Welcome to this self care meditation.
We all know the importance of taking care of ourselves.
Many of us have our routines in place to do this,
But something that I've recently become aware of is that much of these routines are done as a task and with a goal in mind.
For example,
We might moisturise our face,
But the goal might be to prevent dry skin or ageing.
We might go to the gym,
But the goal is to lose weight or become strong.
And there's nothing wrong with these things,
But I just wanted to add a little extra something to these routines.
Firstly,
Let's check in with ourselves.
I invite you to close your eyes and just for the next few minutes,
Can you become a scientist?
One who is observing what is there and taking notes,
But not becoming involved.
So as this scientist,
One who is not involved,
Observe how your mind is today.
Does it feel busy or calm?
Is it wanting to plan or does it feel kind of peaceful today?
Just making a note how your mind is today.
Move your attention now to your body.
What is there for you right now?
Do you notice any stiffness anywhere,
Any tension,
Any aches or pains?
Don't try and change anything and again not being involved in anything,
But just noticing whatever is there.
And then again as the not involved scientist,
Do you notice any feelings that are there today?
Any emotions that you see?
And putting all your results together,
The results from the observations of your mind and body and emotions and give yourself a score out of 10.
It's important to know how to do these internal check-ins because then we can act accordingly throughout our day.
If we notice that we have tension in our shoulders,
We might want to do some movement for them,
Some shoulder rolls or if we notice our mind is really busy and manic we might decide to do some deep breathing and breath focusing.
Rather than shooting off straight into your day,
I encourage you to regularly do these check-ins.
And now I want you to take a good examination of your hands.
Noticing your fingerprints,
Your fingernails,
Your knuckle joints,
The lines,
The veins.
Notice the skin.
Do you have any freckles or scars on your hands?
And now observe any thoughts about your hands.
What do you notice?
What are the stories going on in your mind about your hands?
Are they negative?
Are they grateful?
You're just noticing.
Remember you're not getting involved.
You are still the scientist who is just observing whatever is there.
And now you have a task.
Your task is to give yourself a hand massage.
I'm going to leave you for a minute and you might wish to close your eyes.
Now notice how you are giving yourself this massage.
Using one adjective,
One describing word,
How would you describe how you are doing this task?
You might use words like gently,
Kindly,
Lovingly.
Or you might use efficiently,
Deliberately,
Purposefully.
Or you might even use a word like roughly,
Harshly.
What is the word you would use to describe how you are giving yourself a hand massage?
And stop.
And now just be with that experience.
What does it feel like to have had that hand massage?
Tune in to that experience.
The reason I wanted to do this today is because I noticed myself last week rolling my face with a Chinese Jade facial roller and what I saw was quite shocking.
I noticed that I was rolling out my face but with such force.
I didn't realise,
I didn't see it.
I was just completing my task.
And now we're going to do this again but this time it's not a task.
It is an act of love.
Remove the goals from this act and do it purely as an act of love.
You may want to open your eyes or you may wish to keep them closed as you wish but if you open your eyes then bring the act of love into your thoughts also.
Bring grateful thoughts to your hands.
I'll leave you in silence for a couple of minutes.
And stop.
And now tune in to that experience of having your hands massaged in that way.
Did you notice the difference?
Not only is this a wonderful act of self-love that feels soothing and kind but when done from this loving stance it also becomes a wonderful meditation practice.
When we do something that is goal orientated we tend to do this out of auto pilot and be completing it whilst being fully occupied thinking about something else like planning what we will make for dinner or about our to-do lists but when the goal is withdrawn then the attention is keenly focused and the mind is fully fascinated and then time seems to slow right down within the experience of that moment and thus the performance whether it be a hand massage or a facial or brushing your teeth or eating your food or washing your hands becomes almost sacred.
Because we have switched off the autopilot and are doing something that requires our full attention our simple task of brushing our hair is now a meditative ceremony.
To do this you just need to remember the intention is always to act with love.
So if you are giving yourself a hand massage not only would the how you are doing it be done lovingly but your thoughts would also be imbued with the same so you would be bringing thoughts of love and gratefulness towards them.
I encourage you to try this with other chores that don't involve self-care maybe try it whilst doing the dishes extending the act of love towards the dishes or towards your family whilst doing the laundry and notice how changing your relationship towards the task changes everything.
Let me know how you go on I'd love to hear from you.
Have a peaceful day my friend.
Much love.
