Sense Awareness Meditation – Washing your hands

Here is another simple awareness exercise working with everyday tasks. Many times, our body is in the present moment doing the task at hand and our mind is a thousand miles away. Learning to see where our mind wanders off to is a helpful skill. It lets us see if a mental activity is needed or not needed? If it is not needed, we can decide to keep it or let it go. This helps us grow our skills to see a more complete picture of what our mind is up to, and to choose to keep our current course or choose a happier path.

Focus on your senses while you wash your hands. Feel the way the water hits your hands as you hold them under the faucet. Feel the temperature of the water on your skin. Smell the soap. Feel the soap. See and hear the water as it moves over your hands and down into the sink.

Focusing on your senses puts you in the present moment. Be aware of your senses without making stories. If thoughts take you away from your focus, just let them go and move your attention back to your senses, and the present moment. If whatever pulled you away is strong, let your attention stay on it until it lessens, and then return your focus back to your senses.

When you hear, just hear. When you see, truly see what is around you. When you touch, feel what is touched. When you smell, truly smell. It sounds so easy, but it is difficult to just be aware of our senses. If we can focus on our senses, we can let go of the busy mind, be in the present moment, and relax.

Try this with other repetitive tasks you do frequently. Give your focus to the task and pay attention to when and where your mind wanders off. Learning to watch your mind and seeing for yourself where your mental activity is taking you is as helpful as keeping your focus on the task. It helps you see what your mind is up too, and shows you the options and choices available for taking a happier path. Once you get a handle on seeing and understanding choices and options, you can transfer this to other parts of your life.