Mindful Walking, Sitting and Activity - 17 Apr 2021

Mindful Walking, Sitting and Activity - 17 Apr 2021

Mindful Walking, Sitting and Activity - 17 Apr 2021

Number of replies: 7

Please write the observations for the following:

Mindful Walking

  • What was your focus (eg. Sole of the foot, feet touching the ground, movement of the legs etc )
  • What did you observe (eg. Floor felt cold , ground was rough, feeling of weight transfer etc )

Mindful Sitting

  • What was your focus (eg. Breathing, Rising and falling of the chest, Sitting posture etc )
  • What did you observe (eg. Cold Breath going in, Warm breath coming out etc )

Mindful Activity - "Reduce - Reuse - Recycle - Dispose of waste mindfully"

This week's activity is to mindfully dispose, reuse or recycle waste/garbage. Take one item at a time; it could be your leftover food, empty milk cartons, plastic wrappers or emptying out the vacuum cleaner. Try and observe and notice the following:  the quantity/size of waste, smell, look, colour and any sensations. Observe how the waste is different from the original product. Mindfully dispose of the waste whether it is to the garbage bin, recycle bin or if you can reuse it for another purpose such as art and craft. Try and observe whether it was different when you did the activity mindfully - for example did you put everything in the bin, did anything spill out, did you wash or clean the items before recycling to reduce contamination. Write about your experience on Moodle using the above points as guidance.

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Re: Mindful Walking, Sitting and Activity - 17 Apr 2021

by Chamila Jayawardhana -
Jithnuka

Mindful Activity

I mindfully disposed of my food. I had some rice with chicken curry. I started off by removing some flavouring foods, such as curry leaves, after that I got rid of the leftover bones from the chicken pieces, finally I removed the last few bits of rice that were leftover. By doing it mindfully I was able to better understand what goes into my food that I don't eat and what is leftover, like how some small bits of chicken might still be attached to the bones. I would not be able to tell this if I had just dumped it all into the bin as I normally do.
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Re: Mindful Walking, Sitting and Activity - 17 Apr 2021

by Chamila Jayawardhana -
Thenuki

Today I did some mindful origami but I did it not with normal origami paper but with paper scraps. Normally origami paper comes in fixed square sized sheets but sometimes I cut them to make different shapes. The excess paper that I cut off I usually would throw in the recycling bin but for a while I collected the scraps. Today I used those scraps to make some other things like origami and little boxes. I noticed that there were some common shapes like rectangles in this pile of scraps from cutting regular shapes but I also could see irregular shapes from cutting circles and hearts from the paper. The edges of the scrap pieces were also different because sometimes I rip the paper and sometimes I cut it. When you rip paper there is not a clean edge. When I was making little boxes with the paper, again I had to cut the scraps to the appropriate size. I then take these scraps again and collect them so the paper is being reused many times. I also used scrap cardboard for the boxes which I noticed had print on one side. I can reuse the scraps over and over which is good for the environment.

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Re: Mindful Walking, Sitting and Activity - 17 Apr 2021

by Chamila Jayawardhana -
Dinugi

Mindful recycling


Yesterday I reused scrap play dough and leaves that had fallen on the ground to make a play dough garden. I used leaves that were swept of the ground and mini branches that had fallen off their plants. When I picked up the leaves I felt the little stem on the end of the leaf that I was holding on to. I also felt the shape of the leaf and it’s texture which was cold and smooth I felt mostly the same with the mini branches.Some sensations that I felt and saw were that the leaf was gently moving in the breeze and the other sensation that I felt were the leaves rustling around. When I was moulding the play dough with my hand I felt it’s squishiness and it’s soft, warm texture and I could see it’s colour. Some sensations I felt with the play dough was when I scraped the play dough out of the tub I felt it going in between my fingers and in my nails I could also smell the smell of all the play dough in my hands even though it wasn’t very nice.
In reply to First post

Re: Mindful Walking, Sitting and Activity - 17 Apr 2021

by Chamila Jayawardhana -

Seyara


Reflection writing activity "Reduce - Reuse - Recycle - Dispose of waste mindfully"

I started the activity by observing the pile of rubbish in front of me. There were orange peels, plastic bottles, wrappers, card board boxes, paper, burnt matchsticks, candles and used tissues. As I separated each item, I noticed the different textures of the rubbish - the orange peel was rough, the paper was smooth, the tissues were moist and the soft plastic wrappers felt crinkly. It also felt lighter.

As I noticed the unpleasant smell my mind had negative feelings like disgust and yuckiness. However I was aware of my thoughts and brought it back to the task at hand without adding positive or negative value to it.

