Mindfulness                                          Mind Thoughts                                                                                                In Times of Trouble

Notice when you walk slowly, or fast or run, it requires a different mindset, different balance, different breathing, even different alertness! Each is controlled, but in a different way.

We will come back to control, breathing, balance, alertness and muscular tension (or lack of this!) time after time or time and time again! Also concentration and awareness of very specific body feelings.

Experience 1

Try walking very very slowly, as in slow motion, concentrating on each aspect of your motion and personal feelings and bodily feelings. Experience the need for very careful balance, feel the subtle changes in balance required.

You may find at first or even after some considerable practice that there is a limit to how slowly you can move! The slower you move when walking, the higher the concentration you need, better balance, very much more precise muscle control.

Experience 2

Sitting down, raise your hands/ lower arms to about 90^o.  Imagine your hands are above a keyboard or actually hover your hands 1 or 2 inches  (2 - 5 cm) above the keyboard, real or imagined! Move your open hands palm down left and right slowly. Move your hands individually and together slowly away and towards you as if moving over different keys, again slowly. Now exaggerate the movements. Lift and lower your hands slowly. Individually and both at the same time. Avoid each hand or fingers contacting each other.  It should feel after a while like your hands are floating on or in the air. Or nearly touching something very diffuse or intangible.  Almost like touching a very tenuous or extremely fragile balloon!

Experience 3

This one feels quite strange. Put fingers and thumbs of both hands together facing each other and matching each digit, with fingers and thumbs outstretched, but with some distance between each palm.  Press together repeatedly as if pressing down on a table or on glass.  Increase the pressure and frequency of each press.  Do this quite quickly without palms touching.  After a short time, it seems your only sensation apart from alertness of the mind, is that of where your fingers and thumbs meet, or even that there is a sheet of solid material between your finger and thumb tips!

Experience 4

Close and open each hand separately or both at the same time, using a moderately tight grip. Also try this while rotating each hand about each wrist.  Then add in lifting each lower arm swivelling about the elbow, opening and closing hands with hand parallel to the body, hands up and hands down.  try same with arms outstretched. Concentrate on all the bodily feelings involved.

Opening and closing hands can be a good stress reliever!

Experience 5

Standing in a reasonable space, move arms outwards and sideways about half way so they are at about 45^o out from your body.  Keep arms like this and slowly but not too slowly rotate the trunk left and right swivelling at the waist and feel the sensations in your hands! Now move the arms up or down a little again swivelling at the waist. Note the subtle change in balance involved. Repeat with arms and hands raised higher almost to shoulder height.  Try moving one arm or the other inwards and outwards keeping arms raised. Now try combinations of rotating and moving shoulders sideways again slowly and carefully note and become aware of all the changes in balance involved, being careful not to overbalance or fall over.

This can be repeated sitting down,or sitting if mobility is impaired. If you feel your concentration is flagging, leave the work outs at least for now! Same if feeling muscularly tired!

How can this be? The experience workouts are actually flexing the mind and muscles albeit quite gently! Note how you feel mentally after each ‘experience’.

Learn to relax the muscle groups used completely after each work out. Bet you didn’t think very gentle exercise could be hard! Or the level of mental alertness needed to concentrate solely on each body part feeling or to look introspectively into your mind feelings while trying to concentrate 100% on each very simple activity!

BUT you must do these ‘experience’ work outs without distraction. Preferably either silently or with just very gentle quiet music in the background, and no one else to disturb you!

It is no coincidence that fine craft work can require immense concentration and extremely fine actions. It is no coincidence that surgeons are very highly trained, and have fine minds and concentration to perform very delicate and accurate work! They also exercise regularly to keep their muscles very finely in tone! And know how to relax after sometimes very tense or even devastating results.

Mindfulness is very much about mental awareness and ability to concentrate. By focussing the mind very specifically, we can immerse ourselves into situations and if necessary or wished, divert our thoughts and feelings away from negative areas in our lives. But this can also have major extra effects to the good. We can learn to channel energy, focus on tasks and very finely and intensely concentrate our minds. Overcoming emotions, emotional distractions, and often motivation issues. But there is also being mindful of others and others feelings!