When You Don’t Have Time to Slow Down: A Sensory Experience with Chocolate
We hear it all the time: slow down. Be present. Take time for yourself.
It sounds wonderful—until you're already trying to fit too much into a day.
But slowing down doesn't always require finding another thirty minutes. Sometimes it begins with something much smaller: noticing what is already happening.
The warmth of a drink in your hands. The feel of warm water against your skin. A sensory experience with chocolate can be just as simple: noticing its aroma before taking a bite or listening to the sound it makes as it breaks.
Our senses are taking in information all day long. Most of the time, we're simply not paying much attention to it.
Chocolate is a good place to begin
Take a piece of chocolate you've eaten before.
Before tasting it, look at it. Smell it. Break it and listen. Let a small piece melt rather than immediately chewing it. Notice its texture and the flavors that emerge.
The chocolate hasn't changed. Your attention has.
That's one reason I use chocolate to explore the senses. Something familiar can become a very different experience when we give it our attention.
And the same idea extends beyond chocolate. You can notice the aroma of your morning coffee. The temperature of the air when you walk outside. The warmth of water against your skin when you shower or bathe. The texture of something you're eating.
You don't necessarily have to create more time to slow down. You can begin by experiencing more of a moment you're already having.
Knowing this has also led me to explore cacao beyond eating chocolate. Through cacao nibs, cacao husks, sensory education and botanical products, I'm interested in the different ways cacao can engage our senses—and what we might notice when we encounter something familiar in an unfamiliar way.
Because slowing down doesn't always mean doing less.
Sometimes it simply means noticing more of what is already there.
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