Body mindfulness is the first foundation of mindfulness. It's about recognizing the body as a body, something that is experienced as a collection of parts, not as a solid, unified thing. Some ways to experience mindfulness of the body include:. The first exercise is very simple, but the power, the result, can be very great.
The exercise is simply to identify inhalation as inhalation and exhalation as exhalation. When you inhale, you know that this is your inhalation. When you exhale, you are aware that this is your exhalation. So the third exercise is to become aware of your body.
When you practice mindful breathing, the quality of your inhalation and exhalation will improve. There is more peace and harmony in your breathing, and if you continue to practice that way, peace and harmony will penetrate the body and the body will benefit. Whether you're sitting, lying down, or standing, you can always release tension. You can practice total relaxation, deep relaxation, sitting or lying down.
As you drive your car, you may notice the tension in your body. You're anxious to get there and don't enjoy the time you spend driving. When you reach a red light, you're anxious for the red light to turn into a green light so you can continue. But the red light can be a sign.
It can be a reminder that there is tension in you, the stress of wanting to get there as quickly as possible. If you recognize it, you can use the red light. You can sit back and relax, take the ten seconds that the light is red to practice conscious breathing and release tension in the body. When you practice conscious breathing, you simply allow your breathing to occur.
You realize it and enjoy it. The same goes for mindful walking. Every step helps you touch the wonders of life. It's estimated that 95% of our behavior runs on autopilot, something I call a “fast brain”.
This is because neural networks are the basis of all our habits, and they reduce our millions of sensory inputs per second to manageable shortcuts so that we can function in this crazy world. These predetermined brain signals are like highway signals, so efficient that they often cause us to relapse into old behaviors before we remember what we intended to do instead. See how mindfulness helps you live in the moment.
