it’s easy to say, I’d like to apply this to all parts of my life. I’ve been incorporating mindfulness into my meals for a while now. I like to think about where my food came from and all the people who helped get it to me. I also like to express gratitude for being in the moment and for all the people who got me to it. So, to start, I will bring more awareness to my meals by taking smaller bites and chewing each one completely before the next. In general, I’ll try to be more aware of myself and others throughout each day. In time, I may think of a more structured way of doing this.
-
Craisin Experience
Leadership Step by Step
The value of seeing a loved one’s expression is that it serves as a signal that something is going on inside of that person. I don’t see the experience of the raisin and the expression of a loved one as totally analogous in that the experience of the raisin doesn’t require interpretation but understanding a loved one’s expression does. However, before the interpretation is the noticing. This is where I see the connection between the two experiences. Noticing opens the door to further exploration of meaning. If a loved one has an expression that I miss, they might feel unseen or unimportant.
I’m not sure about the question regarding the nuances of a boss’s communication as different than the nuances of any communication (I don’t have a boss at this point in my life). What I think this question is pointing to is that there is a lot to see in another’s communication if one pays attention to the details with curiosity, interest, and openness. One might see a small difference in how a person is speaking, the tone of their voice, the volume, or what is happening with their eyes or mouth. They may evoke in us an emotional response, or a question as to what they mean. Once we notice, we can make choices about how to proceed. Is now the time to ask for clarification? Should I back off and approach this later? Might I comment on just the fact of what I see? Being aware FIRST of what I am noticing gives me the opportunity to respond consciously as opposed to unconsciously. I can process a response vs. reactively responding.
I noticed that looking at the craisin with curiosity encouraged me to look with new eyes. I found it pretty easy to pay attention and had a few chuckles with the squishy-ness or how it landed on the plate. The most powerful sensation, though, was the taste when I bit into it. The sweetness really was like an explosion in my mouth, and it lingered and changed over time. As I swept some bits off my teeth with my tongue, the sweetness rose again. I was still tasting it a minute after I had swallowed the last bit.
I realize with this simple exercise that experiences that I have had repeatedly throughout my life can be full of surprises when I slow down and pay full attention to them. It reinforced something that I have been focused on of late; slowing down. Paying that kind of attention requires not being in a hurry, being poised to have something revealed that has been right there, hiding in plain sight.
-
I got the same chuckles!
I feel like it has something to do with feeling like a child, curious about the seemingly smallest, least significant things. Permission to be playful.
-
-
3 Raisins Exercise Reflection:
I used small chopped up pieces of apple for my ‘raisins’. For the first piece, I visually inspected the fruit and then smelled it. It was a tart smell, but when I popped the fruit in my mouth, I didn’t taste much – it was kind of bland. I noticed that there were more fragments and textures I had to sweep up before moving onto the next piece of fruit. I noticed myself reaching for the second piece of fruit before noting that I had cleared all the fragments of the first piece. This time, I visually inspected size, shape, smell of tartness, and dropped it on my cutting board. I also placed it in the palm of my hand and ran my fingers around the fruit before eating it. This time around, I tasted the tartness and noticed how texture outlived the flavor. I took a longer time with the last piece of fruit, dropping it on the cutting board a few times, tossing it this way and that. I inspected the color difference between the fruit on the inside and the peel of the apple, the pattern of the color on the apple’s skin, and how where the fruit touched the peel, the color varied yet a little bit more. It smelled similar as the other pieces of fruit, tangy with a sweet note. This time, the fruit tasted the best, and the flavor seemed to be more vibrant. Still, the texture and interaction with the fragments seemed to outlast the flavor of the fruit.
Directed reflection questions:
What did you observe about your senses and attention?As I was going through the exercise and reviewing the senses I could use to observe the fruit, I noticed that systematically going through my senses helped me to more methodically observe the fruit and find more things to notice. Where I placed my attention is where my energy went and focus went – especially going from not tasting the fruit to being able to enjoy the full flavor from a small piece of it.
What did you observe about your ability to focus?
With attention and practice, my ability to focus increased and expanded. I was able to focus wholly on the exercise and not sense the passing of time, even though I had plenty of time. My focus and attention seemed to amplify my senses and heighten my experience of the exercise.
Where and how might you apply your experience in the rest of your life?
I think enjoyment is often clouded by a sense of being rushed in time. Giving pause and taking time to experience and be present seems to add so much more color and detail. First thing that comes to mind is in experiencing food. I do love food, and I also tend to eat quickly. I notice that my quantity and speed of eating are related to feelings of safety and security. It used to be frequent that I would consume so much and so quickly that I would have physical pain and discomfort. An unhappy experience, and yet, a habit I couldn’t conquer. When I remind myself of truths, such as, I’ll always have access to food, or I can stop eating when I am thoroughly enjoying something and craving more rather than needing to feel stuffed to stop, I tend to enjoy my time more. I tend to then eat less, and my feelings of tension fall away. Other things that come to mind are relationships – loved ones, children, etc. So often I listen to respond rather than listen to comprehend. I can definitely do more to understand someone better and be more present.
