YOUR LIFE A-Z: TASTE

ENJOY DECADENCE OFTEN

TASTE

TASTE is very personal and inclusive of food choices, clothing choices, and home choices.  What do you have a TASTE for?  What foods do you enjoy?  Over this next week choose three foods that you really enjoy.  Practice a mindful TASTING exercise by preparing that food just the way you want.  Then enjoy eating those foods, slowly and with attention to the texture, palate, and taste as you enjoy each bite.  Taking time to really TASTE your food is so important to the enjoyment and health of your well-being.  What is your TASTE in clothes?  What are your favorite colors?  TASTE is personal and you get decide what makes you feel good.  Moving toward the clothes that help you feel good build your self-confidence and personal enjoyment. Assert yourself when it comes to what you like and what you don’t like. Don’t let yourself be talked into clothes just because they are designer clothes when you feel like a mushroom in them.  Personal TASTE is also important when it comes to the décor and comfort of your home.  Personal space and enjoying your environment is so important to your daily mood.  If you have a TASTE for the Southwest and your home is decorated in Old World you probably feel out of place in your safe environment.  It is important to decorate according to your TASTE.  If you and your partner have different TASTE, discover ways to negotiate and share both of your styles within your livable space. 

YOUR LIFE A-Z: GASTRONOMICAL

HEALTHY EATING COMES IN MANY DELIGHTS

GASTRONOMICAL

GASTRONOMICAL is the art and science of good eating by choosing, preparing and serving food to bring all of your senses together in a pleasant and fulfilling dining experience.  The last two days has been a very inward journey of self –exploration.  Today I invite you to look outward and inward at the same time.  If this exercise will not work for today that is okay, but do take some time to plan it today.  First think healthy food.  Next, what healthy foods (fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, lean meat) do you enjoy?  If you don’t want to prepare this dish for yourself, then which restaurant can you indulge your senses by planning a GASTRONOMICAL experience while dining out?  Write down the dinner you want to plan with every side dish you will enjoy, plus a very nice desert.  GASTRONOMICAL experiences must include a delightful and beautifully prepared desert.  This dinner is not a reward; it is intended to be an experience that will allow your senses to come to life.  As you imagine your perfect GASTRONOMICAL dinner what colors are on your plate?  How is your plate of GASTRONOMICAL delight served to make it appealing to the eye?  What aromas bubble up in your kitchen as you are preparing it or whiff upward from your plate as it is served?  What is happening to your taste buds right now as you think about the perfect GASTRONOMICAL experience?  Life is to be lived and it is always lived better through GASTRONOMICAL delight. 

Your Life A-Z CURIOUS

Really Look, Observe, Wonder. What is this?

Curious

Young children are curious by nature.  They love to explore, observe, mimic and try to emulate the actions and behaviors of the adults around them.  That is why it is so important for adults to remember we are role models for young children. But what are we modeling for ourselves?  Have we stopped exploring and asking questions? We started just a couple of days ago with the word of the day, being aware.  We get to choose what to focus our awareness on.  Go back and look at what you wrote.  Look through the open window again and ask yourself, “What is it about this picture that makes you curios?"  What questions about this New Year rise up within you?  

I know it is not always what you hope to hear, but only you can answer the questions about your life.  No one else can answer them for you. You get to choose and the more curious you become the more you will be able to open doors that looked as if they are closed.  If you let yourself come to today with a sense of being curious, like asking yourself, “What will happen if do_________________, instead of ________________________?”   You won’t know if you don’t try or change it out.  What is the worst thing that could happen if you tried being curious?   What is the best possible thing that could happen?  Be curious and see how anticipation and excitement build up within you.  Take some curious steps to explore your current circumstances and see what you can change right now as a result.

Photo: Pam Smead