An experiment in mindfulness

Jon Kabat-Zinn, the originator of MBSR, reminds us to “come to our senses.” There are sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, as well as balance, pressure, temperature, pain, and motion, all involving multiple sensory organs. Just as diving below the ocean’s windswept surface takes divers to calmer depths, so does paying attention to ordinary sensory activities open the gate to tranquility within.

Here’s an experiment. The next time you sit down to a cup of brewed beverage … slow down. Observe details of the colours, textures, floating bits, steam rising, and how the liquid fills the cup. Bring cup to nose, inhale heat, scents, and perfume, and distinguish between them. Sense as liquid meets lips; the wetness, texture, and temperature.

Don’t fill your mouth yet. Concentrate on this alone. Notice the wandering mind; escort it  to the task at hand. Feel the cup’s surface texture, weight, size, and shape. Only now, with awareness awakened, let the liquid enter your mouth. Witness heat, sweetness, acidity, bitterness. Hold the liquid in your mouth as taste buds go to work: savour weight, viscosity, and temperature. Listen to slurping, sucking, and swallowing. Note the flow down the throat, into pharynx and esophagus. Finally the after-effects as sensations linger, diminish, and disappear.

All this occurs in seconds; as does life.