60-Second Awareness Exercises

60-Second Awareness Exercise - Awareness to Taste

3/8/2015

Sense-Sational Tastebuds

Imagine what it would be like to never have the sensation of taste. Hard to do, right?

Doesn’t it make you raise an eyebrow at how complex you are, yet you function like a well-orchestrated symphony with all your senses playing their part.

You came into the world experiencing the sense of taste, and everything you taste is something you will remember.

By nature, your body will naturally gravitate towards healthy foods for proper nutrition. You are amazing like that.

When grabbing a handful of something to push in your face as you walk out the door, at least eat slowly. Savor the fast food you eat on the run.

By really honing in on all of the flavors you eat, you may find that some snacks lack flavor and others have too much salt or sugar.

Taste every spicy and robust combination, every acrid taste, sour and sweet. When they come across your 10,000 taste buds in the mouth, you have been created to recognize them and identify their flavors.

You can distinguish decadent tastes from yucky tastes even by their aroma.

Become more aware of the textures and tastes of the foods that you choose to nourish your body.

Eat, drink, and be merry!   But, savor every sip and every swallow!

Here's your exercise: (60 second intervals) Focus your attention on the things you eat and pass through your lips.

Taste things with intent to identify their distinct flavors and textures. Relish all the flavors and pinpoint them.

Pretend you are a food critic or a wine taster!

Bring your focus to all the typical things you consume in a day, and eat slowly. Savor every moment with everything you eat as though it's your favorite meal, or chocolate cake, or a banana, a peach, you name it.

Pay attention for 60 seconds!

You may find you don't really even enjoy everything you eat!

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60-Second Awareness Exercises - Awareness to Touch

3/8/2015

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Textures and Patterns In Life

Touch is a primitive sensory form that has been in our make-up for over 600 million years! It is woven into the very texture and patterns of life.

Every time you have a physical sensation through touch, you also immediately have an emotional and spiritual interaction of equal energetic value.

The top middle area of your brain gets more direct information through the sense of touch than any other area of the brain.

Your hands and face make up 90% of the "hot spots" that are sensitive and packed full of information.

You respond to light touch, and the palm of your hand can detect weight at only a fraction of a gram.

Touch receptors lie at varying levels under your skin and can detect vibration.

Free nerve endings do most of the work of sensing things you touch.

Have you ever felt the pulsating feeling after burning your fingers on the oven, or having frozen fingers from the cold?

Can you remember being sunburned and sitting down on any fabric?

Maybe you have heard the expression, "It struck a nerve in me!" "It felt as light as a feather!" "It tickled me!"

Everything you brush up against with light, medium, or deep pressure does exactly that - strikes a nerve and sends a message to your brain at 124 mph to interpret and determine how it feels!

Awareness discerns whether you find wool sweaters itchy and irritating, or enjoy their warmth, organic nature, and varying weight. Or, why leather furniture may appeal to you, or be too cold. And, polar fleece feels so soft and soothing against your legs as a blanket, without being too "heavy."

The term "feel the hand" of a fabric is spot on, because it is the touch receptors in your hands that allow brain to determine immediately if it is too nubby, too thin, too slick, too itchy, too flat, and make a decision about whether you like it or not.

Your sense of touch and the communication with the brain is responsible to a large degree for the decisions you make and the things you choose to wear, sleep on, and sit upon based on how they make you feel.

Close your eyes and begin to feel the nature of all things: Wood grain, feathers, grass, granite countertops, woven textiles, cotton fabric, bed sheets, animal fur and determine how they feel to you without the advantage of the sense of sight.

Brings on a new sense of "awareness!"

What gave you goosebumps today?

Here's your exercise: (60 second intervals) Focus your attention on something you pick up and handle, and even what touches you.

Have the sensitivity that you would have with that object as though it was your favorite blanket or clothing against your skin, or an embrace from your child or loved one.

Silky smooth or rough! Start right where you are now!

When you cannot see something, you have to describe it by feel, temperature, texture.

Close your eyes and just really feel every part of it. Hone in on the object you are touching.

Touch the back of your hand as lightly as you can, and note where it tickles!

Goosebumps are a good sign your soul likes the way things feel.

Pay attention for 60 seconds!

