Thumbs Up for Beginner's Mind
Hey, there.
What’s going on with your thumbs right now? Yes, your thumbs.
Look at them. Notice any little thing about them you haven’t thought about in a while? Wrinkles? Dirt? Freckles?
Close your eyes for a moment and just feel what your thumbs feel like. Just for a second.
If you’ve made it this far, firstly, thanks for participating :)
Secondly, you just participated in a mindful moment with me.
Mindfulness is an age-old practice that involves paying attention to the present moment, and it really can be just that easy to do.
Okay, but why?
Fair question. Mindfulness is all over the place in the U.S. right now. And with homeroom teachers… and bosses… and podcast hosts telling us to “just be mindful”…well, there’s a reason I felt I had to trick you into doing it with that thumb exercise.
If I hadn’t, you may have done the thumb exercise and thought…”Okay, am I supposed to feel different?”
But were you supposed to feel different? Nope. You’re just meant to feel (insert your mind exploding here) AND notice the feeling. Perhaps even try again sometime. And when you try it again, notice that feeling, too.
Let me explain it another way. The first time you ride a skateboard, you may feel frustrated, uncoordinated, and embarrassed. But the 50th time, you might feel pretty cool. Similarly, as you “thumb” your way through mindful moments, you may find that mindfulness is a state that comes more easily to you.
Mindfulness can feel like a superpower. It can reduce your stress and improve your connections with other people! Once you get the hang of this, you can recognize when you’re thinking about the embarrassing thing that happened last week or the scary thing that’s coming up tomorrow. And after you realize you’re stuck in your head, what do you do? You return to the right now, of course. As often as you are able to - that’s the practice of mindfulness.
What do I do now?
You can start small. Bring that thumb-gazing focus to some other activity. Pick something you do all the time, and pretend you’ve never done it before. In mindfulness practice, this is called “Beginner’s Mindset.”
Here are some examples:
Brushing your teeth. Notice your limbs moving automatically. The sensation of the minty cold. The sound of the brush on your teeth. The frothy saliva accumulating, and the urge to spit (sorry!)
Taking a walk. Pretend you’re on vacation. Maybe even on another planet. You’ve never been there before, so you have to pay extra attention! What’s the grass like here? The breeze? The humidity? How do the people dress? What kinds of birds and bugs have we got here?
Petting your pet. I had to include this. Sometimes my cats yell at me and do annoying stuff. And then I feel annoyed. At other times, I make the choice to fully be with them. With your pet, try crouching or lying down at their level. Look for characteristics of your pet you hadn’t noticed before; a few strands of different colored fur, a tooth that looks a little funny. Are they being cute? What does it feel like when you’re swept up in their cuteness? Maybe a warmth in your chest, an urge to pet them more, or maybe you find yourself smiling without meaning to?
If you practice mindfulness, you can transform any boring activity into an opportunity to learn more about yourself and the world around you. I, for example, learned that I may benefit from some work on my thumb cuticles. Try it out! There will always be more to learn.
Written by: Graham McNamee, AM, LCSW, CADC
Contact MIND CHICAGO or Graham at hello@mindchicago.com
