Category: Mindfulness Challenge for the Week

The mindfulness challenge this week is to slow everything down.  Yes, this will take more time. I admit this is a consequence of the mindfulness challenge this week.  While this week’s challenge will take more time than is the custom, slowing every task down will have a profound impact on your stress level. Try it. You will like it.

What do I mean when I say, “Slow it down?”  If you are chopping up red peppers for a dinner, when I say slow it down I mean chop up those red peppers slowly and mindfully.  If you are walking from the kitchen to the living room, when I say slow it down I mean to take each step one by one with mindful consciousness, planting one foot after the other using willful intention.

Slow down each and every task that you initiate this week – whatever the task entails – from opening up a car door and getting in, to simply going to the telephone and picking it up to answer a call.

Many individuals who confront neurological challenges have a tendency to push up against any and all tasks. This persistent forcing and pushing fertilizes stress in the body. Because the nature of neurological challenges means that you must some how slow down activities, a war is declared against the enemy of getting tasks done efficiently and effortlessly. If we can’t get it done in a timely fashion, just push through it by God.  This activates stress levels and incites symptoms.

Reverse that tendency.  End that battle now. It is only making the symptoms worse because it feeds your stress level.

Slow down each and every activity.  Enjoy and relish what it means to open up the door to your car, what it means to walk from the kitchen to the living room, what it means to actually cut a red pepper.

To succeed with the challenge to slow tasks down you must plan ahead.  Give yourself at least twice if not three times as much time to accomplish each task. If you are a person who tends to plan out each day, if you are a person who makes a list of activities that must be accomplished, reduce the length of that list in half.  Give yourself plenty of time to accomplish each and every task that you have chosen to engage in.

Notice the profound impact slowing down has on your stress level and be sure to notice what happens to your symptoms. Celebrate the miracle of what it means to be mindful with what you do and how you do it, moment to moment.

Robert

© Parkinsons Recovery

The mindfulness challenge this week has far reaching implications.  My challenge for this week is to become more aware of space.  We typically focus our attention on objects, on their physicality.  For example, if we’re sitting at a table, we are focused on the physical aspects and character of the table and all of the surroundings: the chairs around the table, the objects on the table,  trinkets that may be sitting on top of other tables that are nearby. In other words, when we look, we see the physical objects that occupy the space that engulfs us, not the space itself.

Switch that habit. Switch your channel of attention this week. Focus instead on the space around the objects.  One of the ways to do this exercise (and to discover the power of its hidden implications) is to focus on the leaves or the branches of a tree. We typically only look at the branches themselves. As you look at trees this week, redirect the focus of your attention to the space between the leaves or the branches. You will have to stand still for a few minutes to pull this observational task off.

Look at the space that surrounds objects and you will be amazed at how your consciousness shifts. Be aware of space everywhere as you go through your week, day in and day out.

May you have a delightful and exciting time becoming more aware of the many wonders of the world.  There are millions more wonders than seven!

Robert

© Parkinsons Recovery