Back in January, I was gifted with a juicer by a UK company that sells washing machines, among other things. Their "Fairy Hobmother" sent it as a gift for commenting on a friend's blog (who knew?). I unpacked it and started using it right away. The marketing genius behind what they did is a topic for a future post (on my other blog). Today, I want to talk about the juicer.
Apparently, there are different kinds of juicers. I had no idea. I first started lusting after one when my friend Judi hosted me at her delicious B&B in Atlanta last Fall. She had a "masticating" juicer. I thought it was pretty cool. But I had no idea there are actually three types of juicers: centrifugal, masticating, and triturating (twin gear). The more I learned about juicers, the more I recognized a parallel to life that I now share with my clients.
Centrifugal juicers are fast, relatively inexpensive, and easy to clean. It's the kind I have. There are dozens of tiny blade points spinning around on a metal mesh basket that shred up the pulp. Centrifugal force squeezes the juice through the mesh and tosses the pulp into a catch-all container. A bit of juice remains in the shredded fruits and veggies and sometimes I'll run them through twice to get about half again as much juice out of them. The juice can be a bit frothy, but it's quick and gets the job done.
Masticating juicers, like Judi's, behave in much the same way as our own teeth: grinding the pulp with a single gear that presses the pulp against a mesh screen and forces the pulp out using the drive mechanism and gravity, versus flinging it centrfugally. The resulting juice is more "juicy", as the pulp has been thoroughly squeezed, and less foamy, since the speed is a bit slower. It takes a little longer than my juicer, both to prepare and clean up, but you don't have to run the pulp through twice.
Finally, twin gear juicers run even slower, crushing the pulp between two gears and expelling the pulp from the juice. The result is a "healthier" juice, because cellular structures aren't damaged the way centrifugal juicers do. There's also less waste, which means more of the juice actually gets into your glass. It's cumbersome, a bit bulkier than the others, and more difficult to clean, but it's so powerful, it can also be used as a food mill (you could make peanut butter, I'm told), so it's a more versatile machine.
For myself, I've spent most of my life acting like a centrifugal juicer. I process as much as I can as fast as I can, take what I can and move on, flinging out what doesn't process. Sometimes, if it's a particularly "juicy" experience, I'll go back and process it again. But that's not very common for fast-moving, forward motion loving me. I don't mind a bit of froth. I enjoy easy clean up. Me likey fast.
But recently, I'm seeing the value in "masticating" my life. Really savoring and getting all the juice out of experiences the first time. Sometimes it gets a bit messier. Sometimes there's more clean up than I would like. And I'm also learning to enjoy that process, too. Because there's much learning to be had in cleaning up. It's also healthier for me. Slowing down, while still an excruciating practice for me, is becoming more enjoyable, because I'm learning HOW to do it in the way that works for me.
Sure there are still times when turning on my "centerfuge" is helpful. Sometimes fast is necessary - even important - like when you're delivering on a deadline. However, I'm learning that, for me, there's much more "juice" to be had out of life when I stop moving so fast.
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” - Ferris Bueller
Life does move pretty fast, if we let it. Who's responsible for that?
The thing is, we decided to make life go so fast. We've made choices to support a faster moving economy, a faster lifestyle. We've trained ourselves to expect instant gratification, and the stress that comes along with waiting those 99 seconds for your microwave to pop your corn.
What if we changed our minds? Or more to the point, what if we listened to our True Self on this matter?
Instead of getting swept away in the "latest, greatest" mentality so pervasive in our culture, why not stop yourself and really take a minute to listen to what your True Self has to say.
Because maybe you need to slow down a bit. Or a LOT. Or not at all. Maybe you need to pick up the pace and get to the "centerfuge" instead of being stuck in "twin-gear" all the time. Instead of doing what you've always done because you've always done it, check in with yourself. Your TRUE Self. And listen to what that voice is telling you.