Hi %%FIRST_NAME%%,
Welcome to Week Ten!
How did you get on with the ‘mindful eating’ exercise last week? Could you imagine how this could help you, day-to-day?
How about sharing how you got on – any questions, any insights – over at the forum?
Mindful Eating
This week we’re moving on to coming back to your senses. It’s a beautiful way of weaving mindfulness into your life, getting out of your head and into your body through your senses.
Just because you’re breathing, it doesn’t mean you’re alive.
I sometimes put this on the back of my business cards. It can get me into trouble, but it does sum up the problem with ‘mindlessness’.
When we’re in flow, we experience how vibrant life can be. It’s as though our senses are on fire.
Henry Miller, who was a prolific and talented writer and artist, summed up how mindfulness can help us enter that state of aliveness:
“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”
That’s exactly what we’re experimenting with, when we practise mindfulness.
Giving your full attention – directing all of your awareness – to any one thing creates a miraculous chain reaction:
- It drags you out of your Monkey Mind (the chattering commentary bit!) and back into the present moment.
- It can help you instantly let go of stresses and worries.
- It helps you to reconnect with the Earth beneath your feet, rather than the illusory version of it in your mind.
- It helps you to reconnect with what’s ‘real’, letting go of what is ‘story’ or drama.
So the effects are so much more than simply being able to see the object or think about the experience.
Coming back to your senses.
- Choose an object – any object – but if you can choose something made by nature, it seems to work even better.
- Take 3 mindful breaths [see technique #1], to bring you back to this moment.
- Now look at this object and set the intention to see it with your heart, rather than your head.
- Notice what you notice. See every contour, the way it reflects the light, the patterns, the textures, the colours.
- If you mind wanders, that’s ok; bring it back to the object.
- If it’s something you can touch, hold it and feel it under your fingertips or in your palm. Allow yourself to be fully absorbed by observing the object.
Any time you need to de-stress, the easiest and quickest way to do it is to come back to your sensory experience.
It brings you back to the here and now and out of your Monkey Mind, back into your physical body. It helps you let go of the stories and opens you up to creative solutions.
How about sharing how you got on with this technique – any questions, any insights – over at the forum?
Coming back to your senses
I hope you have a great week.
Namaste,
P.S. Any techy questions? Please email hello@clarejosa.com to get help from a member of my team. Thanks!
P.P.S. Missed a week? Want to revisit any of the techniques? You’ll find a list of all your current modules here: www.ClareJosa.com/members-only