Mindfulness Of Hands

How often do you really pay attention to your hands? If you're like me, not often. This is a guided practice that brings mindful attention to the physical sensations of your hands and includes insight-oriented approaches to recognize and be grateful for everything your hands do for you.

Transcript

It's Dr.

Justin Ross here with you today with a mindfulness of hands practice.

Now we're often using the breath as an anchor point to the present moment and the breath becoming a hallmark place of where we spend a lot of time engaging in meditation,

Mindfulness,

Focus,

And awareness.

And our hands are much the same.

Our hands are always available,

They're always with us in the present moment just like our breath to anchor and center and ground us to this present moment experience.

And so this practice will last around 15 minutes and will be focused on an exploration of exploring the hands both physically in our bodies but also connecting to what they've done for us in our lives,

What they symbolize,

What they engage in,

And how they really impact our overall health and well-being.

Now to get started find a comfortable yet alert seated position.

You'll want to be seated for this one.

And just allow yourself to spend a moment getting settled into the chair or the cushion or the floor or the couch whatever it is that you may be sitting on.

Bring mindful awareness and attention to this process of getting settled,

Getting comfortable.

Take just a few breaths in through your nose,

Out through your mouth,

Really allowing yourself to become grounded in this present moment.

Eyes closed.

And take a moment to just feel your hands bringing awareness to wherever they may have fallen or rested.

Probably have a natural resting place when you're sitting like this.

Just bring awareness to that position.

Maybe it's in your lap or at your side on the armrests.

Notice the physical sensations you can detect with your hands making contact with whatever they may be contacting.

Maybe they're folded together,

Perhaps they're in your lap,

Maybe they're under something warm or exposed to the cold air.

Do a quick physical scan of how your hands feel in this moment.

Notice the contact points,

Your fingers gently resting,

Your palms facing down.

Notice any physical sensations of temperature or tingling that may be present.

Notice any qualitative differences where parts of your hands may be exposed to the air or compared to where they may be touching your skin,

Clothing,

Or covered up.

Get a sense of how your hands feel physically in this moment.

Take a moment to move your hands.

However,

That feels natural to you.

Start by bending your fingers along your knuckles,

Along your joints.

Ball them up into a fist.

You can open and splay them wide.

You can rub them together.

Bring a mindful awareness to the movement of your hands.

All the various planes and angles that your hands,

That your fingers can take,

They can move in so many different directions in so many different ways.

Really bring some awareness and some attention to this movement.

Feel the tension as you squeeze your hands hard into a ball,

Into a fist.

Feel the muscles relax and open as you release.

Move fingers one at a time.

Move them slowly.

Connect to how that feels.

Move them quickly.

Observe that sensation.

And move them in all kinds of different ways.

Bringing maybe a gentle sense of awe to what this feels like,

To what they can do,

To how they shift,

To how they move.

And take a moment now to open your eyes slowly,

Gently,

And begin exploring your hands with your eyes.

Really observing and noticing what you see,

What you observe.

In this first phase,

Trying to stay with the physical observations,

The color,

The shading,

The texture,

The nuances from one part to the next,

The wrinkles,

The cracks,

The hair,

The injuries,

Whatever it may be.

There are so many small details in your hands.

Take your time.

Turn them over.

Examine the backside.

Feel free to run your fingers over each hand.

Really feel those sensations,

The differences,

Tightness,

Texture.

Examining the palms of your hands.

Really observing the wrinkles,

The lines,

The coloring differences.

Notice how your knuckles move,

How those lines shift.

Notice any shading or coloring differences when moving your hands,

How light bounces or reflects.

Noticing what you see and what that may reflect in terms of how you're taking care of yourself right now,

What you may be engaging in at this time in your life.

Are there fresh cuts,

Cracks?

Are there old scars and wounds?

Are your hands well kept,

Well maintained?

Are they dirty,

Battered,

Or bruised?

Our hands are our primary way of physically engaging in the world.

They can do so much.