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60-Second Awareness Exercise - Awareness To Seeing

3/7/2015

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EYES WIDE OPEN WITH CHILDLIKE WONDER

Energy and Expression 60-Second Awareness Exercise: Awareness To Seeing

Your sense of sight is the most complex sense you have, and can superficially determine most of your decisions.

I think most people see their world with Imperfect Eyesight. I mean, everyone see things at a glance and make decisions - instantly.

You process what you see and create opinions about what you like and dislike, about people, places, things, and what you are capable or afraid of doing.

I think people perceive what they see and say, "Oh, I love that!" Really, what is happening is in a split second you are determining if what you see registers from upside-down to right-side up and feels good to you!

Awareness is the key.

Your Sixth Sense knows in a split-second what feels good to you!

Slow down and be aware of the way things look to you, and more importantly assess how those images make you feel.

What you think you see is only a 1-dimensional viewpoint.

What you really are capable of seeing and feeling is 3-dimension energy at all times - you read into every visual image a physical, emotional, and spiritual charge. Yep, every time! Are you aware of that?!

Things either feel good to you when you see them, or they don't!

Sense of sight is the most used gift we were given. Slow down and "tune in" to the Beauty within the Beauty. It's everywhere.

Be sure to notice it! It's okay if you have to slip a pair of reading glasses on your nose to do it.

You will know what is uniquely beautiful to you ~ it is a mirror of your own reflection and the same vibration in you.

What did you see with new eyes today?

Here’s your exercise: (60 second intervals) Focus your attention to the things you see. It's a gift we can all hone in on, whether our vision is perfect or not.

Bring the same attention to everything you see as you would the most beautiful flower or a beautiful sunrise with awe and reverence.

Really appreciate the things you see.

Stop seeing fuzzy, and choose to see brilliant clarity!

When you "focus your camera lens" on the details that surround you, you may fall in love with what you see and the energy you feel.

Pay attention for 60 seconds!

And then,

Close Your Eyes for 60 seconds: What do you see with your inner eyes? How do those images make you feel?

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60-Second Awareness Exercise - Awareness to Smell

3/7/2015

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SCENT WITH EVERY BREATH

Are you aware that every breath you draw in has a scent attached to it?

Your nose knows.

Your nose and mouth are connected. The 10,000 taste buds in your mouth cannot serve their purpose without your sense of smell. Ever had a cold and lost your sense of taste because your nose was stuffy?

Are you aware that smelling fresh coffee grounds clears the nose immediately to receive a new scent?

You are always experiencing the present of presence with every breath, whether you are paying attention or not.

Our All of nature gives off aroma and scents, from composting mulch, fresh cut grass, to a fresh summer rain. You can even smell the scent of earthworms and dirt. Fragrance of heady lilacs and roses make you relax.

Just as the woodlands, the ocean, the flowers in your garden all have their own smells, so too do they waft together and create magic in the air and an energy to your senses.

When smelling pleasing aromas, this is usually followed by a smile and relaxation in your shoulders.

When you cook in the kitchen, you may use a myriad of spices together and the blend of unique and different scents waft across the air particles and fill up the entire room.

Scientifically, your nose has an olfactory bulb up inside that registers the particles in the air that you breathe and sends a message to the brain so fast as you detect scents, both pleasant an unpleasant. Like the difference between aromatherapy with lavender and Old Yankee Candles burning, and a dirty cat box or smelly socks!

I love the scent of Pumpkin Spice candles burning, lavender bed sheet sprays, chocolate chip cookies baking, apple pie fresh from the oven, freshly brewed coffee, and lemon-ginger tea. Can you smell these too?

Aromatherapy evokes the sense of smell using aromatic oils to induce relaxation and improved feeling of well being. Try a few drops of lavender oil in a steaming hot Epsom salt bath. Or, light your favorite candle burning to keep you present and feeling great. Take a big Inhale! Very soothing!

You might just want to bring some great-smelling summer flowers inside to waft their perfume in the air.

Hone in on the particles in the air and you may find that you have missed some smelly socks pushed under the couch.

And, if you have a cat, I am sure you will pick up pretty quickly if you need to change the litterbox!

Just how keen is your sense of smell? Do you breathe shallow or deeply through your nasal passages? Are you sensitive to smells?

Sniff away and become more aware to the everyday scents you encounter.

