I remember the first time I realized that I could buy one piece of chocolate at my favorite chocolate shop just because I wanted one. It was about twenty-five years ago. This seems like a fairly simple thing and yet it was a big deal and here’s why. I had always thought that chocolate was for special, except for the occasional chocolate candy bar. You bought a one-pound box of chocolates at Christmas and maybe some other special occasion. You definitely didn’t buy “fancy” candy just for yourself.
The life lesson and big revelation was that I could buy a piece of chocolate for myself just because I wanted it. It wasn’t a matter of being good enough, deserving it, or needing to wait until a special time. It was an experience of choosing in my favor simply because it sounded good. It wasn’t taking anything away from anyone else or being selfish. Wow, where do those kinds of beliefs come from? I know that I’m not the only one walking around with those kinds of scripts running in the background.
Yay me! I’ve been having the occasional piece of dark chocolate since then and savoring them all. A few weeks ago I was at a workshop in Ojai and one of the exercises was a chocolate meditation. Needless to say, I loved it. You may want to try this sometime. A second layer of cool about this meditation was that I had a piece of Firecracker Dark Chocolate, which popped in my mouth as is melted.
The meditation wasn’t about the chocolate, but using chocolate as a vehicle to slow down and take time. Break off a piece of chocolate and hold it in your hand. Then smell it and take in the delicious aromas, settling into that experience for a minute, noticing the memories that flood in. Finally, bite off a piece of chocolate and let it sit on your tongue. As much as you want to chew it, simply allow it to melt on your tongue. When it melts, take another bite and savor it as it slowly melts. Do this several times until your chocolate is gone. Notice how you settle into your body and how your mind slows down.
Back to the life lesson of choosing something that is in your favor – for me it’s a piece of chocolate. For you, it might be something else. Notice what things you deny yourself because of that little voice in your head that says, “You shouldn’t do that because that would be selfish, or self-important” or any of those things your mind tells you. I would love to hear what scripts you have running in the background that you might not even be aware of until you start exploring. Leave a comment below.
And, in the interest of full disclosure. I did “take one for the team” before I wrote this. I had to stop at my chocolate shop and get one dark chocolate vanilla cream so I could take a picture. Then I went to my favorite coffee shop to write this and bought a mocha latte. The barista gave me a little present of chocolate covered espresso beans on top of my cup. So, you’re welcome, for doing my part in the chocolate research. More chocolate lessons to come.
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