-
Olivia,
That sense of being “rushed” is such a thief, don’t you think? That is my conclusion, anyway. It robs me/us of all of the richness of what is right in front of us right now. I also walked away being reminded on slowing down! I hear that in your comment about listening to comprehend, more than respond. It is similarly being present to listen rather than being rushed ahead in time with a response. Thanks for providing me with another reminder.
-
More color
I think you hit the nail on the head by saying being “present seems to add so much more color and detail.” That and your last two sentences really resonated with me.
I can also relate to your habit of eating quickly and too much. It’s a strange thing and really frustrating, and honestly embarrassing (again, for me at least). Thanks a bunch for sharing.
-
-
3 Raisins by Evelyn Wallace
• The value of seeing a loved one’s expressions? Is it to identify how they might be feeling? By expression do you mean facial expression? Or do you mean sensing how they feel, by any means, whether it be by their facial or verbal expressions?
• Who notices if I miss what? Seeing their expression? They do, I suppose. I have to say, though, as someone whose expressions are often misinterpreted by the outside world, I am more apt to notice if someone guesses my thoughts, emotions, or intentions based on my nonverbal communications, especially if they’ve guessed wrong.
• What about the nuances of my boss’s communications? Is the question who notices if I miss the nuances of my boss’s communications? So that would be my boss. My boss would notice if I miss nuances of their communications.
• What can I do if I sense the nuances of my boss’s communications? Or if I do sense the feelings/ expressions of others?
• What did I observe about my senses and attention: that there’s a mighty deep well oh human experience in here. I had never dived into the specific 3-raisins pool specifically, but I have done similar experiments of living entirely in the present through all the senses. (In one particular era of my “experimentation” it wasn’t uncommon for people to ask me if I was on drugs.)
• On my ability to focus: this was a bit like a four dimensional meditation, moving through spacetime (though aren’t we always?). I don’t recall my mind jumping around much at all because it was so engaged by the activity of it all.
• How might I apply this to the rest of my life? Slow down. Notice stuff. Remember the infinity contained in every moment, within and without.NARRATIVE OF THE EXPERIENCE:
It was getting late and I was supposed to have done this exercise already. I drew a bath, put three dried cherries in a small porcelain dish, put my devices in do-not-disturb mode and initiated what I thought was going to be a pleasant ritual. What happened was: after I’d eaten one, I realized that I was so over-full from the cake I’d made with my son earlier, it would have made me sick to eat even one more bite. I felt a bit like Mr. Creosote, a character from Monty Python’s Meaning of Life, who has eaten so much that he literally explodes at the next bite. The hot bath made it worse. It was grotesque, actually. I was not proud of myself.
However, in the experience of eating that one cherry, here’s what happened: I pushed at it between my finger and thumb and let it squish around. I rolled it. The inside part of the cherry got squishier and softer, which made the brain rolls of the outside become less rolly. I held the thing close to my ear and learned what sound a dried cherry makes when its being rolled between one’s pincer and thumb. I gave it a sniff, but didn’t notice much odor, other than the steam from my bath. If you are feeling disgust at the prospect of eating in the bathtub, put it aside for a moment and remember this isn’t exactly eating.
By the time I put cherry number one into my mouth, I had already gotten to know the little fella much better that I ever had before. I rolled it between my tongue and the roof of my mouth the way I’d done with my fingers. I kept at it, avoiding my teeth because wouldn’t that be fun? The squishy insides eventually gooped out in what felt like a burst of flavor. Maybe that’s what every candy ever produced in the history of candy is trying to replicate–and failing. The cherry-flavored cherry swept through my mouth. Could all this flavor fit in one little thing? I knew it was possible—I’d had mountain strawberries before, after all—but I suppose I’d never given myself the opportunity to get to know a humble raisin (or raisin substitute) to such a degree.
Eventually, the skin of the cherry became a whole new recognizable element of the fruit. I gnawed at it with my tongue then finally swallowed. I had been digesting for the last 2 hours and had a bike ride home in the interim, but I could feel every particle of that bite add to the unnecessarily large pile of food I’d already put down my gullet. I would finish the task, but not right now.
**
Though there was a gap of many hours, the second cherry was the next thing I consumed. I returned to the ritual.
For this cherry, I decided to play with touch. Holding it with my right hand, I rolled it across my left palm, then around the perimeter of my fingers. It was sensual, to say the least: especially if we define sensual as “being of the senses.” Honestly, though, I was glad I was alone in a room. It felt like foreplay. I realized that touching the cherry could be with any part of my body and that if I utilized it as a tool for body work, this could go on all day. I brought it back to my face, rubbed the cherry around my lips a few times, then popped it in.
This time, I wanted to do something less refined than before. I bit in hard, almost aggressively. Take that, I thought. The flavor burst was still there but the skin was all torn up this time: there was going to be more cleanup, for sure. I chewed slower than usual, but using my teeth in a way I hadn’t with the first one. I opened my mouth and heard the sounds of my own mastication. I closed my mouth and understood why it was better manners that way.
