Bacon = Mindfulness

Hi Team,

Many of you have asked me about the Mindfulness class I'm starting to take, so I decided to write a post (or maybe a few as this progresses) about how this is going, and what exactly it is from my perspective.

I really like the description on their website - "Through lectures, exercises and group discussions participants learn how habitual reactions to stress create anxiety, depression, fear, anger and possibly illness. Students learn how to change their reactions by bringing awareness to the arising mental thoughts or emotional feelings in a non-judgmental way."

Keep in mind this is my journey through learning about this and in no way am I an expert on anything I write in here, blah blah blah disclaimer.  Ok.  So as I understand it, mindfulness is the practice of clearing away all the clutter in your brain, that constant stream of consciousness and chatter that goes on.  This tendency is in everyone, and is part of our natural human-ness so there is not the goal of making it go away, but rather the practice of recognizing it, acknowledging it, and choosing to be aware of your present moment.  The goal specifically having to do with trauma (physical, mental, emotional) is not to make the pain go away, but rather to allow us to sit with it in a non-judgemental way, and approach thoughts as just that - thoughts.  Every time something enters your mind such as "this sucks" or "I'm bored" or "I'm in so much pain I can't stand it" or "My life is never going to be the same", you recognize it, consider it a thought, and let it pass.  Then you approach the next moment as a new beginning. 

My first thought on this practice is that it sounds great in theory, but I am doubtful that I have enough self control to recognize these judgements in the moment.  Sure when I'm sitting on the floor in a quiet room and someone is telling me to be aware of the present moment, it's quite easy.  When I'm rushing around my daily life, realistically, I don't see myself being that self-aware.  So that's a thought, and something to consider, but I let it pass and then just sit in my present moment and appreciate right now.  See how that works?  :-D

What I really liked about this particular teacher and look forward to in this class is that she is going to take us through a number of different meditation techniques and teach us different ways to practice.  She says everyone is different and different things will stick depending on what works for you.  What I especially like is that she talked about recognizing that sitting on the floor meditating for 30-45 mins a day is not realistic for most people.  The mindfulness she teaches is a practice that can be done in any moment that you are able to bring yourself into the present and be aware.  For example, one woman in a past class dedicated the moment that she came home from work to give her child a hug as her mindful moment.  Another person had to commute across the golden gate bridge and really enjoyed that part of her drive, and dedicated that time while she was driving across the golden gate bridge as her mindful moment out of her day.  A moment to just be there, fully take in your environment and be still.  The hope is that over time and with trying different things, each of us will find something that works for us, to bring a mindfulness practice into our lives.

Our homework for this past week was about mindful eating.  We did an exercise in class where we ate a raisin.  Something most of us have eaten so many times, yet we usually pop it in (maybe a handful?), chew a few times and swallow.  We practiced actually looking at the raisin, noticing the color, shape, ridges, texture.  Putting it in your mouth and really feeling the body's reaction to it - how does it taste?  Does it taste different on one side than the other? Chew it slowly and see how the taste and the texture change.  Do you tend to chew more on one side than the other?  What happens as you keep chewing it without swallowing as we usually do so quickly?  The homework was to have just one mindful bite each day.  We all eat, at least a meal or two (or in my case sometimes many more) every day.  One bite.  Notice it, take it slow and just pay attention to it.  I made my first bite bacon.  It was salty, crispy, fatty and delicious.  Makes me salivate and melts in my mouth.  I had the thought that I really should not be eating bacon, and then I let that pass as a judgement.  It was great.

That's all for now - I look forward to any of your thoughts on this journey!  I'm hoping that once I learn to clear away the clutter in my mind (of course, done once and for all just like doing dishes), I can spread that more into clearing clutter from my apartment too.  We'll see how that goes.  It's the journey of a lifetime I suppose.

Love,
Amy