How to Practice Mindfulness with an Orange
Simple meditation for non-meditators.
“Take the time to eat an orange in mindfulness. If you eat an orange in forgetfulness, caught in your anxiety and sorrow, the orange is not really there. But if you bring your mind and body together to produce true presence, you can see that the orange is a miracle.” — Ticht Nacht Han
If you suffer from anxiety, depression, ADHD, or just daily stress, odds are that someone has suggested meditation. And maybe you’ve thought, “Yeah, that’s a great idea!” only to go home and sit cross-legged on your yoga mat, playing cricket noises on your headphones, and think Oh, my God, I am so bored!
At this point, if you’re anything like me, your mind starts racing and random, unnecessary thoughts pop into your head. You start thinking of all the things you could be doing right now instead. You start planning dinner and what you’re wearing to work tomorrow, and start thinking about that new Netflix show you want to watch.
And then, after ten minutes or so, your cricket soundtrack ends and you realize something — you never actually meditated.
It’s okay. I have an alternative.
What Is Mindful Eating?
This is a trick I learned at my Catholic high school. One of my classes featured a weekly guided meditation, usually involving Jesus on a beach or some other “happy place.” During meditation periods, we got to lie on the floor or put their heads down on their desk, and about 50%-60% of the class would just fall asleep.
One meditation day, my teacher brought in a bag of clementines and introduced us to a form of meditation known as mindful eating.
The National Health Institute defines mindful eating as follows:
Paying attention to our food, on purpose, moment by moment, without judgment…an approach to food that focuses on individuals’ sensual awareness of the food and their experience of the food.
There has been a flurry of research on the subject as of late, showing benefits to both mental and physical health. Numerous studies have shown that eating mindfully can have a positive impact on disordered eating (including binging and orthorexic habits), weight loss in people who are significantly overweight, and even encourage preferences for healthier food.
“People who have less awareness of their eating habits are generally more overweight, more anxious and have higher levels of negative affect, while they demonstrate less control over their eating habits.” — Study by Universidad de las Américas Puebla
Additionally, if you’re looking to hone in on your intuitive eating abilities and natural hunger cues, incorporating mindfulness into your meals can give you a leg-up.
According to this Cambridge University study, “Mindfulness-based approaches appear most effective in addressing binge eating, emotional eating and eating in response to external cues.”
Research has also shown that mindfulness can have a positive impact on self-esteem, which in turn can lower symptoms of anxiety and depression. Meditation specifically has shown to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, and issues with attention and cognition among children and adults with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).
So, if you’re looking for an easier (and less boring) way to slow down and get in touch with your mind and your body, mindful eating may be worth a try.
Why Oranges?
It doesn’t have to be an orange. In fact, I would recommend trying this with many different foods. But the reason behind using orange is preparing and eating an orange tends to be a very sensory experience anyway, and is easier to focus on when starting out.
Moreover, you use your hands to peel or cut an orange. Its smell is very strong and pleasant (to most people — if it’s not for you, don’t use an orange!), and makes satisfying sounds when you rip it apart. The texture and flavor of the orange when you put it in your mouth are dynamic and sharp.
Another reason to use oranges is that if you’re doing a guided meditation or focusing on the fruit in its entirety (as in, not just the experience of eating it), you can think about its tropical origins and its trip travels to get it where it is now.
How to Meditate with An Orange
There are many ways to do this, but ultimately it comes down to preference, current location, and whether you have a knife or other utensil around.
Some oranges are easier to peel with your hands than others (clementines and mandarins are great choices for peeling with your hands), and you may want to make less of a mess if you’re trying this on your desk at work than if you’re trying it in your kitchen.
Regardless, here are instructions for two different methods:
Peel It with Your Hands
This is the most tactile experience. If you’re like me and more of a hands-on, mind-racing-when-sitting-still kind of person (ahem, ADHD), this might be a good choice for you. This experience focuses very heavily on feeling and using your hands.
You can peel the orange as you normally would, but instead of placing your effort on getting it peeled quickly and efficiently, simply focus on what your hands are doing, what the orange and the peel feel like beneath your fingers and nails, the aroma already wafting up to your nose from the peel, and the sound of the peel pulling apart from the fruit.