They're the primary way in which we take care of so much of our lives,

Our well-being,

Our hygiene,

How we interact with our loved ones,

Our family,

Our friends,

Our community,

How we take care of our emotions,

Display sadness,

Anger,

Happiness,

Joy.

Take a moment as you continue to explore your hands with your eyes to just reflect on all that your hands do for you.

How they engage in your world,

How they connect you to meaning,

Purpose,

Vitality,

Wellness.

Notice if there are any particular parts of your hands that connect to strong memories for you.

Memories of loved ones,

Memories of injuries,

Memories of important moments in your life.

And then take a moment just allow your eyes to close gently when you're ready.

Let your hands fall back into the natural place that they want to fall in your lap,

At your side,

Together.

With your eyes closed,

Returning awareness back to the breath for a few moments.

Just continuing to keep your main focus,

Your main source of attention on your hands,

How they feel,

What you notice.

Be reminded that like the breath,

Your hands are always available to you in this present moment.

And yet like the breath,

We often ignore our own thoughts and feelings.

And yet like the breath,

We often ignore,

Take for granted,

Fail to connect to those sensations.

And this becomes a powerful reminder of how we can use our hands like an anchor to the present moment just like we use our breath.

It can become this reminder for choosing how we want to live,

How we want to take care of ourselves,

How we want to take care of our loved ones in our community,

How we want to show up in the world.

But it requires deliberate focus and deliberate attention.

It requires discipline and practice.

There's a lot of ways to implement this in your day-to-day life.

Begin by doing this practice.

You can do it with the audio,

You can do it on your own,

You can do it for just a few minutes a day to sit and feel and connect with your loved ones and connect to your hands.

You can also do it as you're out living your life.

As you're engaging and contacting the world,

Bringing awareness and attention to those sensations in your hands,

How that movement feels,

How that touch feels.

And anyways,

Bringing gratitude to this ability,

Gratitude that our hands offer us so much.

And slowly bring yourself back.

Give your hands some movement here,

Get some blood flow going.

Get some movement in your legs,

Your feet,

Get some blood flow going there.

One nice breath in through your nose,

Out through your mouth.

Slowly opening your eyes from bottom to top when you're ready and bringing yourself back to the present moment.

Taking a moment to connect to your surroundings,

The world around you.

Being reminded that your hands are always available,

Always with you,

To guide you.

Okay,

That is it for today's practice.

This is Dr.

Ross signing off.

Reviews

Lovely practice - feeling a lot of gratitude for these hands - thank you

A wonderful practice! A special reminder to be grateful for these hands 🙌 🙏👍💙Thank you!

Such an important reminder to focus on and celebrate our touch

Love this practice of focusing on and appreciating my hands. What a gift they are. 🙏💖

That was a lot of fun thinking about my hands, just something different.

Thank you for sharing this very unique practice! I am happy to have connected with this alternative anchor. At certain times in my life, when I have lost a loved one, or early in the pandemic, focusing on my breath did not work for me. It triggered big feelings of grief or anxiety. I look forward to using the hands as an alternative to the breath for getting into the present moment, and I look forward to sharing this meditation with others. Thank you! 🙌🏼

Thank you for this meaningful meditation. Only yesterday I commented to my husband how we do not appreciate our hands! Amazed when I found your meditation. 😊💜🕊🙏

🌿✨💜✨🌿 Thank you. Xxx

Beautiful way to ground. I felt a strong sense of gratitude for all my hands have given me over my 5+ decades of life.

Thank you for this meditation that gave me the time and space to appreciate my amazing
hands.🙌🤝👐✌️🖐🙏

Great Thank you 🙏🧡

This was just wonderful, thank you so much!

I feel like I listened to this at the most opportune time because of a recent wound on my hand, which led me to reflect upon how hard life is without our hands, and also how much I neglect them. Thanks for guiding me to becoming more grateful to them :)

Handprints on cave walls were humans first artworks

Lovely! Thank you so much! 🙏🏼😊

Wonderful practice! Will return 😌