Mindfulness Games!

thumbnail
cian, modified 8 Years ago at 10/25/15 8:20 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 10/25/15 8:20 AM

Mindfulness Games!

Posts: 62 Join Date: 5/22/15 Recent Posts
When I did Goenke's 10 day course a year ago, he said "feel the sensations in EVERY part of the body"

I took that literally and after the course finished I excitedly asked the others stuff like "so could you feel each individual tooth!!?"
and was quite disappointed that I seemed to be the only one who had taken it as a fun challenging game, and I missed my circus/juggler peeps,who are so into pushing the possibilities of any skill. Nobody I spoke to even considered the possibility of exploring inside their mouth!
OK, fair enough, you may say they were more concerned with more serious matters such as: dealing with their shit / releasing samskaras / getting enlightened / etc, 
but I reckon we can have fun at the same time   !   whatchathink?

So let's go. game#1 
where in your body can you feel? tell us about it. set a challenge. encourage your dharma peeps with some doesn't-sound-at-all-'spiritual'-to-me healthy competitiveness
i can feel:
each individual tooth
quite far down the throat & up the ass
underneath all my fingernails. toenails seem possible too, but I find it tricky to distinguish them from one another.
heartbeat, pulse in different areas - this changes a lot from day to day / hour to hour
vibrations along all parts of the spine. i sometimes try to but can't reliably distinguish individual vertebrae.
inside a testicle.  took about 20minutes of focus to just feel one of them, then another 20minutes or so to feel inside it. only did this once.

can anyone feel internal organs?  i get very confused about what i feel here. i seem to feel my stomach when i'm hungry, but that's about it.

game#2
how many areas can you focus on at once?
focus on one point of the body. stay with that and add another. then another. then another...  3 feels comfy enough for me. 4 is taxing.

might be fun to play around with moving one or more of those areas.  for example, you might start at the top of the head and the toes at the same time, move one down and the other up, let them pass each other by in the middle.  Or let two or more moving points freefloat through the body.
this is like a still version of some dance/movement exercises i do.  



Okay, that's all from me for now.  Feels like there's lots of room for creative exploration of possibilities here.  I just happened to choose body sensation games, but don't feel restricted to that, nor anything else.  Wanna play?  
thumbnail
Dream Walker, modified 8 Years ago at 10/25/15 6:49 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 10/25/15 6:49 PM

RE: Mindfulness Games!

Posts: 1657 Join Date: 1/18/12 Recent Posts
cian:
When I did Goenke's 10 day course a year ago, he said "feel the sensations in EVERY part of the body"

 I just happened to choose body sensation games, but don't feel restricted to that, nor anything else.  Wanna play?  
On the Goenka retreat I had less luck in focusing on the physical outside sensations of the body and ended up using the chakra locations....I would start the elevator of awareness and it would naturally move down thru the body and Kinda 'snap' into the chakra locations with more clarity. I also would move my attention thru the body linearly and then try moving the line. That was fun.
So there are a couple things to play with.
Wherever you put your attention while concentrated seems to amplify the 'sensations' there.
~D
thumbnail
Noah, modified 8 Years ago at 10/26/15 12:48 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 10/26/15 12:48 AM

RE: Mindfulness Games!

Posts: 1467 Join Date: 7/6/13 Recent Posts
I took that literally and after the course finished I excitedly asked the others stuff like "so could you feel each individual tooth!!?"
and was quite disappointed that I seemed to be the only one who had taken it as a fun challenging game, and I missed my circus/juggler peeps,who are so into pushing the possibilities of any skill. Nobody I spoke to even considered the possibility of exploring inside their mouth!
OK, fair enough, you may say they were more concerned with more serious matters such as: dealing with their shit / releasing samskaras / getting enlightened / etc, 
but I reckon we can have fun at the same time   !   whatchathink?


I love it!  The "pushing the possibilities of any skill" mindset has been my m/o for life ever since really working hard at vipassana.  Actualist practice had the side effect of amplifying that approach for me.  Hehe, just remember, fuck everyone else, its up to you to change yourself and the world with crazy amounts of intelligent effort.
thumbnail
bernd the broter, modified 8 Years ago at 10/26/15 4:17 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 10/26/15 4:17 AM

RE: Mindfulness Games!

Posts: 376 Join Date: 6/13/12 Recent Posts
cian:
When I did Goenke's 10 day course a year ago, he said "feel the sensations in EVERY part of the body"

I took that literally [...]
I did one Goenka course. I wondered about where to feel the sensations, and the AT told me to keep it on the outside, explicit not feeling inside the mouth. Maybe that is the reason why the others didn't try it?
thumbnail
cian, modified 8 Years ago at 10/26/15 5:08 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 10/26/15 5:06 AM

RE: Mindfulness Games!

Posts: 62 Join Date: 5/22/15 Recent Posts
bernd the broter ...

a friend of mine asked the same thing and the reason they gave her was that going in beneath the surface brings up too much samskaras. So it can bring up too much of your stuff.  
I don't follow the Goenke method and I often just let the awareness freefloat through the body.  Often it likes to go in deep inside the body's connective tissues, hang around in there for a while, and then there's massive physical releases.  Much better than a physio!

So I sure don't find it brings up too much or I become destabilised or anything.  Maybe they've just gotta give those instructions because the Goenke institution has to cater to the lowest common denominator of the masses !  ?

Breadcrumb