Sip and Slow Down

With the whole of Luzon under enhanced community quarantine and many parts of the world under even more extreme levels of quarantine, it feels as though humanity is forced to stop, drop what we’re doing, and just sit still. This quarantine period is the best time to redirect and harness energy inward through mindfulness.

In December 2017, British journalist and author, Rosamund Dean published a book, Mindful Drinking: How Cutting Down Can Change Your Life. She presents a three-step program — The Problem, The Incentive, The Plan, which is backed by science entwined with a practical guide. In 2015, former politician Laura Willoughby together with Jussi Tolvi established the mindful drinking movement, Club Soda, that has produced the Mindful Drinking Festival. In their website, you can join a month-long program that’s packed with the information, tools, and support you need to help you become a mindful drinker.

Cutting down on drinking has many advantages. For starters, no more hangovers and the icky bloated feeling you get after a night of heavy drinking. Weight loss is another benefit of easing up on booze, plus increased energy levels and a healthier gallbladder and liver. Giving up the sauce also results in a better quality of sleep and reduces insomnia. And since you’re not spending on bottles, you get to save your hard-earned cash. Most importantly, cutting down on alcohol allows you to be in the moment, and remember the moment!

Whether you’d like to quit cold turkey, minimize alcohol, or wean off coffee and other addictive oral fixations, the benefits of mindfulness are countless. In Dr. Jan Chozen Bays’ book, Mindful Eating: A guide to rediscovering a healthy and joyful relationship with food, she explains, “mindful eating is an experience that engages all parts of us, our body, our heart, and our mind, in choosing, preparing and eating food… It immerses us in the colors, textures, scents, tastes, and even sounds of drinking and eating.”

If you’re stuck at home, like most of us are, fantasize about your favorite drink. Let the thought linger, and let your imagination go wild. Then, go and treat yourself to that drink. Take your time. Observe every step of the process. If you love coffee, listen to the way the whole coffee beans fall into the grinder, and the whirring of the blade as it grinds. Sniff the aroma of the beans as you place it inside the coffeemaker and wait for your cup of joe. Or maybe, you adore tea. Pay attention to how the small green tea leaves dance as you pour hot kettle water into the French Press. Can you smell the fragrance as it steams? 

Or perhaps you love wine, spirits, beer, or a complex cocktail? Relish all the little details that go into the preparation of your beverage. Don’t rush. Take a deep cleansing breath, and exhale completely. Release all thoughts of what you did or are going to do. Close your eyes. Bring the drink to your lips and sip. Drink as slow as possible. Savor the liquid, the temperature of the liquid, all the other flavors flowing on your tongue. Let it linger there. Exhale, using your olfactory senses to note all the ingredients in your beverage. Then gently swallow. Feel time pass.

“Mindfulness is rooted in the realization that when we ignore what we are seeing, touching, (drinking), or eating, it is as if it does not exist,” Dr. Jan emphasizes. Continue observing your every motion with the innocence of a child. This practice may extend your drinking time to two to three times slower as you normally would. But consider this as a meditative exercise. This simple act clears the mind and calms the body and soul.

Now is your chance to have quality time with yourself, just being and not doing. Take another sip, and be in the present moment. There’s a whole new world to experience when you sip and slow down.