Tip #8: Mindful Tasting

Suitable for children from 12 years old

Mindful tasting is a great way to help children develop mindfulness. Gather a basket of summer fruit with your children and play mindful tasters. This activity provides a fun matching game that helps children develop mindfulness of taste.

It is a process of awareness from the external to the internal.

Focusing on food is another great way to practice mindfulness daily. We eat 3-5 times a day. Encourage children and teens to set aside time for at least one meal a day – it could be breakfast, lunch, a snack or dinner. The idea is to slow down at the plate, pay attention only to the food, put down the phone, turn off the TV and other distractions, and focus solely on the food they are eating.

To play the game of attentive tasters, you will need 4-5 different types of food, ideally with different properties such as texture, taste, etc. You can use seasonal fruits such as watermelon, blueberries, strawberries, currants... and for variety, add something dry and crunchy or maybe a chocolate bar.

Step-by-step instructions for practical activity

Step 1:

We're going to pretend to be tasters. These are people who taste food to see if it tastes right. No rush. You're going to try eating this food mindfully. We're going to train our brains to pay attention to what and how we eat.

Step 2:

If you don't mind, close your eyes. Take a small piece of food that you have prepared in advance. First, hold the food in your fingers. Notice if it is soft, hard, smooth, bumpy, wet, dry, warm, or cold.

Step 3:

Slowly bring the food to your nose and sniff. Do you smell anything? Now lick it. Notice what you feel on your tongue.

Step 4:

Put the food in your mouth, but don't bite yet. Just roll it around in your mouth.

Step 5:

Now take a bite. Notice how it tastes. You are the taster and your job is to really focus on how the food tastes. Notice if it is crunchy, soft, hard, hot, cold, rough on the surface, moist, or dry. Is it sweet, salty, sour, or spicy? Bite slowly and focus on the sensation in your mouth. Notice what you feel on your teeth, your tongue, your upper palate.

Step 6:

When you have chewed your food thoroughly, swallow it and notice how it slides down your throat into your stomach. How far did the food go before you stopped noticing it? What do you feel in your mouth when the food is gone? What do you feel in your stomach?

Step 7:

Then repeat the process with another piece of food. Try 4-5 different types of food with different characteristics such as texture, taste, etc.

This exercise develops:

• mindfulness of the present moment

• taste awareness

Source: Mindfulness in Children and Adolescents, Debra Budrick (Grada, 2019)