Hi there,
Jessie here.
Welcome back to these reflections on brain injury and concussion.
And I welcome you here.
I'm in Vancouver,
Canada.
Maybe you're in my neighboring city of Burnaby.
I like to start with Canadian cities.
Or maybe you're in Beirut or Berlin or Boston.
Wherever you are,
I like to call out the world in this way.
And it's a way for us to just reflect on the fact that we're not alone in this.
People all around the world have brain injuries and it's lovely just to have our hearts reach out to one another in this way today.
And now we're going to continue on with our journey of coming to our senses today with the sense of touch.
And remembering that although without mindfulness,
We tend to do a lot of time travel to the past,
To the future.
With mindfulness,
We can bring our attention or rather practice bringing our attention to the present.
And using the five senses,
Sight,
Sound,
Touch and smell.
I think I missed one there.
But anyway,
Our senses through our body is what really brings us to the present moment.
And in allowing ourselves to pay attention in this way,
I found in my nine year journey that I just have many more moments in the day that are pleasant and joyful.
Because I'm there for just little things that are pleasant.
As I'm talking,
I'm going to encourage you just to look around,
Maybe even walk around the space that you're in and find some objects that you feel called to in terms of the sense of touch.
You might want to see if you can find a soft blanket,
Scarf.
And it doesn't have to be soft things you might want to put yourself physically near some things that have diversity of textures to them.
Or maybe you just have your lap or your,
Your arm with its shirt on or its skin.
And finding yourself into a position that you'd like to practice in today.
It could be sitting or standing or walking or lying down.
I like to lie down and practice.
And starting off as always just inviting in a sense of relaxation,
Not a grasping to be fully relaxed but just an unclenching.
Noticing if there's any muscles in the jaw,
Shoulders,
Stomach,
Staying gentle,
Seeking in the body if there's anywhere that you can let go.
Even just 5%.
And now taking your object into one or more hands.
And choosing to work with eyes open,
Closed or downcast.
In this case if it feels comfortable I invite you to try it with your eyes closed it may allow you to have your attention land on the sense of touch more directly.
And I like this idea of landing,
Whatever the object of attention is to really touch the object in our mind,
Rather than hovering like sometimes do.
So,
Using your hand to touch the object that you've chosen,
And just explore it slowly moving the fingers around.
What does it feel like?
Is it smooth or rough?
Or is it feeling its contours and its shape?
Noticing if any judgment of wishing it to be different than it is arises and as best you can letting that float away and bring your attention back to the physical sensation of touch.
Whether it be the fingers and all of the hand in the exploration.
But if you're touching part of your own body you can also feel the sense of being touched as well.
Gently exploring this object as though you might explore lover's body slowly and with curiosity and with some pleasure involved just enjoying if you can smoothness the roughness,
The hardness,
The squishiness.
And if the mind wanders,
Remembering it's totally normal,
There's always three steps.
One is our attention in the present with our object and then if your mind wanders just gently but firmly bring it back to the present moment.
The physical sensations of touching your object.
Remembering to breathe.
And when you're ready,
Letting that object go.
And just remembering that what the brain injury oftentimes we may be noticing as we invite in a sense of quiet concentration that our minds might be pulled to sensations of our injury.
Whether they be physical pain,
A headache or nausea or just a foggy brain or whatever it is that you might be experiencing in this moment.
And just know that it's normal to have our attention be pulled to that.
And what we're doing here is just really gently recognizing that there's other things going on in any given moment as well.
And we have the capacity bit by bit over time to gently take our attention off our symptoms and move it towards other things that are happening in this case.
The touching of a object that's called your attention.
And now I'd like to invite you to just look around the space that you're in again.
Gently moving the neck slowly,
Allowing the eyes and the neck to wander about orienting yourself to the space again.
And seeing what new object might call to you.
Could be just your desk right beside you,
A chair,
Or you might even want to like move again.
Lovely to do this outside and feel a natural object.
And once you've chosen your object,
Once again,
Allowing your attention to focus in on it.
As though there's like a flashlight in your fingertips.
All the attention goes right there.
Exploring with one or both hands,
The object of your attention.
Again,
Is it smooth,
Soft,
Rough?
What's its shape?
Contours?
Is it cool?
Or warm?
Neutral?
Can you invite in that sense of enjoyment of this moment of focused attention?
Can you experiment with doing this exploration with a light touch versus doing this with a bit more of a harder touch?
And if the mind wanders,
Just gently but firmly bring it back.
Right here,
Right now.
When you're ready,
Maybe inviting a little quarter smile,
Which is always nice to do any time of day.
It kind of lets the body know,
Oh,
We're safe here right now.
And letting go of your object.
Thank you for joining me today.
And maybe you'll come back next time as we continue to come to our senses.
