What with the mulled wine festivities of Christmas coming up, a bubbly-filled New Year’s Eve and dark evenings enticing us to chill on the sofa with a bottle of red, our bodies and brains can be left gasping for respite come January. Inner peace is swapped for outer prosecco. Yoga practices go out of the window (imagine doing downward dog on a hangover – ouch!) and breakfast smoothies are swapped with bacon sarnies. But if the thought of going cold turkey in the New Year and jumping on the Dry January bandwagon fills you with dread, there might be another way. Welcome to ‘winefulness’ – the art of mindful wine drinking.
Manish Singh is one of Australia’s leading mindfulness experts and founder of Changing Mindspace. He runs winefulness workshops and retreats in Brisbane and has noticed how winefulness has become increasingly popular this year.
He describes it as being an easy and accessible way into becoming more mindful. “Drinking wine is inherently a mindfulness practice,” he explains. “You are paying close attention to your (enjoyable!) sensual experience, to your body, rather than operating as we usually do from our emotional wants and countless thoughts – both of which create stress. Take anxiety, for example – it is physical tension. Without realising the physical points of anxiety in our body, we’re constantly reacting to the world in a stressful way.”
Winefulness can quite literally get us out of our heads – in a good way
OK, that makes sense. So winefulness can quite literally get us out of our heads – in a good way. Manish says it’s helpful to see it as a three-tiered approach. “We describe your body as the actual experience of being, your emotions as your feelings about that experience, and your thoughts as the story about your feelings about your primary experience,” he says. “We carry so much in our bodies: anxiety, sadness, anger and even things like joy and peace. But we’re cut off from them. Getting in touch with what’s happening in our bodies is the first step in dealing with stress and tapping into our innate deep intelligence.”
Sensory experience
It might sound a bit complex, but you’ve probably been practicing something similar to winefulness already. “We drink wine to relax and when we’re relaxed, we’re not stressed,” says Manish. “You’re no longer resisting. Now you’re able to properly concentrate on the full-spectrum sensory experience of the wine. The smell, the taste, how it feels in your body. Once you’re ‘down there’ noticing all those physical sensations from the wine, you start to notice other things that are happening too. You’re no longer lost in emotional thought. It’s about having awareness, and then having acceptance, which is the cornerstone of most mindfulness practices.”
"New research has found that the reversatrol found in red wine might help to rejuvenate cells, reversing the ageing process. Mindfulness and youthfulness? Yes please!"
It might sound like wine tasting with a fancy name but Manish says there’s a big difference.
“In wine tasting, you’re told how to think and feel, what notes and flavours to look out for. Winefulness is all about your own unique experience. We get people to take notes. What is coming up? What emotions do you feel? And then, what thoughts come up? But we do it in that order – we privilege the physical sensation first.”
Manish advises starting with one glass of wine, but says there isn’t a right amount for practicing winefulness. That sounds like it could be a bit dangerous. How do we avoid going from mindful to mindless? “Sometimes you might drink too much,” says Manish. “But over time, as you become more aware of the sensations, you can start to regulate your drinking. With winefulness we’re not just practicing to have a good time, we’re practicing to see what’s there.” It’s probably important to state as well that winefulness isn’t advocating a descent into alcoholism, nor that it’s advisable for people with an existing dependency.
“Buy biodynamic wine – it uses a more measured and natural way of growing’’
Claire Thomson, wine consultant and food writer
“Ask yourself: ‘Have I found myself doing this without even realising?’, or ‘Could I choose not to do it if I wanted to?’” says Manish.
What about those who still say that drinking wine to be more mindful is a contradiction? “If there are people who wouldn’t normally come to a mindfulness practice but they say, ‘Oh wine drinking, I know I can do that. And mindfulness, I’ve heard about that, I’ll give it a look,’ that’s a net positive,” says Manish. “It’s a small way in. You’ll start to notice that paying attention to your bodily experiences will leave you feeling calmer, happier and more focused – which is a healthy, creative and connected mind space. Over time, maybe you’ll even start to do winefulness without using the wine!” We’ll raise a glass to that.
Manish’s winefulness walkthrough
Here’s how to stay wineful through your glass
Look & listen
Look closely at the colour, light and movement in your wine and glass. Listen to the noise/sounds around you. Notice your baseline state of mind: are you distracted or emotionally charged?
Smell & breathe
Get your nose right up into your glass and just breathe in the wine for a little while – lose yourself in the smell. Take little breaks to clear your nose. Notice if the smell brings up any emotions (and anticipation for the taste!) or any thoughts or memories.
Taste & feel
Take a sip of wine (with your eyes closed, if possible) and focus on the flavour and feel in your mouth. The experience of the wine’s ever-changing flavours in your mouth is the main focus of winefulness. After you swallow, just breathe for a few moments, noticing the flavour and feel of your exhalations. How long does the flavour of one sip last? As you continue to enjoy your wine, observe closely and see when you first become aware of a buzz (or maybe heat, or something else?) in your body, and how that changes and grows over time. Spend a few moments every so often just feeling that. Even if the whole process only takes twenty seconds, that’s twenty seconds you weren’t living in your head and you were entirely present in the experience.
How to drink mindfully
Wine consultant and food writer Claire Thomson gives us her top tips
Buy biodynamic wines
The biodynamic method uses the movement of the moon and there is a biodynamic calendar with ‘root days’ and ‘fruit days.’ It’s a more measured and natural way of growing, which works with the seasonal shifts.
Avoid sulphites
Look for no or low sulphites on the label. Sulphites are preservatives that are put in wine to keep it fresh, often in cheaper, mass-produced wines. Some sulphites can cause allergic reactions, and they don’t help a hangover.
Become a bag lady
Boxed wines or BIBs (bag in box) are quite on-trend: vinnaturo.com. There are also some companies who stock the More Wine on Tap range – you take along your reusable bottles and get them refilled. It’s cheaper as you’re not paying bottle tax, as well as being more environmentally friendly.
What to do with your leftover wine corks? Get crafting!
Leading a more wineful life will surely mean a surplus of wine corks! Save them all up and set them within a picture frame to make this delightful upcycled DIY cork board.
