MS, mindfulness and me – 4 activities

Attention, every day

This blog is earlier posted in patientslikeme.com. I visit this site because of communication with many MS-patients like me. Last week I blogged about 7 all day attention activities to introduce mindfulness in every day life. Being mindful helps us, all people to what there is, here and now. It is not necessary to remember, worry, dream or phantasize. As an MS patient mindfulness helps me a lot. I’d love to share it with other MS-patients and I understand that not all of us can walk. So I decided  to develop some all day activities that people  can do sitting and lying. You read 4 of them here:

1. Give attention to your breath. Your breath is always there. It’s like an anchor in your body and in your . Take a minute or more to give attention  to your breath. Feel how it enters your body. Feel the way it goes through your body and feel how it leaves your body again. Feel the eventual pauses between breathing. You don’t have to change your breathing. Just give attention to it.
2. Watch and listen to an organism in you neighborhood, for instance an insect or your own pet. If you listen: what sound does it make? Where in your body do you hear it? What do you hear more? If you watch: how does the organism move? Does it move?
3. Give special attention to your everyday care. For example brushing your teeth. How does the brushing feel in your mouth? Where do you feel it? Do you feel warmth or coldness? How do your teeth feel, before and after tooth brushing?
4. Give special attention to eating. Take a look at what you are going to eat. What does it look like? How does it smell? Put it in your mouth. How does it taste? What is its structure? Is it soft? Is it crunchy? Do you need to bite on it? Is it warm or is it cold?

In all cases attention to what there is, here and now, is the first thing that is important. When I did it some time ago I did a lot of other things like: remembering, worrying, dreaming or fantasizing. I sometimes cleaned the mirror in the bath room while brushing my teeth. Let this be the ‘advantage’ of the disease MS. Some of us can’t even do this anymore, two totally different things at one time. Try these attention activities and have fun!

And that should be told to everyone who reads this.