When you know the scents you enjoy, surround yourself with them. When you find the offensive odors, get rid of them!

What scent makes you say, Ahhhh!

Your exercise: (60 second intervals) Focus your attention on the smells in your environment. By breathing deeply in and slowly out you will pick up on more of the particles that carry scent in the air. Bring the same awareness to the smells in your usual day as you would to your favorite fragrance, be it cologne, hand lotion, vase of flowers, or something cooking or baking.

Hone in on the aromas and just really distinguish the scents ~ pleasant and not so pleasant!

Pay attention for 60 seconds!

"Smells are surer than sounds and sights to make heartstrings crack" ~ Rudyard Kipling

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60-Second Awareness Exercise - Awareness to Hearing

3/7/2015

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PATTERNS IN VIBRATION

There are sounds that hold energy vibrations you love listening to. Like baby giggling, deep belly laughter, gentle wind chimes, favorite music and rhythmic beats.

Now ask yourself about the sounds that you tolerate in the background that are grating.

How about that TV blaring? How about constant talk news radio? How about that leaf blower? Or the commercial lawn crew who shows up on the most glorious day to cut your neighbor's lawn when you are trying to hear the birds chirp and hear the leaves rustle?

Pleasing sounds can bring relaxation and have a mesmerizing quality to them.

Some background sounds you tolerate and are used to hearing actually irritate and affect your mood! You know, like nails on a chalkboard!

Start to tune in to what you've been tuning out, and you may realize there are sounds you surround yourself with routinely that you would rather do without!

It's great to go in your backyard, or somewhere in nature, where you can hear rhythm of the locusts, birds singing, leaves rustling, animals scampering, and children playing.

Listen for 60 seconds.

Practice listening at the grocery store. Do it in traffic. Do it while you walk the dog!

Just take 60 seconds and ultra-tune your sense of hearing and tap into vibrations of energy.

What sounds surround you now?

Here's the exercise: (60 second intervals) Focus your attention to the sounds that you are surrounded by. Hone in on a sound and just really hear every part of it.

Pleasant and grating! Start right where you are now!

Pay attention for 60 seconds!

And then,

Gift Yourself 60 Seconds Of Silence: Just listen inward. Pay attention to how you feel. Are you uncomfortable or antsy sitting still in silence? That’s okay if you are.

Recite this mantra, “I am breathing in. I am breathing out” and that will help focus your mind to eliminate all other thoughts. Without a racing mind, you can focus only on the sense of sound. If you sit in silence, you may even hear your ears ring!

Become comfortable in silence so you can hear your soul speaking in soft and clear whispers about a new idea, creative desire, and the way you feel.

Shhh, listen!

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60-Second Awareness Exercise - Mindfulness In Everyday Living

3/7/2015

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One of the great mindfulness teachers is Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, who shares his concepts on enjoyment, enlightenment and freedom of the mind in every moment.

“Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Here are 5 simple exercises he prescribes for mindfulness in everyday living.

Practice the exercises together and become a Master of Energy & Expression.

...float like a cloud, flow like water

Mindful Breathing

Life begins and ends with the most essential life essence - breath.

Right now, focus on your breathing.

Pay attention to each in-breath and each out-breath. Allow each rise and fall of your chest to be experienced fully.

Breathe in the gift of breath with joy, and breathe out in gratitude for being alive.

"You are breathing in, and while breathing in, you know that you are alive.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Concentration

Now go deeply within the process of breathing, following each inhalation and exhalation fully until no other thoughts are present.

When thoughts do arise, that's okay. Allow them to rise and drift away.

Repeat silently to yourself, I am breathing in, I am breathing out."

From the beginning of your in-breath to the end of your out-breath, keep your mind present. You will be improving the quality of your concentration with this effortless exchange of life force energy, and mindfulness will more easily become uninterrupted.

“Breathing in, there is only the present moment. Breathing out, it is a wonderful moment.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh“

Awareness of the Body

Now shift awareness from the breath in the nose and the chest and recognize your entire body making that breath.

Be aware of the life force energy coursing throughout your blood stream, muscles, bones, and out through your toes and fingertips.

The graceful shift of awareness transcends air into powerful life-giving energy for your entire body.

Simply repeat to yourself, "I am aware of my mind. I am aware of my body. My mind and my body are becoming one entity with every breath."

