A Simple Practice: Feasting on the Present Day 5

So, friends, let’s make this feasting on the present moment crazy simple.

 

This is how I usually start:

 

Open one sense at a time for about a minute.  Allow your usual pattern of thoughts to fall away and instead use all of your attention to focus on that sense.

 

Start with sight.  Scan your eyes around your environment, stopping to focus your attention on details. You may spend all your time on a detail, focusing on it with your eyes.  It doesn’t have to be a meaningful detail, just a simple one!

 

Then, slowly open up the other senses: a minute for hearing, a minute for touch (What are you feeling underneath you? What are your hands resting on?), a minute for smell, a minute for taste (this usually falls to the wayside unless you are eating :)  Finally, allow yourself to experience all your senses at once.

 

If your mind wanders to something else, don’t criticize yourself, friend, just gently bring your focus back to your senses one at a time.

 

I told you it was simple!

 

Then, have fun with it.

 

Take a walk to your favorite park, sit on a bench and let your eyes feast one sense at a time.  Walk down the blue stairs, sink your feet in the sand and gawk at those gorgeous sunsets over the lake.

Enjoy feasting while taking a bath, bring out the bathsalts, light a candle, luxuriate in your favorite music.

 

Use feasting to enjoy a special moment of the day…(everyone gathered around the dinner table bantering with dad,)

 

Purposefully feast before moments when you would usually make bad choices (Before you reach for that tray of oreos… I’ve decided I need to make feasting on the present a habit when my temper starts to flare.)

 

Feast in order to get still before prayer (He is the great and present I AM!  Being present is NEVER a problem for Him, just for our unfocused minds.)

 

Use this simple practice as a way to lead you out of a period of discontent (fear, anger, greed, etc.) and into thanksgiving.  Let everything you linger on lead you to say thank You to the Giver of all good things!

 

Tip: After I have simply feasted, I find I can make more sense of the tangle of feelings and move toward LIFE  and God’s truth that much faster!

I told you it was simple, dear one!  Leave a comment to  share with all of us how this practice is working for you or email it/facebook it!  Remember, with just 10 minutes a day (five to start…) we can begin to retrain our brain to deal with stress better and open ourselves up to the joy of the day.