Normally when I put rubbish in the bin I dispose of it as it is, But when doing it mindfully I took precautions such as washing the plastic bottles and removing the lid and folding boxes to make them flat. As I was putting some bottles in the bin the wind blew a bottle out of my hand. As I was mindful, I noticed that an angry feeling was starting to rise in me because I had an expectation that when I'm doing mindfulness I can't make mistakes and drop anything or I’m being unmindful. However I then realized this is again mind made judgments and I proceeded to bring my mind back to sorting and getting rid of the rubbish. Once I finished, the bins looked neater and some items (paper and cardboard packaging) would have ended up in garbage but because i was doing it mindfully I was able to save it to reuse.

Overall I felt relaxed and at ease as i did the task neutrally without adding any emotional value to it.




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Re: Mindful Walking, Sitting and Activity - 17 Apr 2021

by Medhavi De Alwis -
Mindful Walking
I first selected a path of around 10-15 metres. I started walking at a normal pace but later observed that later throughout the practice the length and pace of my steps reduced drastically compared to the beginning. I also observed within the middle of practice a slight pain on the back of my right ankle but instead of ignoring it, I observed it. I observed that when I pressed my right heel on the ground this sensation would become prominent but as time passed on it ceased to exist. I also noticed that when I walked that when I lifted my toes the heel of my other foot would be firmly placed in position, allowing for the weight to be easily shifted to the other foot. There was a cyclic pattern when I walked forwards but when I reached the end and turned around there was a breaking of this pattern as there was a different type of movement. I could also feel how the pressure was mainly placed on my heel and toes when walking with practically no weight placed on the arch of my foot. I was able to maintain mindfulness on the sole of my foot for around 25 steps.

Mindful sitting
In sitting mindfulness, I first sat in a comfortable posture. When breathing I could feel that the breaths I would inhale were more prolonged and easier to sense in comparison to the breaths I exhaled, which were shallow and warmer. I felt that my breaths at the beginning of the practice were slightly exaggerated but gradually became more subtle over time. I also gathered that the in-breaths were more noticeable from my right nostril rather than my left nostril which was not as detectable. Between the in-breaths and out-breaths, there was a slight pause where nothing occurred, which became more evident to me. Around 10 mins in, I got bored and thoughts started taking over but I just observed those thoughts and brought my mind back to myself when I got tired of listening to those thoughts. I could also feel that later on the sensation of my stomach rising and falling became more noticeable. I was able to maintain mindfulness on my breathing for around 20 breaths.
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Re: Mindful Walking, Sitting and Activity - 17 Apr 2021

by Senuli De Alwis -
Mindful walking
I first selected a path of around 10 metres. I started by walking at a regular pace allowing myself to gradually slow down later. I positioned my sight to whereabouts I thought two metres would be. As I walked I found it hard as I couldn’t move my sight from two metre mark ahead of me while I was moving and ended up looking at the same place until I ended up there. I could feel my heel landing first as my toes followed. This pattern did not stop until my time was up. The ground beneath me had started to warm up as I adapted to my walking pace. Soon I headed to do sitting

Mindful sitting

I carefully positioned myself in a comfortable position as I closed my eyes ready to start. I focused on the point where I could feel the air touch as I inhaled and exhaled. Sounds around me distracted me from my sitting as they were too loud for me to handle. I persistently stopped myself from getting distracted and blocked out the sounds helping me to focus. I noticed that my breath was getting warmer as I exhaled and as I inhaled it would be colder. I continued this process until it was the end of my sitting session.
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Re: Mindful Walking, Sitting and Activity - 17 Apr 2021

by Chamila Jayawardhana -
Nethula

First when I held the kitchen compost bin I felt the weight of it. I also felt the pattern of the handle of the compost bin.When i was focusing on this i smelt all the rotten fruit and vegetable peels.At the same time i could also feel parts of my foot touched the ground like my heel,ball,toes and the inside edge.When i got to the bigger compost bin,i noticed that it was more smellier than the kitchen compost bin.The big compost bin had worms and different creatures in it but the small one didn’t. Then when I was emptying the kitchen compost bin,the weight I felt on my hand started to get lighter and lighter as it released the peels into the larger bin .When I held the empty compost bin my hand felt more relaxed.I also noticed that when i did it mindfully i could observe the weight, smell and the creatures in it. But when I wasn’t mindful I would just dump in it and not observe anything at all.

Swaminwahanse, could you please give me your valuable advice.

Theruwan Saranai Swaminwahanse