Mindfulness Challenges

Deeper Meaning Behind Being Attentive to Your Balance

I have an addendum to the challenge for this week. The addendum is notice how couples stand when they talk with one another a flirting way for perhaps the first time or a first date. I have noticed with great curiosity and interest how the man and how the woman stand when they talk with one another. It is generally a stressful context when a man is trying to impress the woman. Of course, the same observations may be seen when two men or two women who like each other are talking.

The question to ask is: How is each individual standing? Often I have noticed one of the people, if not both, are actually not standing on both feet; one of the feet is pitched upward rather than firmly planted on the ground. There is often great anxiety in such situations. The level of stress is off the charts. The stress and anxiety is evident from the observation that the individuals are not balanced and grounded and connected to Mother Earth.

Just notice as you look around, traveling from one place to another for the rest of the week, how people stand when they talk with one another. It is actually rare when you see two people who are firmly and evenly planted on the Earth with energy that is evenly distributed between the right side and the left side.

By way of explaining the deeper meaning behind the challenge this week I have a little exercise that I invite you to experience right now. This experience is going to be pure fantasy. It is not real, but one that I actually personally experienced when I attended my four-year healing school. It is an experience that gave me profound insights about my own body.

What I want to tell you at the outset is I’m going to create a situation where in your imagination you are going to be frightened. Now know that this is not a real situation. There is absolutely no reason to be frightened. The entire idea is to fabricate a situation where you can experience what your body habitually does when you encounter something that is fearful. Once you image the situation. I am going to ask you to freeze your body in that position so that you can sense which muscles you are tensing up and which side of your body is taking the brunt of the tension and the stress; and remember, I’m going to create a situation where you are supposed to get frightened. Then you are going to react with your body and emotions. Then you are going to freeze all of that for a few seconds.

Again (I hate to repeat myself but I was a professor for 20 years) this is not a real situation; it’s just an exercise for you to experience what your body will feel like whenever you’re under stress and whenever you are in fear (which for many people is several times a day). Here it goes.

Imagine that you are having a wonderful day today. See yourself walking down a hiking path with gorgeous trees, with an individual by your side who you love dearly and who is your closest friend. You are talking with one another. You are having a grand time. You are taking sweet sips of water as you float down the trail. You stop for a few minutes to have a snack. It is a good day to be alive and it is a gorgeous hike.

Suddenly, without notice, just 20 yards away, your walking partner notices a mama bear with two cub bears. Your partner says to you,

“Oh my God, it is a mama bear with her cubs. Look!”

You look over, spot the bears and suddenly become frightened. Now, let your body be frightened right now. Just imagine you are actually looking at the mama bear face to face. How are you reacting right now?

Where do your hands go? What about your body, your shoulders, your feet? Be shocked and allow your body to react.

Now hold it. Freeze it. Freeze the shock right now. There is no need to hold the position for long – just a few seconds will do. Sense where the tension is in your body; where is it?

Notice. Be mindful. How is your body feeling now? Now go ahead and relax.

This obviously didn’t actually happen. Relax and now reflect on which muscles were tensing up when you became scared in that imaginary circumstance.

Was it your right side?
Was it your left side?
Was it your neck?
Was it your shoulders?
Was it your knee?
Was it your calf muscles?
Was it your stomach?
Was it all of the above?

What muscles did you tense up? Your body has reacted in the same fashion over and over and over again – every day, actually, although not to the extent that it will tense up when something truly fearful and scary happens like confronting a bear face to face.

The body becomes accustomed to using and stressing certain muscles over others. This stress creates a profound imbalance in the physical muscle structure interface. It becomes difficult to walk effortlessly. Balance becomes a problem because there is not an even distribution of how muscles are working in the left hand and right, in the left and right shoulders, the right and left legs, the right and left foot, etc.

When we are mindful of the extent to which we are stressing certain muscles of our body – wherever they might be located – much more frequently and much often than other muscles, we can redistribute that. Of course we need to be scared sometimes; of course we need to tense up. We can’t change that. But that very habit of reaction is going to create stresses and strains on the physical body that creates profound imbalances. This is the simple explanation for why so many people have back problems.

