If like CJ, you’re a chocoholic, you’ll love this exercise to help you become more mindful and learn how to live in the present.

All you need to follow along with CJ and participate is one individually-wrapped piece of chocolate. This chocolate mindfulness exercise is included in CJ’s FREE PDF, Overcoming Adultery: Tools to Tame the Roller Coaster of Negative Emotions. Sorry, no chocolate included—you’ll have to buy your own!

The past is gone, so there’s no benefit in getting lost in nostalgia or having churning thoughts about what you should or should not have done, and what the outcomes might have been if your previous decisions and actions had been different. There’s also no point filling your head with worries about what might happen in the future, as it doesn’t exist. It’s just in your imagination. All you have is the now, so enjoy it as best you can.

Of course, living in the present does not absolve you of having to plan for your future. Squirrels gather nuts to get them through the winter, even though it is unlikely that their tiny little squirrel minds are full of churning, worried thoughts about the past or future. The best way to proceed is to ensure that what you mindfully choose to do in the present works towards a lifestyle that would make you feel personally fulfilled in the future.

Living in the present is the last step in CJ’s 6-part program to tame the emotional roller coaster of dealing with adversity. CJ developed the program to cope with her husband’s infidelity and shortly afterwards being diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time. Living in the present is not easy to do, but well worth working toward, as it is the only way to feel truly alive every moment.  And what could be a better way to practice this skill than a totally pleasurable exercise involving chocolate?
Duration: 9 min. 10 sec.

Captions for this video are available if you watch it on YouTube.