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

© Parkinsons Recovery

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

© Parkinsons Recovery

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

© Parkinsons Recovery