“Olga finds a lovely way to keep her hands from touching her face. She put the present moment between them.”
I didn’t really want to write about the COVID-19 virus. I thought that it would seem that I’m trying to make to connection between present moment awareness just because everyone is talking about it.
However, I found this article on HuffPost and thought to myself, “Okay, it’s not just me.”
As I have been writing about sensory awareness and a portal to the present moment, I have thought about how being aware, in this case, aware of your hands and your mouth can bring you to the now. This part of the article really tickled me:
“Practice Mindfulness
Face-touching is often a nervous habit related to anxiety.
When we’re anxious, we tend to touch ourselves to soothe ourselves. We put our hands on our face, run our hands through our hair, cross our arms, and so on, Cummins noted.
Practicing mindfulness habits like intentional breathing and meditation can help you cut down on these behaviors and manage anxiety in general. Cummins is a proponent of œvagal breathing, an exercise which can stimulate the vagus nerve, which runs from the brain stem down the abdomen.
The vagal system facilitates the body’s rest, repair and digest functions, she said. You can stimulate the vagus nerve using this technique: Make sure your torso is straight and open • no slouching • so that you can breathe deeply into your abdomen. Breathe in through your nose for four to five seconds, allowing your belly to expand while your chest remains quiet, then exhale for four to five seconds, allowing your belly to relax.
This exercise can help reduce stress responses and increase higher level thinking and emotion regulation, thus reducing the emotional triggers that cause many people to frequently touch their faces.”
Wow! It even had a vagus nerve reference.
Eckhart Tolle writes about how enlightenment can arise from suffering. If COVID-19 serves the purpose making us more practiced at being aware of our body, our environment and our feelings, then there is an opportunity for enlightenment.
