Thinking with your feet

Thinking with your feet

I recently heard a ‘top tip’ from a teacher that struck a chord with me. 'If you are ruminating, then ground down on your feet". This got me thinking... (I am aware of the irony of this sentence).

Apart from the fact it is so ridiculoulsy simple I can't believe I wrote it down, we all know this intuitively. It is literally a no brainer. ;-) It makes perfect sense to 'get out of your head' into the opposite direction.

We've all experienced cogitating about something and then burning dinner, or arriving somewhere with no recollection of the journey or not hearing someone speak to you. It's as though 'being' in your head shuts off awareness of other parts of the body. It seems to me the opposite is true too. If I focus solely on my feet (pun intended), noticing the distribution of weight, the temperature, the texture of the floor, the difference/similarites between the feet/toes etc that is an all consuming task. Suddenly I have completely forgotten the mental swirl that I was deliberating on.

Don't get me wrong: thinking is great, and is a muscle that we should develop just like any other. I am not suggesting that we should fill the mind with vacuous clouds and unicorns. It is about choice, doing things consciously.

I am now choosing to think.

I am now choosing to switch off. (which is impossible because I'm too busy playing with the unicorns in my mind).

It's about release, just like a muscle. Keeping any muscle constantly engaged ultimately fatigues and weakens it. Why would the mind be any different? Of course there are lots of ways we can let go of the thinking mind, such as doing yoga, but this little mind hack is yet another useful little tool to have in our tool box.

So next time you're in a mental whirlwind and need to shift focus, then ground down and be aware of your feet and see what happens, just mind the unicorns.

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