Did you love touching things as a kid?
Did it or does it soothe your soul and calm you down?
There’s a great reason behind that calming, joyful, tactile experience!
Taking a moment to really experience your surroundings helps to pull your perspective out of your constructed mind and into true reality. This practice of mindfulness helps your body and mind understand the stress-free nature of the present.
Stress only exists when we worry about the future or dwell on the past, so by focusing on the present moment, we reduce our anxiety and increase our happiness!
The easiest way to be present is to focus on and actually experience your senses!
We touch things every day, but do we think about the things we touch? Do we really ‘feel’ when we touch things? By taking a moment to really feel, we tell our minds to focus on that real feeling in the present, rather than a harmful thought that will never come to life.
1 Minute Mindfulness Exercise: Touch of Happiness (1 minute +)
- Place your hands on the first thing you see in front of you. This can be your desk, a wall, clothes on a rack in the shopping mall, or anything within reach.
- Run your fingers along this item.
- Take in the feelings on your fingers.
- Is the item bumpy?
- Is the item smooth?
- Is the item cold or hot?
- Use your entire hand, your fingers and your palms, to feel all sides of this item.
- Continue telling yourself what you are feeling. Appreciate how this item feels and how real this item is in your life.
- Notice that for a full minute, you did not have any stress in your body. Congratulate yourself on a perfect moment of positive mindfulness!
Want more mindfulness practices? Check out 5 Mindfulness Exercises for Stress Management!Copyright 2015 Jennifer “Aurora Moone” McDonald / All Rights Reserved.
