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Open the door to your senses

by Tansy Boggon

Can we arrange foods in our diet in a similar way to flower arranging? That is, by allowing our senses and a loose framework to guide us.

Open the door to your senses

Opening the door to my senses was my intention when I was invited to attend a table flower arranging course.

Smell:

I opened the door to the concentrated aroma. I noticed the gentle scent of flowers and the woody scent of stems and foliage.

Sight:

I then became aware of the variety of contrasting colours in various flower arrangements on display on the workbenches and fridges lining a sidewall.

After being shown how to make our flower arrangement, we could allow our creativity to flow.

Sound:

I was aware of the snap of scissors as we cut through stems and the sound of piercing the florist foam as we inserted them into our arrangement. I could hear the giggles and chatter of the surrounding women as they watched their creations unfold.

Feel:

I could feel the resistance of the stems as I pushed them into the foam. I noticed the contrasts of textures—the soft and yielding flowers in sharp contrast to the stiff, leathery texture of the leaves. As I peeled the older rose petals away from the bud, I felt the cool, velvety texture between my fingers, their fragility, and the change in appearance as they were handled.

A guiding framework

Although we were provided a framework for creating our arrangement, we were free to explore our creativity and place the elements in an arrangement that felt right to us.

Without thinking of how the end creation would look, I went with my instincts, inserting foliage and flowers into the florist foam intuitively in the moment.

This is much like our relationship with food.

We have facts and frameworks of what to eat to obtain the essential nutrients for the functioning of our bodies. However, it is up to us to determine how we arrange it in our diet.

We can pick and choose foods based on what we enjoy. We can choose foods based on how we feel in the moment. We can choose foods that feel good within our bodies.

It is up to us to determine how we arrange it in our diet.

Gazing at my finished flower arrangement, I took in the variety of textures, shades of colour and shadows. I reflected that there is beauty in imperfection and that rather than perfection, there is beauty in balance.

Just as is the case with our bodies, perfection is not absolute; it is only a mind-made construct. Achieving balance is shifting the focus on what makes us feel good physically and brings us joy. It is not about how we look or what successes we have achieved but whether we feel balanced in our life.

Like the transformation of a bud to a flower in full bloom, our body changes over the course of our lives. We can choose to observe and enjoy the unfolding of our lives without judgement and constraint and live with awareness and acceptance.

I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief. – Gerry Spence

Taste:

To complete the sensory experience, I took a short stroll to Real Food for a late lunch and stimulated the taste sensation.

 
If you’re looking to find balance in your diet that you can fine-tune to suit your body and lifestyle, you may like the blog, Get Real: End the Restriction. Or get yourself a copy of my book, Joyful Eating: How to Break Free of Diets and Make Peace with Your Body.
 

xx Tansy

Tansy Boggon holding Joyful Eating open to Chapter 2: Debunk the Diet Myth

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