Welcome to the thinking vs sensing exercise.
Thinking vs sensing is a quick exercise to help you notice the difference between your thoughts and ability to think and your senses and ability to feel.
Our intention during this exercise is to really notice the difference between how we think about something vs how we sense something in our bodies.
Remember that with mindfulness we always try to bring an attitude of interest and curiosity without too much analysing or judging.
So with that in mind let's begin.
I invite you to close your eyes whilst we take a few minutes to really think about your hands.
Notice what comes to mind when you think about your hands,
What thoughts,
Pictures,
Memories come to mind.
Noticing if there's any thoughts about what you like or don't like about your hands,
Whether they have helped you or hindered you,
Any memories.
Let your mind go wherever it wants to go.
If you find your mind has wandered off to something else just gently bring it back to just think about your hands and let any thoughts,
Images or memories come to mind.
Now open your eyes.
What happened when you thought about your hands?
What thoughts came to mind?
Take this moment to reflect on anything that you found surprising or maybe take a moment to write down in a journal any reflections that came up for you.
Now I invite you to take a moment to allow your eyes to close and bring your awareness to your hands noticing how they feel.
Noticing any sensations that are here,
Any warmth or coolness.
Noticing the parts of your hands that are in contact with each other or with the surface they are on.
Noticing any tingling or parts of your hands where there are no particular sensations at all.
And now take a moment to clench your hands as tight as is comfortable for you and notice the tension in your fingers,
Your palms,
Your wrists perhaps going up your forearms.
And now very slowly and gently releasing and allowing your palms to open and unfold whilst noticing the sensations as you release the tension.
Following any tingling or warmth,
Just noticing whether the sensations change or stay the same.
And taking this moment to sense your body as a whole,
Are you finding yourself drawn to any particular sensations in any particular parts of the body?
Just follow that.
And now opening your eyes,
What did you notice this time?
How is it different to thinking about your hands when you are sensing your hands instead?
Sometimes when sensing our hands we notice warmth,
The contact,
Places they contact with each other or with other surfaces.
This experience of sensing,
Of really experiencing our bodies and ourselves through our sensing.
Sometimes when sensing our hands or other parts of the body we notice warmth,
The contact,
Places they contact with each other or with other surfaces.
This is the experience of sensing,
Of really experiencing through our senses.
And you may have noticed that this was different from thinking about your hands,
Where you may have pictured your hands or had memories or thoughts about liking or disliking parts of your hands,
Or memories of how hard your hands have worked,
Or thoughts about how dry or rough your hands are.
This exercise helps us to notice the difference between sensing our experience as we do with mindfulness versus thinking about our experiences and being in our heads.
If you feel this exercise has worked for you in some way,
You now have that extra tool set of checking in and sensing with parts of the body.
If you ever find yourself stuck in thoughts,
Memories or judgement,
Remember you always have this tool to sense parts of your body and bring you back into noticing the whole self and any warmth,
Calm and peace that you feel within you.
Thank you for taking the time for you today.
