Category: Mindfulness Challenge for the Week

Hand watching can indeed be a fascinating pastime and hobby; it’s also a gateway into being more mindful.  To what extent are you aware of how you talk with your hands?  Do you use just the right hand or just the left hand, or like most people, do you talk with both hands?  Of course if you are a news broadcaster you have been taught to glue your hands to the desk and not talk with them.  Most people however do talk with their hands.

Be mindful this week of the extent to which you use your hands when you talk.   Watch your hands as you talk.  Watch them as they communicate with one another.  Notice whether or not you tend to use one hand more than another. If so when?

It is well known in that in Western cultures the male energy tends to be on the right side of the body and female on the left.  This seems to be reversed in Eastern cultures. Which hand is  your dominant hand when you talk?

When you want to make an important point, which hand do you point? Is it the right hand? Or, is it the left hand? Or, do you point with both hands?

Watch your hands
Notice what they say

Don’t just watch your own hands. Watch the hands of other people as they talk.  Look at their hands as they have this most intricate dance with one another or as they dance by themselves.

You are probably not paying much attention to your hands when you talk. Much of how we communicate with one another become very habitual. You’ll probably discover ways that you  communicate that were previously unknown to you when you become more mindful of how you use your hands when you express yourself.  You will likely also gain a deeper appreciation for the richness of information that is conveyed through your hands when you talk.

Enjoy being mindful of your hands this week as you are present to each and every month. Allow stress to vanish and dissolve.

Robert Rodgers

© Parkinsons Recovery

How much pleasure do you derive from eating delicious foods, or at least foods that are yummy to you?  Speaking for myself, I derive endless pleasure from eating.  My next question is how much time do you spend eating the delicious foods that you love to eat?  How much time are you able to derive pleasure from eating?

Thanksgiving is a good example of what happens when we eat. Much time is spent in the kitchen by many people preparing the Thanksgiving meal.  Hours are spent puttering and cooking and heating and shopping and preparing various dishes.  Everyone sits down, typically a nice prayer or salutation is given for the entire family and then everybody gets down to the serious business of eating. Food is gobbled, one bit after another.  Sometimes talking completely stops for ten minutes. There is no necessity for one bite to be chewed and swallowed before the next is inserted into the mouth. And presto – after ten minutes each person around the table has successfully gobbled up as much as they can eat.

Watch people carefully who eat and oftentimes you’ll notice that a person will put one bite, chew once or twice, put a second bite, chew once or twice; they’ll put a third, chew once or twice and finally after three or four shovelfuls of food, they swallow.  This is certainly not a mindful practice.  What is also interesting is that we tend to eat the foods that we truly love, the taste that we treasure, much more quickly than those food that do not offer us as much instant pleasure.

The mindful practice and challenge this week is to slow the process of eating down.  The challenge has a formula to it.  I must warn you, it will take longer for you to eat each meal, but the benefits will be immeasurable.  Here’s the formula.  If you’re eating with a utensil; a fork or a spoon, take the fork or the spoon and insert the food into your mouth and then place the fork or the spoon down on the table and proceed to chew slowly, deliberately and then swallow.

After swallowing, pick the utensil and do it one more time.  No new food can be inserted until the existing food has been swallowed and its treasures enjoyed.  We will fully and completely enjoy the tastes of each and every bite by proceeding with this small, short, simple formula––

1.  Insert the food into your mouth
2.  Put the utensil down
3.  Chew slowly and deliberately
4.  Focus your attention on your mouth, not the plate or the spoon
5. Enjoy all the tastes and sensations
6. Swallow
7. Pick up the fork or the utensil from the table
8. Proceed to Step One

If you’re not eating with a fork or a spoon and if you’re using your hands – for example if you’re eating a sandwich or chips – the same applies.  You’ll want to take your item, whatever it might be, place it up to your mouth, take a bite and then put that sandwich or whatever you’re holding in your hand down on your plate.  Chew, swallow and then do it again one-bite-at-a-time.

This week, change your customary and habitual approach to eating.  Focus your attention on your mouth.  Enjoy the deliciousness of food that you love to eat.

Robert

© Parkinsons Recovery