- Mindfulness in daily life -
Every time I teach one of my classes I ask my students: "How does the dough in your hands feel like?"
Most of the time the answer is: "I don't know!"
Interestingly, most of my students do not respond by telling me what they FEEL at this very moment through their hands: "the dough feels hard, soft, stretchy, wet, cold, warm and so on"....but they seek an answer within their minds wanting to KNOW how it should feel.
The crucial point for me is to bring clarity between these 2 separate aspects of our experience: FEELING BODY and KNOWING/UNDERSTANDING MIND.
Most of the time we are so caught up in our mind and its conceptual-reality (thoughts/judgments/expectations/ memories) that we don't realize we are missing out on paying attention to the information coming to us through our senses and body at every very moment, which is always NEW.
Many times we believe it is enough to know (understand conceptually) in order to apply (practice) and we are not aware of what really is going on in the here and now, the only place where practice happens.
In this way we miss out the complexity, intensity and depth of a "real experience", which is made of many different layers. All these aspects constantly relate and affect each other: sensations, thoughts, feelings, emotions.
In a world which is becoming more and more VIRTUAL and less and less REAL you can notice how we worship more and more "conceptual learning" (mind) and we neglect "experiential learning" (body).
Next time you prepare your food, make this SIMPLE EXPERIMENT: take the ingredients you have on your hands and investigate them as if you were NOT KNOWING them. "How do they feel like? How do they look like, smell, sound, taste?"
Pay close attention to bodily sensations and check for yourself what EXTRA-ORDINARY things you can discover in such an ordinary experience.
Enjoy the wonder and beauty of REAL LIFE.
With love.
Maria-Lucrezia
Foto credits Berlin Science Week 2022