Mindfulness Challenges

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

Deeper Implications of Aligning with Your Center of Gravity

When we are not anchored to the center of our gravity, falls, freezing and walking difficulties can very easily emerge. The first deeper meaning of becoming aware of your tan tien and thus becoming anchored to the center of your gravity is that it is much less likely that mobility challenges will be confronted or that falls will be experienced. That is the practical implication of moving the center of your balance to the true center.

The center of gravity is hanging out at the extremities of your body when mobility challenges are confronted. There is no way in the world that you will be able to feel a sense of stability when that happens to be the case. If you currently confront mobility challenges and have an episode that is challenging, the invitation I have for you especially this week and perhaps thereafter is to immediately focus your attention on your tan tien. Shift your center of balance from the extremities to the center of your gravity at your tan tien to attain balance and stability.

There is a second important and profound underlying meaning of becoming sensitive, aware and attentive to your tan tien (which is two inches below your belly button in the middle of your body). When focused on your tan tien, you cannot be in your head. You cannot be thinking. Rather, you are experiencing the feeling of being centered and grounded.

If you are like me, you have spent most (if not all) of your life in your head thinking about the future, pondering over the past, questioning past actions and solving problems with thinking that cycles over and over and over again. For people like me, and perhaps like you, this means that the center of our gravity shifts up. In other words, we become top-heavy. Our energy field looks like an inverted pyramid. Is there any wonder this creates mobility challenges?

We also tend to shift the top part of our body back and forth. We become literally twisted from thinking about one thought and one problem to the second thought and second problem – attempting to solve the second problem while continuing to juggle the first thought in our heads. And then of course, the third thought and the fourth problem sneaks in our thoughts to clutter up our life and make us crazy inside.

The twisting eventually becomes problematic. It also takes us away from the present. When mobility challenges emerge, there are fears about something that might happen in the future – for example, a freezing episode or perhaps a fall. That means we are not in the present. We are anticipating the future. This distance from the present makes mobility challenges even more problematic.

To remain mindful of the present is the solution. To be attentive to the center of your gravity which resides in your tan tien is the key to maintaining stability whenever you walk, talk, chew or swallow.

Focusing attention on the tan tien (as martial artists do) takes us out of our head. We are usually either commiserating over the past or anticipating the future. It is very rare that we are actually centered in the present moment.

I often see double if not triple rainbows that are seen across the back yard where we have a view of the Puget Sound. These are spectacular images that I have never seen before in my life. When they emerge, the key for me is to be present to the grandeur and the gloriousness of the image of all the colors that emerge in the first, then the second, then third rainbow.

But, when I say out loud,

“My, isn’t that a pretty rainbow?”

I am suddenly taking myself out of the present moment. Focusing attention then my tan tien – again, that place two inches below the belly button – is a way to maintain mindfulness of being present––now. When I am present to the moment, stress cannot rear its ugly head.

Continue then to fire up that tan tien in your body. Strengthen your martial arts power. When we move down from the continuous rattletrap of thoughts that juggle around in our mind second by second and shift attention to the center of our body, we feel secure. We feel safe. We are safe.

By the way, we also become imminently more creative because we are not so scattered and unfocused. Try it. I’m quite sure you will like it. And let me also remind you, no medicine is required. No investment necessary. No travel to a health care provider is needed. This is something you can do for yourself any time, anywhere.

Robert

Center of Gravity

The mindfulness challenge this week is to become more aware of your center. By this I mean your center of gravity. This particular mindfulness practice will yield immeasurable returns if you are currently struggling with balance or mobility problems. No medicines are required. No visits to healthcare practitioners are necessary. The treatment is free and offers benefits which are immediate.

This is an exercise for everyone even if you are not currently experiencing mobility challenges. Athletic superstars are intimately connected with the center of their gravity. Ballerinas, performers and all other individuals who have to be physical in all respects know where the center of their gravity is.

I suspect you are well aware that the center of gravity is not at the tip of your little finger or the tip of your little toe. It is certainly not at the extremities of your body and it is certainly not in our head (which is where many of us prefer to hang out all the time). The center of gravity actually resides for most people a couple of inches below their belly button. This place has a name called the tan tien. It is a point in the body that does not have an affiliation or an identity with any specific organ like a heart or a lung; it is an energetic place in everyone’s physical body.

Martial artists are very familiar with this place known as the tan tien for it is where their power resides. I suspect many of you have seen martial artists swaying a person from one corner of a room to the other by the flip of their finger. How do they do that? They don’t do it by the strength of their finger. They accomplish such an amazing feat by marshaling a power that resides from this place of the tan tien. It is the source of all martial art’s magic.

Using your intention locate your tan tien two inches below your belly button. It is is in the middle of your body between the front and the back. Now fire up your tan tien with the color red – as red as it can possibly become. Fire it up.

Feel the red.
Experience the heat.
Connect with the center of your power.

Become aware of its presence and its existence. When your tan tien is fired up with the frequency that is equivalent to the color red you become centered. You are balanced. It will be quite challenging to fall or to freeze or to confront any mobility challenges whatsoever.

Become more aware this week of the center of your gravity which resides in your tan tien two inches below your belly button in the middle of your body.

Know it.
Feel it.
Sense it.
See it
Experience it.

This same mindfulness practice works for super athletes. You also can access the limitless power that resides in that energetic spot of your body known as the tan tien. Become familiar with your tan tien and you will see miracles happen for yourself this week. Challenge yourself to derive instantaneous benefits. Celebrate the ability to move effortlessly as you fly across the stage of life just like a star ballerina.

You may be thinking – there is no way this can be true. Accept the invitation so you can witness the result. You do not have to confess to anyone that you were wrong! Instead, celebrate the benefits that this mindfulness practice offers.

Robert