Noticing as a Mindfulness Practice
One way to practice mindfulness and present moment awareness is through noticing. An easy approach to noticing is to pick a color. Take a moment and then let your eyes move throughout your physical space and see how many items you can identify with that color. I like to pick a color that I wouldn’t think possible to find in my environment—like orange. But as I’m doing this practice sitting in my living room, I already spotted one of my teapots on the shelf that is orange, specifically orange carrots and another one that’s terracotta. I also notice an exercise ball that I use for physical therapy—it’s orange too. Now I use that ball every day and totally forgot that it was orange! Then there’s the Halloween themed pencil, icons on my Ipad, the background of my new calendar, the hat on my Snoopy bank, a pottery cup, a few balls of perle cotton. What? How is this even possible? I don’t even like the color orange that much, yet here in my home I’ve spotted numerous examples of it.
Benefits of this practice. So how did this practice benefit me and why would you want to bother doing it? First, it helped ground me (that means bring me fully into my space and my body). By noticing my environment I am fully present in it and therefore fully present with my experience. It helped me focus! something I really need sometimes as I’m often an idea hamster—new ideas for projects role regularly through my brain. As I practice noticing, I’m training my brain to notice one specific thing and teaching it how to focus. It helped me slow down too, even though I was searching, in order to really see the color orange I had to slow down and become more deliberate in my actions. It was kind of fun too—a game and one you can pretty much always win. If you couldn’t find your color in your current environment, you can always move around and see what you can find in another room or part of your house. This is also a fun practice to try outdoors during a mindfulness walk. Orange would be a great color to look for in this northeast Ohio winter.
When to use this practice. This is a great practice to use when you feel stressed, overwhelmed, or distracted and need a moment to regroup. It doesn’t take a lot of time and can be done in most environments. Of course, you don’t want to do it while you’re driving. And you may want to do it when you are alone and without distractions. It will most likely be most beneficial when you can give full attention to it. As you’re practicing, you may also want to really slow down and notice your breath. You don’t need to change your breath, just notice it—are you breathing deeply, holding your breath? And also notice what you are experiencing within your body. Are your muscles tense or do you feel really relaxed? Just notice. And perhaps if you do notice tension, take a moment and release it.
A Creative Practice. A creative practice of noticing color can be really simple. Get a piece of plain drawing paper. Then gather all of your materials in a specific color and create an image celebrating it. Another idea is to do a collage with magazine images around a specific color. If you prefer to do a digital practice, create a pinterest board around your chosen color. Here’s the link to one I did on Noticing Red https://www.pinterest.com/CathyManusGrayCreativeStudio/noticing-red/
Have fun with this, explore with curiosity and notice what shifts for you as you practice.