Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Week 1 for Juliet: Use Your Non-Dominant Hand


Let me just start my part of this blog by saying that I am excited to be embarking on this journey of a weekly mindfulness challenge and am glad to have Zanna on board to practice with me.  I am a believer in mindfulness training.  My eight years of meditation and yoga have changed me significantly and taught me how to become a much more mindful practitioner of life.  Both yoga and meditation have helped me to live life more fully in the moment, dealing with difficulty and experiencing joy from a place of equanimity.
So why do I want to do this?

Precisely because of my other practices I know that living in the present moment is so incredibly sweet.  Noticing all of the colors of a sunset or hearing what is being said to me instead of thinking of what I want to say, not clinging to the past or rushing on to something in the future.  I want to experience life from right where I am.  This is the true gift of human embodiment.  As Ram Dass says in the title of his iconic book to “Be Here Now”.

I also know that the mind, like the wild elephant analogy in the book, is a difficult creature to train.  And so it takes work, and practice, and more practice.  These exercises are designed to increase awareness so that I can continue to learn to be mindful in other situations.

I suggested to Zanna that we use the image of Ganesha on this site.  In Hindu mythology, one of the characteristics assigned to Ganesha is that he is the remover of obstacles.  In his elephant wisdom he helps us to see around that which blocks us.  May these exercises do the same for Zanna and me.  May they help us see around what blocks us so we can live each day more fully and joyfully.


Week 1:  Use Your Non-Dominant Hand
This week the challenge didn’t really start until Wednesday when Zanna challenged me to begin following the book.  (That is what happens when you give such a book to someone as a present!)  I had been doing my own variety of mindfulness practices with inconsistency, so here was the opportunity to try and be consistent.

This exercise was really a challenge for me because I have been dealing with an overuse injury in the tendon on my left elbow.  “Yoga Elbow”; if you will.  Because of that it has been painful to use my left hand to do anything that was weight bearing.  This made me maybe overly aware of my left arm and maybe in an off-handed (bad pun) way made me remember to use it more often.

I chose to use my non-dominant hand in the morning and evening to brush my teeth, wash my face, and put on lotion and/or makeup.  I expected to feel a little agitated doing this (I did) and noticed how much longer it took my left hand to perform the tasks required.  I also observed that my right hand would tighten while my left hand worked.  When that happened I tried to consciously relax both my hand and my thought processes.

In Anusara yoga there is a teaching of starting each practice with a beginner’s mind. Working on being patient with myself and having a beginner’s mind, not judging or becoming frustrated was certainly a lesson of this exercise for me.

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