Category: Mindfulness Challenge for the Week

The physical setting where we reside, eat, live and enjoy our life is symbolic of our inner health.  Look around where you are currently sitting or standing right now.  Are the physical surroundings tidy, are they orderly?  You might say,

“I’ve never been a tidy or orderly person.  It doesn’t make any sense to me to lead a life that is totally tidy and wrapped up.  I’m just not that type of person.” 

When we clean up the clutter that surrounds our life, we allow the life force to move through our bodies.  We gain energy.

If there is significant clutter that surrounds us where we eat, live and work, it’s likely to be that we’ll feel our life force stifled and stymied.  Now, there are two ways to approach this challenge.  The first approach is to say

“Once I begin feeling better, once my health returns, once I have reversed the symptoms that I have been experiencing then I’ll be able to clean up the mess in my living room, office, kitchen, in my bedroom.  I’ll get to work on that when I feel better.”

A second approach – which as it turns out is also significantly effective – is to simply reverse the process.  You acknowledge,

• “No, I don’t have a lot of energy today.” 
• “No, I’m not feeling particularly well.” 
• “Yes, my symptoms are in my face.” 
• “But, I’m going to simply begin moving to clean up the clutter of my life.” 

Guess what will happen?  You’ll get more energy.  Your life force will begin to flow through every cell of your body.  Your energy will beging to sizzle.

The mindfulness challenge this week is to leave no trace in a place of choosing in your home.  This particular place could be a kitchen, a bedroom, an office or even a corner of an office.  For example, we continuously eat and oftentimes we leave the dishes in the sink without washing them.  If your choice is to focus your challenge of the week on the kitchen do the following.

When you use some dishes, wash them immediately.  Do not leave the dishes in the sink. Do not expect someone else will clean them up. Do not say to yourself

“I’ll attend to that tomorrow.”

The challenge of the week is to be mindful of everything that you use. Honor it. Respect its sacredness. Celebrate the value that it gives to you whether that object be a fork, a spoon, a knife, a plate, a toothbrush, a pencil, a pen or papers.

To summarize, the challenge of the week is to focus on keeping a corner in your home or office tidy throughout the week. When you make a mess, clean it up immediately so that when you leave that space, you leave no trace. It is as if you were never there. Nobody would know, not even a professional detective.

Enjoy yourself this week as you leave no trace in the space of your choosing.

Robert

© Parkinsons Recovery

The mindfulness challenge this week is to pay particular and mindful attention to a most important organ of your body––your stomach.

1. Pay attention to how your stomach feels before you eat anything. 
2. Pay attention while you are eating something.
3. Pay attention after you have finished eating. 

How does your stomach feel across those three points in time?  Before you begin eating, how does your stomach really feel?  Are you really hungry before you eat?

As you eat, pay mindful attention to how your stomach actually feels.  What are the sensations?

• Are you eating until you are completely bloated and full? 
• Are you eating only a little and not satisfying that hunger need which resides within your stomach? 
• How does your stomach actually feel as you eat? 

Afterward – just few minutes afterward – how does your stomach feel?  What are the sensations that you connect in with after you finish eating?

Be mindful. Focus on that most important digestive organ. See what valuable information comes through.  Most of us are habitually ignorant of how our stomach sends signals that we need to eat or do not need to eat.

What information are you missing?  You’ll get it when you become mindful of precisely how your stomach is feeling in the moment.

Have a magnificent week as you pay close attention to the process of eating and ingesting food which resides happily inside your body.

Robert

© Parkinsons Recovery

The invitation this week is to be totally mindful of your thoughts regarding getting something done quickly.  Become aware in the moment of any and all situations when you become impatient; when you want to get whatever you are doing in the moment over with quickly.

For example, when you’re driving, notice if there are situations where you say to yourself (or even out loud):

“Can’t that driver ahead of me go a little faster?”

Or situations where you are waiting for a friend to return a phone call or return an email and you say to yourself in your thoughts over and over again,

“Why doesn’t he return my call?  Why doesn’t she return my email?  I’m ready to hear from them now.” 

Or, perhaps you are out in the yard doing a little yard work.  Your thoughts are,

“I can’t wait for this task and this chore to be done so I do the fourth chore on my list. I will never be done with all my chores if I don’t finish this one in 10 minutes.”  

Now I have another suggestion for you.  Each time during the day when you are able to acknowledge, recognize and observe there is a situation where you are impatient, when you want something to get over quickly for whatever reason, I have a very simple two-word question that I’d like to suggest you ask yourself:

“Then what?” 

In other words, when I am done doing what I am doing right now, when I have finished this task,

“Then what?”

Enjoy your opportunity this week to observe any and all situations when you find that you have become impatient. I have been doing this task myself all week and am surprised by how many times I find myself being impatient.  I would have told you last week that I am a very patient person, but this week?

Robert

© Parkinsons Recovery