Come Back to Your Senses

Circumstances for learning this attention exercise

• Walking, hiking, running

• Sitting on a park bench

• Looking out a window

  ---

I don’t run on treadmills to become exceptional at it.

Running on a treadmill challenges my heart, lungs, and muscles, which leads to more energy and vitality.

I don’t practice mindfulness daily to get really good at sitting still in quiet rooms.

I do it to inhabit my life more fully, to escalate its inevitable discomforts a little less, and to remind myself of our shared humanity.

Cultivating mindful awareness with your eyes open helps integrate this practice into the nitty-gritty activities of daily life and enhances special moments.

We took a stimulating, restorative trip to New York City last weekend. 

Meditating in my hotel room allowed me to digest the details of the previous day and prepared me to incorporate sensory awareness into each day's adventures.
To do this without drawing attention to myself, I use an open-eyed strategy, which always makes me feel like a secret agent and adds a delightful texture to navigating unfamiliar places. 

It helps that my husband went to school there, so he knows his way around. He's also in on my stealth attention experiments. 

Working with the strategy at The Met Cloisters was straightforward, especially given the space's contemplative design. I spent some rich, quiet time in a Medieval courtyard, taking in the garden, listening to people speak in languages I don't comprehend, observing the light playing on the brick floor, and drinking in the sound of a gurgling fountain.

Do you want to know what was equally satisfying? Applying the same strategy while riding the subway. 

The contrast between my default state and a shift into mindful awareness was striking in both situations. While the surroundings remained the same, my relationship to them changed noticeably every time I made this subtle shift. 

Instead of focusing solely on the contents of my imagination, I allowed more of the environment to enter my awareness. I felt the conductor's announcements vibrate the paper coffee cup in my hand. I heard harsh sounds stop, doors slide open, and busker music spill into the train. 

The difference isn't subtle, but it's somehow the opposite of dramatic. Rather than being trapped in my internal narration, it feels like being alive within a poem.

It's the kind of experiment that makes me want more people to realize that this deeply human shift is possible and not very difficult to experience. The only real obstacle is that it's simpler and easier never to shift our attention in this way. 

This week’s exercise can be practiced in stillness and applied to a surprising range of ordinary activities. I hope you like it and try to sneak it into an ordinary activity. I'd love to hear about your experiments with it in your daily life or while on vacation.