I have a warning before I now explain the mindfulness challenge for the week. This week’s challenge will take an additional 15 to 30 minutes of your time every day. It is, in a way then, indirectly a lesson in learning to be more patient. Here’s the challenge if indeed you wish to accept it.
The challenge is first of all to acknowledge which of your two hands is the non-dominant hand. One of the hands for most people is the hand you use most frequently; the other hand is the hand you use less frequently. Which of your two hands is the non-dominant hand? The challenge is to put that non-dominant hand to greater use in three very specific tasks I will now describe.
Task One: Brushing your teeth. Instead of using the hand that you usually use, use your non-dominant hand when you brush your teeth everyday this week.
Task Two: Combing your hair. Instead of using your dominant hand as you customarily would do while combing and brushing your hair in a way that you have probably combed your hair for many, many years now, use your non-dominant hand to comb your hair this week.
Task Three: Eat with you non-dominant hand. This is one task that may require extra time and concentration. Place your eating utensil in your non-dominant hand as your eat one entire meal each day this week.
I fully realize that you will be particularly challenged this week if your non-dominant hand happens to be a hand where there is tremoring which will make it particularly difficult and frustrating to use your non-dominant hand for any of the three tasks. I offer one suggestion for being able to activate energy in a hand that may also be associated with some motor dysfunction.
With your intention, take the strong and vibrant energy from the other side of your body where the symptoms are not as prevalent or troublesome and – using your intention – shift the strong and vibrant energy over to your non-dominant hand. You can accomplish the transfer quickly and swiftly just as a martial artist would shift energy in their body from one side to the next. Here is the sequence:
- Take a deep breath in
- Place the back of your tongue up against the top of your throat
- Exhale your breath out quickly you (with your intention) shift the energy to your non-dominant hand.
This particular exhale sounds something like “Haah…phuh!” That’s what it sounds like. It is a very quick burst.
When you’re eating with family members, you might want to just explain this is just a fun way that you are experimenting with to shift energy from one side of your body to the other. It sounds rather ridiculous I’m sure to many of you, but it actually does work. You can shift the energy and balance out the right and the left sides of your body using this simple technique that is a standard technique used in martial arts practice.
Continue to practice using your non-dominant hand whether it might be a hand on the side of your body that is creating motor difficulties or not. It really does not matter. What you want to do is to exercise the golden and precious practice of mindfulness. Bring your thoughts to the present moment. Live now, not a second before and not a second after. Using your non-dominant hand requires full attentiveness so that you can get the tasks that need to be done of brushing your teeth, combing your hair and eating at least one meal a day.
May you have delicious fun with this activity all week long as you practice the art of mindfulness while using the hand that gets ignored all too often,. May the stress in your life vanish forever more.
Robert
© Parkinsons Recovery