You are allowing your entire being to be present in the here and now of every breath.

A vital force, now connected and present to experience the wonderful life that is available within you and all around you.

“If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Releasing Tension

The main principle in the Energy Arts is to allow, receive, and release energy. It is paramount to scan the body and address feelings of anxious tension.

With mindful intention, pay attention to your entire well being including your body. The aches and pains that you feel are energy that is asking to be released.

The goal in every breath is to renew vital life force and release stuck energy that no longer serves you.

There are many ways to quickly let go and go with the flow.

Sometimes a simple exhale will release a lifetime of tension and restore immediate bliss.

Simple stretching throughout your day, walking, running, meditative yoga, and Chinese Traditional Exercises such as Tai Chi and Qigong address the energy meridians in your body and allow for a clean exchange of energy to happen.

Go within and be mindful throughout your day. Assess and assist your body systems quickly. Take a break when necessary to restore balance and harmony within.

“When you are truly aware of your body, you notice there is some tension and pain in your body, some stress. The tension and pain have been accumulating for a long time and our bodies suffer, but our mind is not there to help release it.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Walking Meditation

“When we walk like we are rushing, we print anxiety and sorrow on the earth. We have to walk in a way that we only print peace and serenity on the earth.

Be aware of the contact between your feet and the earth. Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Your body moves with enthusiasm when life force energy is alive and present in very moment of now.

Mindful walking initiates bringing home your mind, body, and Spirit.

To be One with yourself.

With every mindful step, you can see and smell and feel life happening all around you.

You can think, feel, and be grateful in every moment.

To be One with the World.

When you walk this way, every step can replenish joy and harmony within through the soles of your feet.

Pay attention to your every step. Walking will take you where you desire to go - emotionally and physically - with an open heart you will find your way.

"Smile, and breathe slowly." ~ Thich Nhat Hahn

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60-Second Awareness Exercise - Remember, Be Here Now

3/6/2015

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All of us get caught up in daily life without remembering that it is our choice to really live. To feel every moment of now and choose the next better thought, next better feeling, and next new experience.

The practice of mindfulness and allowing energy to flow freely in and out is paramount to living in balance and harmony.

Be mindful to give up control and choose to allow joy, peace, balance, and harmony in every 60 seconds and every moment of now.

Here is a simple 60-second awareness exercise that inspires me from Ram Dass in his book, Remember, Be Here Now. It is a spiritual practice to enrich everyday life:

Ask yourself: Where am I?
Answer: Here.

Ask yourself: What time is it?
Answer: Now.

"I am here, now." Totally present and aware in this moment of now.

Say it until you can feel it.

Breathe into it.

Again, and again, and again.

This is a practice you can enter into with mindfulness to release tension and remember your purpose.

It may take practice, practice, practice, though the rewards are boundless.

Another wonderful reminder from a dear friend to experience less chaos and more blessings:

"If you want to know where you are, look down at your feet. You are where your boots are standing."

To Be. Here. Now.

In this exact Moment of Now.

It is always enough.

This is the exact moment where joy is found. This is the exact moment enlightenment springs forward. This is the exact moment when you attain balance and harmony. This is the exact moment chaos falls away.

Freedom.

There is no past...
There is no future...
There is only Now.

Life is always illuminated in every moment.

Keep reflecting.

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Marcia Ann

I am the Master of Energy & Expression sharing Ancient Wisdom with a Modern Twist for Balanced Living

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60-Second Awareness Exercise - Awareness to Taste

60-Second Awareness Exercises - Awareness to Touch

60-Second Awareness Exercise - Awareness To Seeing

60-Second Awareness Exercise - Awareness to Smell

60-Second Awareness Exercise - Awareness to Hearing

60-Second Awareness Exercise - Mindfulness In Everyday Living

60-Second Awareness Exercise - Remember, Be Here Now

Marcia Ann

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60-Second Awareness Exercise - Awareness to Taste

60-Second Awareness Exercises - Awareness to Touch

60-Second Awareness Exercise - Awareness To Seeing

60-Second Awareness Exercise - Awareness to Smell

60-Second Awareness Exercise - Awareness to Hearing

60-Second Awareness Exercise - Mindfulness In Everyday Living

60-Second Awareness Exercise - Remember, Be Here Now

Marcia Ann

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