Once it’s peeled, take a moment to look at the orange. How much pith covers the wedges? You can peel some of the pith off of the fruit and focus on how it comes off. Does it rip apart into small pieces, or does it come off in long strands, like thread?
Next, start pulling the wedges apart. You can do this any way you wish. Again, you can pull the pith out of the center and focus on how it feels.
Cut It with A Knife
* Note: Please use a sharp, serrated knife, a chef’s knife, or similar. If you plan on trying this exercise with kids, please try the “Peel It with Your Hands” version above.
Use your knife to slice the ends of the orange off. With its now flat bottom solidly on the table, slice around the contour of the fruit, from top to bottom, until a curved slice of the peel is removed. Turn the orange slightly and continue cutting down the sides in curved strips. You should try to remove this pith during this process, so you should be slicing through the ends of the flesh.
Feel the knife glide down the sides of the orange, noting any changes in texture as you may hit the peel or the flesh. Feel the curvature of the fruit, and observe the thickness of the skin as it drops off.
Note its scent. Is it tangy, or sweet? Try to imagine how it tastes.
Once the orange has been peeled, give it a good look. Examine the juice sacs or vesicles (the small pockets of juice within the flesh). How big are they? Do they vary in size or shape? Next look at the membranes or walls separating the wedges. They’ll appear as white lines dividing each segment. Look at it from the top and from the sides. How big are the wedges? Are there any that are oddly sized or shaped?
Next, slice your orange into segments. You can do this by making a slice on the side of the separation wall, and then making a slice on the side of the other wall. These two slices should intersect at the middle and free the wedge. You may choose whether to cut off the membranes entirely or leave them attached to your orange slices.
Continue paying attention to the consistency of the orange flesh and the aroma escaping from the slices.
Eating the Orange (After Either Method)
Once you’ve successfully disassembled your orange, bring a wedge up to your face. Examine it with your eyes. Smell it. Pop it into your mouth and bite down. Focus on the flavor of the juice as it bursts from the skin. Is it sweet, tangy, or tart? All three? Does it taste good? Does it remind you of something?
Next focus on the texture of the wedge. Feel the texture of the skin, and the flesh of the orange inside. Listen to the sounds it makes while you chew and swallow.
Continue until you have finished the orange.
In Mindfulness, Simplicity Is Key to Consistency
If you Google mindful eating or meditation, you will likely come across many articles and instructions for guided meditation. Some of them are really good and effective, but some are long and involved. This can be a good thing, particularly if you’re meditating with a group or in a class, or you want to take some time to unwind.
But if mindfulness is a skill that you’re trying to work into your daily routine, I would suggest sticking with simpler forms of meditation. After all, practicing is only as effective as your dedication.
Try to find exercises that you can do anywhere in any situation. Ones that you can do for a couple of minutes at work, or in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. Exercises you can practice when you’re stressed and you don’t have the time or the patience to do a full guided meditation.
Here are some suggestions:
- Body scan meditation — Take a few minutes to focus entirely on your body and how it feels, by scanning each part one by one, starting with your toes (I got this one from an old therapist — it was my go-to for anxiety at doctor's appointments).
- Walking meditation — I actually started doing this while taking a writing course in college to improve my descriptive imagery. This article from Headspace does a great job explaining the benefits and simplicity of walking meditation.
- Doodling patterns — Who didn’t doodle during class as a kid? I used to do it all the time. But I never drew pictures of things. In fact, when I tried to think of something to draw my mind would draw a blank and I would end up stressing myself out. What I would do is draw a curved line or random shape, and then start drawing lines that fit around it, creating aesthetically pleasing patterns of lines and shapes. Here is an excellent example of a similarly simple, intuitive approach to doodling called the Zentangle Method.
- Mindful eating — Of course, I will include this one. You can practice this at any time, with any food. I prefer doing it with snacks, as my snacks tend to be simpler and easier to concentrate on, but please do whatever works best for you.
Thank you for reading.
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