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does it sound like? Register every little rustle and crinkle as you uncover the chocolate.
    Lay it before you and really look at the chocolate – the colour, the shape – and then inhale the scent.
    Reach out and pick it up; break off a piece, all the time being completely aware of what you are doing, what you are seeing, what you are feeling and what you smell.
    You are now going to move the piece of chocolate from in front of you into your mouth. Be aware of your movement, the arm lifting to bring the chocolate to your mouth.
    Place the chocolate onto your tongue and leave it there for a few seconds to just melt and taste it. Note every sensation – feel the slow melt of the chocolate, the change of taste from a mere hint to a melting moment of smooth chocolatey-ness! Nice?
    Mmm, have you forgotten everything in the world except that chocolate for a few blissful moments? That’s mindfulness!
    Apply this principle to every waking moment; be aware of the world around you in a way that allows you to be a part of everything, but also enables you to slow down and savour your environment. Just as with all the advice in this book, make mindfulness a small but permanent change. Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t immediately make every moment count – these things take time and if you suffer from a whirlwind mind, it will take time to calm down. But like everything else, the more you do it, the more it will become a great habit. Start by making your morning cup of tea or coffee a ‘mindful moment’ – savour every sip, feel the warmth of the cup in your hands and allow yourself a minute or two of pure ‘in the moment’ calm. Then gradually add a few more mindful moments and particularly one at the end of the day when you need to unwind. You will soon realize that every moment is becoming a mindful one.
    When you are mindful, you begin to appreciate the little and big things in life, but only allow yourself to react to those things that are beneficial to you or those you love. Living in the moment is a gift, for then we truly connect with what is happening with our body and mind; we can make the time to deal with anything simply and directly.
    Mindful living also has a knock-on effect for your personal and professional life – you will be more focused, more attuned to those around you and more open to new experiences without fear. Your life will feel more in control, you will be more relaxed and able to appreciate what is happening around you without being distractedor trying to do ten things at once. Mindfulness makes little things like enjoying a cup of tea or watching a sunset into a truly satisfying and beautiful experience; in this crazy world, a moment of stillness can be the perfect balm on a frazzled mind.
    One example of how mindfulness in meditation form can work towards weight loss was demonstrated by a team led by Dr Carey Morewedge from the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. It showed that by doing a short meditation before eating, a reduction in the amount of food eaten was evident. The study wanted to see if people tended to eat less of a food if they imagined the eating process repeatedly before they actually ate the food. In fact, they soon found that the more food a person ‘ate’ in his imagination, the less food was subsequently consumed. In the study, participants were asked to imagine the process of eating M&Ms, including emptying the sweets into a bowl, picking them up and putting them in their mouth. They were then instructed to eat the actual sweets. Those who imagined eating 30 M&Ms ate considerably fewer real sweets than those who imagined eating only 3. Because the study only used examples of two types of food, eaten one at a time, it is unsure if the process would work to help lower the consumption of a variety of foods in, say, a main meal. But it did appear that it was a matter of habituation and awareness that prompted the person to eat less after