Hi and welcome back. I hope this past week you take some time to immerse yourself in at least a couple of your everyday activities, and that you're beginning notice the difference between when you're paying attention and fully present and when you're just floating along on autopilot. Something I found fascinating when I was just starting out with mindfulness was how much time I spend lost in thought without even recognizing it, and what I was missing out on as a result. My first experience with informal practice was to bring all of my senses to the act of brushing my teeth. Even though it was really different than how I normally brush my teeth, I actually found it pretty delightful. It turns out, I like the flavor of mint toothpaste and the feeling of a clean mouth quite a lot. These types of early experiences were really powerful for me because they provided a contrast that allowed me to feel the difference between when I was being mindful and when I was being mindless. They helped me start to understand that the events in my day didn't have to feel like an endless to-do list to be endured, but not enjoyed. To this day, my informal practice reminds me that in a life that goes by faster than a blink of an eye, I have the ability to make every moment count. For me, that's been one of the greatest gifts of this practice. In the second module, we're going to continue to focus on the senses as we do a deeper dive into what it means to fully inhabit the intelligence of our bodies. One of the really interesting things about the practice of mindfulness is what it's able to teach us about the mind-body connection. So hopefully, your first set of activity challenges helped bring to light just how much information is provided to you through your senses. You might have already noticed that there's actually quite a lot going on in your body, much of which is happening without controlled processing on your part. Now, if you came into this class believing that mindfulness was primarily about training the mind, it might surprise you that the majority of the practices associated with it are actually based in our bodies. This is because our bodies are an important frame of reference for establishing awareness. In fact, according to Buddhist tradition, mindfulness of the body is a crucial first step along the path to enlightenment. Whether your goal is enlightenment or not, the simple truth is we can all enhance our well-being by establishing a deep connection to our body. One of the primary reasons for this is because our body and what's being experienced through it is always happening in the present moment. When we take our attention to body sensations, we're naturally drawn to the here and now. In the body, you can't feel what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow. You can only feel what's happening right now. Because of this, the body is a natural anchor for mindfulness. Another good reason for attending to the body is that doing so has a real grounding effect. When we bring awareness to the body, we're bringing ourselves back down to earth. The body has mass, it has weight, and it offers a nice counterbalance to the flighty mind that's continually flitting around, chasing after the next shiny object. Mindful of the body we're recalibrating our center, redirecting our energy, and establishing connection to our whole selves, which gives us a much more solid and balanced space for operating. These are just some of the reasons why our bodies are so important to our mindfulness practice. In the next couple of segments, we'll explore some of the unique facets of the mind-body connection and briefly review some of the health benefits associated with mindfulness. While we won't be able to go all in on this topic, my hope is that you'll finish the module with a newfound respect for your body and a willingness to explore it as a fundamental frame of reference for awareness.
