Just today, my friends and I attended the very first session of a mindfulness training programme. I didn't know what to expect when I signed up for this free-of-charge course, so when we finally met our facilitator, who is Australian, I went "oh wow!" The other students were all girls, and I was the only guy (again, I didn't anticipate this). Awkward, but I'm used to this kind of awkwardness.
We introduced ourselves, as usual. It was interesting to hear what the others thought of when they first saw the word "mindfulness". We all have very different motivations for attending this training: learning how to manage stress, regulate emotions, engage with the present moment, etc. It was equally fascinating to see how each of us made our introductions. Some of us spoke using more general terms, some used a more academic approach (i.e. vocalise points as though writing an essay), others made more personal disclosures.
Our facilitator guided us through the history of Mindfulness. Basically, she said, people equate mindfulness with meditating monks or hermits, but it is more than that. A mindful person is able to savour the present moment fully and get in sync with bodily sensations, emotions as well as thoughts. Sounds tough to me.
To illustrate what mindfulness truly means, our facilitator conducted two activities. In the first activity, she gave each of us a raisin. A sultana, she called it. Instead of directly eating it, we were instructed to feel the weight of the raisin nestling in our palm. Observe the contours, the shape, the light that glinted off the surface of the raisin. I admit, by the time we were told to roll the raisin between our thumb and forefinger, my mouth was full of saliva.
"Feel the texture, the creases. Now bring it to your ear and see if you can hear anything."
No kidding. I tried pinching my raisin (while swallowing some saliva) but couldn't hear a thing.
"Bring it close to your nostrils and breathe in the scent of it."
Normally my sense of smell would fail me but this time I did detect faint traces of dried grape. Sweet aroma (more saliva here).
"Put it into your mouth. Don't swallow just yet. Feel it with your tongue. Roll it in your mouth. Take a bite, gently. What does it taste like? Now, chew on it. Is the flavour stronger now, sweeter?"
It took us about five to ten minutes just to eat a piece of raisin. You might laugh at the absurdity of it, but truly, the experience was novel, fresh and of course sweet. Too often we gobble down our food without paying much attention to what we eat, preferring instead to direct our attention to that television show, that message on our phone, or that new status update from our friend. What about the here and now?
The next activity was a "body scan". All of us lay on our backs on the floor, while our facilitator guided our attention to our toes, legs, thighs, abdomen, shoulders and head. She would tell us to focus on one part of our body and then we would attend to it. One of us was so relaxed that she began snoring seconds after the activity started. From time to time, I did slip slowly out of consciousness, only to snap my eyelids open and bring myself back to the moment. My thoughts were wandering too. I remembered that when I was unable to sleep, I would do the something similar to this activity - lie flat on my back and not move a muscle, then regulate my breathing, feel my weight on the bed, imagine the layers of bedclothes beneath me, the mattress, the flooring, the empty air ... all the way down to the earth, the minerals, the core of the Earth itself.
For the first time in months, I felt I made a right choice and thoroughly enjoyed what I chose. All previous academic subjects were not as good as this! Honestly I wished that we had a subject like this in our psychology course. Looking forward to our next session. In the meantime, if you see me eating very slowly, that's just me practising to be more mindful!