I am certain you are wondering why in the world I have created two back to back mindfulness challenges that are focused on the feet. Reflexology is an emerging discipline which in essence allows for healing to occur by touching certain places on the feet. There is a connection to each and every organ, each and every blood vessel that is actually located somewhere on the toes or under the soles of the feet, or even on top of the feet. When confronting neurological challenges, many people tend to think over and over that the problem resides in the brain.

It is actually a full system issue. The key access point for healing is not in the brain. It is not through our thoughts. The door way actually opens up through our feet.

Randy Eady, better known as the Foot Whisperer, works with people who currently experience the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Randy has shown why being more attentive to your feet does have profound implications for being able to reverse whatever symptoms you might be currently experiencing.

A final addendum to this week’s challenge is to consider taking off your shoes on occasion – and even your socks. Begin to walk around more often that way as you allow there to be a stimulation of the parts of your feet that may need to be stimulated. By stimulating all parts of the feet you are actually energizing and activating the lazy muscles and the all of the tired organs that in essence may need to get a wake-up call.

Have fun as you notice the balance between the right and the left sides of your body. Feel free to imagine this week that same experience of getting scared; perhaps as hiking as we just envisioned and encountering a mother bear with her two cubs. Or, create your own scary experience in your imagination.

Be mindful of which muscles you activate and what part of your body you are over-stressing. Them even that out. I suspect you will discover that your mobility will be enhanced significantly and other symptoms are likely to show a wonderful resolution.

Have fun as you have delightful week noticing the balance between the right and the left sides and as you continue admiring and appreciating your feet.

Robert

Balance

Perhaps you are someone every week who tries to second guess what the mindfulness challenge will be this week? Since we focused on the feet last week, you are probably guessing it will surely be something else. Well, I have a surprise for you. The surprise is that this is part-two of focusing your attention on not only your feet but your legs.

The invitation this week is actually simple to do. Whenever you find you are standing anywhere; looking at flowers, standing while someone else talks with you or you talk with them, standing while you are waiting in line to purchase an item at the grocery store or hardware store – just standing – notice whether or not the weight is evenly distributed between your right foot and leg and your left foot and leg. Or, notice whether perhaps you are placing more weight and force on one leg than the other. For example, are you literally lifting one leg up and placing the tips of the toes on the floor or the ground and really forcing all of the weight onto either the right side or the left side? What is really happening when you stand? Notice.

It’s a simple challenge. It is also a challenge that I have discovered has revealed incredible insights about the imbalances that I have created in my own body by way of habit. I for one have not been particularly mindful of how I was actually stressing certain muscles in my body unnecessarily when standing.

To summarize, each and every opportunity that you find yourself in a situation where you are standing – standing anywhere, standing for any reason – focus your attention on how much weight you are placing on each side of your body. If you notice that more weight is being placed on either the left or the right foot and leg; redistribute the weight so that it is even across both sides of your body so that you are standing firmly on Mother Earth.

Admittedly this is a simple challenge, but I must say for me personally it has had profound consequences in being able to balance out the stresses and strains that were exhibited throughout my body. We can do this moment by moment by being mindful.

Robert

Deeper Meaning Behind Paying More Attention to Your Feet

Many of us have elevated the importance of our minds and our thoughts to an incredibly high level. The reasons are obvious. It was important for all of us to be able to perform our jobs with minds that were logical and clear, with thoughts that made good sense, with reasoning that enabled problems to be solved. I’m here to tell you, however, that thinking is not all that it is cracked up to be.

We oftentimes open up the door to thoughts that are not in our best and highest good. We start them up just like we start our car engines. The worrisome thoughts begin to churn. And guess what?

We begin to experience deteriorating health. Our energy dips. We get depressed. It thus becomes incredibly important to realize that thoughts are not all that they are cracked up to be.

A much more powerful access to our inner creativity and true knowledge is to turn those thoughts off. Deep within resides our true creativity. Think of the doorway to your creativity to be through your feet, not your mind. Access those delicious places that reside deep within your soul by opening up an ongoing awareness of your feet. Our feet wind up being the gateway to becoming all that we are – not our minds.