After I’d mined every bit of cherry particle from every recess of my mouth, I met cherry number three. I looked it up and down. It was a little brain, a little planet with geography and topography. What a perfect little particle of nature, this guy! I didn’t want to eat him all at once so I gently put his head in my mouth and bit that off. I ate the last cherry in the smallest slices my teeth could cut and I used my tongue to mush it around.
My takeaway from the Three Raisin Exercise? How many ways there are to play in this life! How many universes of possibility are tucked into every possibility! Also: I could probably stand to slow down while eating in general. Or in general.
-
Evelyn,
Your playfulness is always an inspiration to me! What a playful description of your experience.
Your recognition of slowing down, not just with eating but with life, is a theme in what 3 of us have written so far. I have been playing around with that when I eat when I walk, when I’m just hanging out somewhere. There seems to always be treasures right here in front of me when I stop to notice.
-
Slow down and play more!
I can relate to feeling playful during this exercise. It was fun and gave me permission to let go. Also, love the line about the “cherry-flavored cherry” My heart breaks thinking about all of the amazing uneaten food that tastes so much better than its attempted replacements that do get eaten. I had a date for the first time just a couple of years ago and was blown away! And I’m sure there are many many more delicacies that deserve my attention.
-
-
3 Raisins
The next exercise of Leadership Step By Step was to eat 3 raisins. This seemed simple enough, but there were a few conditions that made it a deeper exercise than it seems. The exercise required that you turned off your phone, and then fully engage all of your senses to focus on the raisin and eat it as if you’ve never seen or eaten anything like it before: touch it and focus on the feel of the raisin, take in it’s aroma, even listen to how it sounds as you squeeze it or as you chew it. When I really engaged every sense to experience the raisins, eating just 3 raisings became a whole new experience that took me about 20 minutes to finish!
For this exercise, I chose a unique way to approach each raisin from the start. For the first, I would consume it in miniscule bits. For the second, I would put the whole raisin in my mouth at once. For the last, I would put the whole raisin in my mouth, then hold it for as long as I could before breaking the skin.
I sat down at my dining table, phone on airplane mode and silent, with 3 raisins set in front of me. I picked up the first raisin and felt the bumpy texture on the outside, gave it a small squeeze, and started rolling it around in my fingers, noticing how crisp and flakey it was at first, but as I rolled it around between my fingers, it softened into a small juicy morsel. I then took the tiniest bite from one end and started to chew the tiny bit between my front teeth. I noticed how the texture was a little grainy, but the taste was sweet and tangy and I could feel the sourness hitting the back-right side of my tongue. The piece was so tiny and after being chewed I barely had to swallow. I went for a second tiny bite, searching and trying to find if there are more hidden experiences within the raisin that I hadn’t noticed yet. What could I experience that I haven’t yet?
If I were to write the experience of each bite and each raisin, this essay would probably end up being about 10 pages, so I’ll just give a short list of thoughts and things I noticed from my raisins:
The depth of flavor – I felt like in different bites, I noticed something different. Sweetness, fruitiness, a spiciness (cinnamon maybe??), and a tangy-ness that really outlasts the raisin. Half an hour after finishing, I still had a sour tang on the back of my tongue!
The feel – raisins can be solid, hard, flakey, crispy, dry, or juicy, plump, soft, and tender. And sometimes all at once, after enough gentle massaging!
The sounds – as I chewed on different bits of raisins, some were more grainy and I could hear crunching in my ears, sometimes slightly unpleasantly, but other times, very satisfyingly.I’m sure there were many more thoughts I had as well that I can no longer remember. It really was surprising how many things you can think about just 3 little raisins.
Not all of the experiences I had were directly from the raisins either! There were a few things that happened during the exercise that really had me thinking about how we experience the world every day. During my experiencing of the second raisin, the air raid alarm in our neighborhood went off (they test them about once a month). Normally, I don’t bat an eye, but as I was so focused on my raisin, trying to activate all of my senses, the moment the alarm went off, it felt so loud and so disruptive my whole body jumped! It made me think about how often I am usually just kind of sleepwalking through my days, not 100% focused on what I’m doing.
The last significant thing I noticed during the experiment was how much I started paying attention to my own body, in particular my own heart rate. As I focused hard on my experience of the raisins, suddenly I could feel my heart pounding throughout my body. In my arms, in my chest, in my neck, and in my ears, I realized that if I’m calm and focused on the present, my heartbeat is this powerful, ever-present life-force in my body that I couldn’t believe I don’t notice in my usual life.
The value I gained from this exercise is more than you’d ever think you could get from simply eating 3 little raisins. It was an incredible, meditative experiment in sensory exploration, self-awareness, and living in the present.
-
Very cool
Thanks for sharing, Eugene! Both the details about the raisins themselves and the greater experience. I find it very cool that you became so deeply present through this exercise. I has somewhat similar experiences, but not quite to this depth. I did it with pieces of a date and then pieces of a banana, so now I want to try with a raisin and see if I taste cinnamon (my favorite spice!).
-
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.