We need to balance being and doing mode in our lives.
Whether it is because the culture we live in exalts doing,
Or because driven doing is often caused by automatic routines,
It can easily cut out other ways of being with our experience.
We can learn to switch out of automatic pilot by bringing our awareness to the present moment.
When we do this,
We start to see that we have a choice and the power over our actions and our behavior.
So settling yourself in a chair with both feet flat on the floor.
And if it feels ok for you,
Close your eyes.
Take a few seconds to settle in and observe your breath.
The air gets in and out at its pace.
Now I invite you to take a few minutes to think about your hands without looking at them.
What thoughts come to mind when you think about your hands?
Maybe some judgments?
Are they long or fat?
And how much you like them?
Or how much you dislike them?
Perhaps there are thoughts about how you'd like them to be different.
Maybe longer or thinner?
Maybe thoughts come to mind about what your hands have done.
In your job?
Or perhaps thoughts about problems they may have caused you?
What thoughts come to mind about your hands now?
There's no need to control your thoughts anyway.
Just let the thinking unfold naturally.
Take your time,
Take a few minutes.
Simply to let thoughts arise.
Now I invite you to take a few minutes to think about what your hands have done.
Whether you are thinking about your hands or anything else,
You can notice that you are in thought mode right now,
Which is actually an active mode.
The mode of doing even if you are not doing anything with your body.
Your mind is in doing mode.
Do you see it?
And now I invite you to gently bring your attention down to the hands.
Dancing your hands directly without looking at them.
Try to feel your hands.
One and the other one.
And both together.
Try to feel your hands from the inside to the outside.
From the bones right out to the surface of the skin.
Maybe you can feel the sensation of the air over your skin.
Or maybe a different temperature on your skin.
You can explore with your awareness the boundary of your fingers.
One begins one and where it ends.
Maybe you can feel little movements,
Vibrations or itches in your hands.
And be aware of the sensation in the fingers.
The sensation in the palms and in the body of each hand.
You can move from one to the other one or try to feeling them both together.
And try to sense directly the pressure in the fingers.
Try to feel the tightness in the muscles and the coming going of sensation throughout the fingers,
Palms and arms.
This is the being mode.
You are not doing anything with your hands and you are not doing anything with your mind over your hands.
You are only explore,
Observe,
Notice.
Can you see the difference?
Do you feel different now in the being mode?
Do you remember your activity in the thinking mode?
Can you switch from one to the other one mode?
Try now to switch between the two modes about your hands.
Feeling,
Thinking,
Moving your hands and observe,
Simply feel,
Simply being.
When you are in the being mode.
You can have more power on your actions.
You can choose what to do and how to do it.
If you are in the doing mode,
You have less power,
Less awareness and less self-control.
Now bring your attention to your breath and explore it without try to changing.
Only feel your breath.
Be with your breath.
Relaxing your hands.
And notice the sensation in your body as a whole from head to feet.
And stay few moments in a being mode with anything else to do.
You are here and now.
Now,
We are at the end of the practice.
So you can switch again to your doing mode and try to move some parts of your body gently and slowly.
And if you want you can open your eyes softly and enjoy your doing mode knowing that you can switch to the being mode in every time,
Wherever you are.
Thank you from Mindful Art.
