Eating and drinking with friends has taken on a whole new meaning for me lately. Something that used to be, yes – lovely, but still rather ordinary now has a smattering of the heavenly in it.
And that’s all thanks to my great friend, Ellie.
She’s started a new initiative that revolves around food as a vehicle to get us talking about, and hopefully soothing one of the greatest struggles of our time - mental health.
It’s called Mind-full Supper.
Anxiety and depression are issues that will have affected every one of us, whether that’s directly or via someone we love. They can be, I think helpfully, thought of as a cancer of the mind, and luckily – similarly to most cancers, treatment is available – and one treatment comes in the form of open and honest conversation.
Ellie’s brainchild builds on this idea of actively choosing to have a decent chat about how we’re all doing and providing a focused way in which to do this. Talking – something so ordinary, but possessing a heavenly power to heal.
So how does Mind-full Supper work? Simple really - over a BBQ, a sandwich lunch at work, or a full blown dinner party – you commit to discussing mental health with your colleagues, friends or family and everyone present gives a donation to the charity, Mind.
It’s about taking the powerful ritual of sharing a meal together and elevating it; giving it super charged meaning. It makes me think about the vast collection of moments I could use better if I tried.
Rather like the poignant Richard Curtis film, About Time - in which the male protagonists have the miraculous ability to relive any day of their life in order to live it to the full. The crux of the film comes when they realise that they can actively choose to do this on their first attempt at the day and no longer utilise their special gift.
The philosopher Wayne Dyer, who credits St Francis of Assisi as an inspiration, brilliantly said that heaven is a choice you must make, not a place you must find.
So whether, like my friend Ellie, you can turn something that on the surface seems so every-day into a movement with the potential for great impact, or can, like in a particularly moving scene from About Time simply engage better, show more compassion to – your boss, your kids, or the person you buy lunch from, we all have an ample selection of opportune moments from which to glimpse a bit of heaven in the ordinary.
https://www.mindfullsupper.co.uk/