Welcome to Wonderful.
How are you doing?
This is day 19 of our Mindfulness in Isolation course.
For a while,
We've been asked not to touch our face.
That's hard,
Right?
In 2015,
A study filmed medical students in a lecture and counted how many times they touched their face.
It was 23 times in one hour.
This is important though.
Even if you have coronavirus on your hands,
You won't get infected unless you touch your face.
The trouble is,
When we tell ourselves not to touch our face,
The first thing we want to do is touch our face.
If I ask you not to think about an elephant,
What do you automatically think about?
An elephant,
Of course.
So let's flip the narrative.
And instead of asking ourselves not to touch our face,
Let's ask ourselves to keep our hands below our neck.
To help with this,
Today we'll learn a mindfulness exercise that puts our attention into our hands.
Start by sorting yourself out with a comfortable place to sit.
And then take a nice big breath in.
And when you breathe out,
Let go of tension in your body.
Now make your hands into two fists and squeeze them tight.
Hold on,
And then release.
Now interlock your fingers and push your palms away from you to stretch the fingers and the wrists.
Take a deep breath.
Nice.
And then just rest your hands in your lap,
Palms down.
Take a minute to check out your hands.
They're quite remarkable constructions.
27 bones connected by muscles and tendons.
Think of all the things these hands do for you each day.
It's nice to take a moment to be grateful that we have these incredible tools.
Okay,
Now with your eyes,
We're going to trace the outside of both hands,
Starting with the left wrist below the little finger.
Use your mind and your eyes to start drawing a line up and around the little finger,
Down towards the palm,
And then back up the ring finger and down.
Keep going slowly up the middle finger and the index finger and thumb down to the wrist.
And then the right hand,
Starting with the wrist below your thumb.
Trace the outline with your eyes,
Up the thumb and down.
Keep going.
Okay,
Now close your eyes.
Here's a funny question to ask yourself as you sit here with your eyes closed.
How do I know my hands exist?
This question should prompt you to really tune into your hands with your mind.
So let's stay with that.
Focus in on the contact between your hands and your thighs.
Narrow in on the sensation of that contact.
Your sense of touch.
And now gently open your eyes.
Good luck keeping those hands below the neck today.
You're already winning because we touch our face more when we're stressed or anxious.
And by doing this practice today,
You've taken steps to reduce your anxiety.
One day at a time,
Eh?
Thanks for being here.
