Throughout each day this influences your thinking, sways your judgment, affects your mood, and impacts your relationships.
It can determine whether you feel open, warm and compassionate, or cold and judgmental.
It’s happening right now. Do you know what it is?
As you read this, take a moment to notice what you’re sitting on. Is it a cozy couch, a cushion on the floor, or a hard chair? Now breathe and notice how you feel.
Are you holding anything? A warm mug of tea or a hard plastic phone? Bring your attention to your hands. Take a few breaths and notice how you feel.
Now do you know what’s affecting you? Yep – it’s touch.
Every inch of your beautiful body is wrapped in glorious skin. It’s sensitive and strong, and wonderfully responsive. Full of sensory receptors, it’s registering textures and temperatures all the time. Mostly you’re unaware of what’s touching you, but it’s affecting you all the same.
If you want to boost your mood, shift your thinking, or feel more connected, notice what you’re touching first.
Want more trust, compassion and connection in your relationships? It can help to sit in a cozy chair and hold a warm mug of tea or coffee when you connect. The same part of your brain that registers physical temperature also registers interpersonal warmth, so as crazy as it may sound, holding something warm will make you feel warmer towards others.
Find yourself judging your partner and being too rigid in your negotiations? Move out of that hard chair. Notice if anything touching you feels stiff, rough or scratchy. Touching coarse or rigid materials will tilt your judgment and emotions towards those same qualities. Touch something more comfortable and you’ll be kinder. The shift can be subtle, but profound.
Here’s an added benefit of noticing what’s touching you – you’ll become present. And that’s the simplest way to access your true nature, which is peaceful, loving and accepting. Living from that state will bring you joy.
The most direct path to presence is through your body. Just by bringing your attention to what you’re touching, and noticing how it feels, you’ll drop out of thinking, judging and fearing. You’ll be right where you are in this moment. Even a few seconds free of thinking can bring you peace.
Noticing what’s touching you can become a meditation you do throughout the day. You’ll discover often that you’re uncomfortable, but you hadn’t noticed until you paid attention. Your clothes are scratchy, your shoes pinch your feet, your chair is hard and your butt hurts. Being uncomfortable sucks. That would make anyone cranky.
Every time you notice what you’re touching and how it feels, make a choice. Is this how you want to feel? Do you want to shift to feel better? It all starts with awareness.
If you do that throughout the day, you’ll lift your moods, thoughts, and relationships without working too hard.
Here’s a Touch Challenge for this next week.
- Staring tomorrow: Notice what’s touching you, three times every day.
- Pick something to remind you. Set three alarms on your phone. Or decide to do it during each meal. Etc.
- Don’t rely on your memory. I promise you it won’t happen. You need to decide on a trigger before you begin.
- When it’s time to notice what’s touching you, just breathe, bring your attention to what’s touching you, and notice how you feel.
- Three times a day you’ll become present through your body.
I’d love to hear what you discover. You can comment below.
For more simple ways to access your true nature, and life a life you’ll love, check out my new e-book, The Power of Pleasure