If we insist on elevating the mind, as the only organ of the body that is the most, if not the only, important organ, we dismiss the wisdom that is contained within all of the cells within our physical body. Here, we are talking about seventy billion pockets of wisdom that are left untapped and unacknowledged.

The exercise of drawing attention to your feet when you are worried is a way to acknowledge that you have a body other than your brain. The technique turns off the rattletrap of thoughts instantly. The technique turns on access to the wisdom that is contained within the entire body.

Our heart has a divine brain. Thinking is contained throughout the body. Allow this creativity. Invite this wisdom to emerge from within all of you as it arises from the bottom of your feet all the way up until you are able to acknowledge and realize it through thoughts that emerge, not from your head, but from a place deep within.

The technique really is powerful. Yes, it is simple. Yes, most people neglect to do it. If you would like to see a reduction in your symptoms, make it a habit every time that you notice you are anxious, every time that you notice you have worries that simply will not stop rattling around in your brain. Every time you notice you are fearful for whatever reason, direct your attention to the bottom of your feet. You’ll be pleased with the result.

Robert

Pay Attention to Your Feet

The mindfulness challenge I have for you this week is simple to do if you think about it. This particular technique costs nothing. It is easy to do. It has potentially powerful impacts on your ability to feel better.

Many people carry around the belief that in order to see a reversal of symptoms, significant interventions are required in the form of lots of medications and lots of therapies and even surgeries. This technique is

This technique is simple to do.
It is free.
You can do it yourself.

And – hold on to your seats – I can promise you, you will see an incredible impact: How about a relief from your symptoms?

We know that stress aggravates the symptoms of Parkinson’s. When you are feeling anxious, perturbed and even fearful for whatever reason; when you are feeling the same worries rattling around your mind day after day what happens for you? Most people find it difficult to shift away from these types of depressing thoughts and moods.

They get more and more anxious.
They become more and more fearful.
They are more and more withdrawn.

These responses exacerbate the symptoms; it makes them worse. What can you do instead? Some people know that is what is happening. They attempt to instruct their minds to change channels:

“I’m going to now stop worrying. After all, my worries today are no different than my worries yesterday, last week or last month. Worrying is not helping matters, so I quit.”

I’m here to tell you, the mind is pretty tricky when it comes to turning off and turning on the worry switch. There is something devious about the ego that relishes diving into the darkness of worries and fears and anxieties. Think of the challenge to quit worrying to be equivalent to the challenge to stop smoking.

The challenge I have for you this week is:

Acknowledge when anxieties, when worries and when fears are all of a sudden began to percolate around your busy mind. Then – here it is – focus attention on your feet, especially on the bottom of your feet. Notice whether or not both feet are firmly planted on the floor or on the ground. People oftentimes realize when they begin to rattle around the thoughts of worry and anxiety that only one foot or neither foot is actually affixed to the floor or the ground.

If you choose to run with my mindfulness challenge this week, place both your feet firmly and solidly on the floor or ground when you become anxious, worried or stressed. Take in full and complete sensations of how your foot is resting on the floor.

Is the bottom of each foot touching the floor or the ground?
Is the right heel touching the floor? Is the left heel touching floor?
Is the heel on the right foot touching the floor more firmly than the heel on the left?
How do the bottoms of your feet feel as they nest up against the ground?
Does it feel cold to touch?
Is it warm?
Is it mushy, soft or wet?

How do the souls of your feet really feel? What about your toes? Are all of your toes actually touching the ground or the floor, or just one toe or even no toes?

You are invited, then, to pay attention to all of the sensations of each foot as it snuggles up against the floor or the ground.

Do this whenever you feel anxious.
Do this whenever you feel uneasy.
Do this whenever you feel depressed.
Do this whenever you feel as though you are moving into fear.

I personally find this to be a magical technique. Focusing attention on your feet allows you to turn the switch of worry and anxiety off. It focuses your attention on the present moment. It allows you to reduce stress instantly. As a result, you will see a reduction in symptoms that will be much welcomed.

Have fun as you pay attention to your feet this week, which is a very important part of your body.

Robert