Practice: Mindful Hands

Jenna Zaffino [00:00:04]: 

Hi everyone. I'm Jenna. Welcome to your mindful hands practice. This practice is intended to help you gain awareness, increase your focus, and learn how these two aspects can help to widen and narrow our perspective, which can be very useful in managing our stress and just having a little more bandwidth to notice those small moments. So let's find our comfort. I'll ask you to join me on the floor if this is comfortable for you. Try a chair, the edge of your couch, or perhaps even your bed. Regardless of where you're sitting, be sure that you're supported and that you're doing the best you can to sit up as tall as possible to create lots of space for the air to enter and exit your lungs. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:01:02]: 

We'll begin by placing our hands, resting them palm facing up on our legs. Place them, let them relax, and then allow them to just take whatever shape they like to take at rest. From here, we'll begin to tune into our breath, always remembering to breathe in a way that feels nourishing for you, that isn't forced or harsh, and that allows you to just simply pay attention without judgment. If you'd like to close your eyes or soften your gaze, I'll invite you to do so at this time. As we continue to breathe, let's shift our attention towards our hands, allowing the weight of the back of our hands to simply sink against our legs and connect. Notice any initial sensations that are happening in your hands. Maybe your hands are warm or cool, perhaps there's a little tingle, or even a slight amount of pressure from where the hands are connected to your legs. Take the next few moments to consider how your hands feel right now. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:02:55]: 

Now, let's go a little deeper into some of the most delicate moments and movements of your hands. See if you can become aware of the tiniest twitch of a finger, maybe a slight shift in the position of your palm, perhaps the air between your fingers, remembering that we're trying not to force any movement, and we're simply observing what's already happening naturally. Do your hands feel static? Pulsing? Heavy? Or light? Again, simply observing without judgment. Now we're going to zoom in even deeper to observe the tiniest adjustments, the micro movements that your body makes without thinking about it. Notice how the subtle shifts might change the way your fingers touch or even the pressure between the back of your hands and your legs. Continue to breathe, and let's take the next few moments to pay attention. Keeping our focus on our hands and with our breath will bring our awareness to the connection between the 2. As you breathe slow and as deep as possible for you, Notice the feeling as your chest moves with each breath. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:05:20]: 

Is there a connection for you between the movement of your breath and the sensations of your hands? Does your breath influence any subtle shifts? Continue to observe these small and subtle movements of your hands and your breath for a few more moments. And from here, we're going to attempt to widen our awareness. Can you feel the connection between your hands and your wrists and forearms? Maybe there's a sense of having subtle tension of connection, like wearing a long sleeved glove. Perhaps you can allow the weight of your forearms to drop closer to your legs. How far up through the chain of your arm can you feel that connection? Does it stop at the elbow? Does it reach to the shoulder? Take the next few moments to continue to tune in. Following the connection that you sense with your hands and your arms, let's begin to gently hover your hands above your legs. With your eyes still closed or your gaze softened, begin to explore some micro movements of your fingers, tiny wiggles, feeling and sensing the air around you. Going to slowly bring our hands towards each other as if you're holding the shape of a ball between your palms. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:07:49]: 

Imagine that that ball is small but full of air and see if you can sense the resistance between your two hands as you begin to just pulse them inward towards each other. It's as if they're pressing against the ball, unable to move any closer, but still with a sense of relating to each other. As you take your next breath in, see if you can mimic the motion of your breath by expanding your arms and hands apart, and as you exhale, by bringing them closer to that ball connection. As you inhale, expanding them wide. And as you exhale, bring them in. Depending on how long of an inhale or and exhale you're taking, you might find your arms reaching wider or narrower. Remember, we're simply exploring. Let's take one more breath. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:09:15]: 

Press your hands close to the ball, and then slowly allow your palms to come together as if you're just shaking your own hand. We'll start to blink our eyes back awake into the room, resting your hands back in your lap, bringing some micro Patient into the spine. Moving your head side to side, Breathing and just orienting yourself back to the room. So the question that I have for you is what did you learn about your hands today? I hope it's something that was new for you, or maybe something that was made a bit more clear with the focused attention. As we zoomed in through the layers, you may have found that you noticed one type of movement and then you were attuned to another type of movement, more details along the way, and a different way of interacting with your hands other than just doing tasks throughout the day. The purpose of this exercise is to show us that not only can our hands experience many different movements and quality of movements, but also our brain has the ability to focus in on the small things, on the details and just hone that focus in to such a degree where we can increase our concentration. So this week, in order to weave this well-being practice into your daily life, I'll encourage and reading or reading, maybe being outside, take a few moments just to notice your hands and see how that's able to ground you for the task ahead. This practice can be a great way also to just get a little movement into your fingers if you are working with any inflammation and just need a little attention to those hands from too much time on the phone. 

Jenna Zaffino [00:11:46]: 

I wanna thank you for joining me today and working through this practice together. Remember, you are strong and resilient, and the small moments matter. I'll see you next time.