The mindfulness challenge this week involves noticing the color yellow wherever you go and wherever you are. Several weeks ago your challenge was to notice the color red. We are now switching the channel and changing the focus from noticing the color red to noticing the color yellow. Wherever you go, make a count of everything yellow that you encounter, just as you did with the color red.
If you see a plant that has yellow in it, count that as one. If you see cars, plates, pictures, carpets, houses or any objects anywhere that contain yellow count them. Make a mental tally throughout the day. When you reach the count of 100, you can stop if you so choose or you can keep counting.
Keeping a mental count of the number of yellow things and objects and entities and clothes and objects that you have noticed is a straightforward way of forging new neural networks. You create new neural networks and nourish your neurological system even when you forget the count!
To summarize, this week the focus is on the color yellow. As you now know, when you focus on yellow you are also resonating with the frequency of yellow. More about the implications of this will be discussed in a few days.
Whether we currently experience the neurological symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease or not, we all have aches, pains and disturbances throughout our body from day to day:
A toe that aches today
A knee that is troublesome tomorrow
A shoulder that become tight tonight
An arm that emits pain over the weekend
A finger that happens to be painful next week.
There are many reactions that we have when our body sends out signals of discomfort. One of those reactions is to make a visit to the doctor who will prescribe medications or perhaps even surgery. That is one solution and it works well for some people. A second solution is to get furious at that part of your body that is sending out signals of angst. We can always fuss away at our body. We can always be angry at it because it is not doing for us what we want it to do in the moment.
There is a third response that I invite you to mindfully attend to this week. When you notice that your body is sending out some signal of discomfort, for example, a left knee that happens to ache or a right shoulder that happens to be somewhat painful, instead of going to the doctor – though that might be important and necessary – and instead of beating-up on your body, try a third strategy. Take one of your hands and place that hand on the place that is calling out to you for attention.
For example, if it is your left knee that happens to be troubling you today, place your left hand on that left knee. That is all you have to do, nothing else. Just place your hand on your left knee. If it is your right shoulder that is bothering you in the moment place your left hand on your right shoulder; just hold your hand up there.
Finally, and perhaps mostly helpful is when you’re going to sleep at night, do a scan of your body and ask yourself, what body parts happen to be calling out to you in the moment with some degree of distress. Do the same thing here. Place a hand over on that shoulder, that stomach, that hip, that thigh, or that knee. If it happens to be your foot you can obviously put yourself in a position where you can place your hand over your foot. Make it so that your are totally comfortable and you can actually go to sleep with your hand on that body part that is troubling you.
I emphasize, nothing else is required––no thoughts are needed of any type. Simply place your hand on the body part that is calling out for attention. It is called “healing touch.” No workshops are required. No special skills are necessary and it is not necessary to read any instructional books – just touch that place. Leave your hand there as long as you can. Apply healing touch whenever the occasion calls for it this week during the day, but especially as you’re going to sleep at night.
