The Mindful Connoisseur Experiment
Mindfulness is the practice of bringing your attention to the present moment. In this experiment, we are using the spirit of being a connoisseur to cultivate our physical senses. Throughout your day, take a few minutes and bring your attention to each physical sense one at a time. Focus on what you are experiencing in that very moment. Try it while eating or during other activities such as washing the dishes, or even sitting at the computer. How does the experience change when you focus on different senses? Can you intensify the experience? Are some senses more developed than others? What happens when you focus on amplifying all of them at once?
As you practice and build the muscle of being a mindful connoisseur, notice if your experience of daily life changes. Are you experiencing more enjoyment and pleasure in daily tasks?
While doing this experiment, you might also notice your inner world.
Inner Senses Experiment
Take time throughout your day to stop and ask yourself one or more of the following questions:
- What is happening in your body right now? Can you shift your focus to parts of your body and feel your bones, organs, skin, muscles? Can you feel your whole body at once?
- What emotions are you feeling? Can you name them? What do they feel like in your body? What are they telling you?
- What sensations are you feeling internally? Are you hungry? Tired? Can you feel your breath?
- See if you can catch yourself thinking. Notice your thoughts without judgment. What thoughts emerge as you take the time to feel your inner senses?
Seeing with New Eyes Experiment
Play with navigating the layers of perception as you interact with people throughout the day. Notice if there is a place that you tend to default to first? Do you often see their humanness first? Do you notice their physical appearance first? What is similar or different? As you notice where you are connecting, see if you can change your perception. Can you connect to their heart? To their soul? Can you connect with their uniqueness?
See if you can navigate switching perceptions through changing your focus, what you are focusing on, or through which senses you are noticing? If you’ve known them for some time, can you experience them in a new way? If they are a stranger, can you fall in love with them by focusing on their uniqueness or soul?
Hand Massage Experiment
In this exercise, we’ll explore the various layers of perception while you massage someone’s hand. This adds the layer of touch. Sitting near each other, choose who will be the receiver and who will be the giver first.
As the receiver, notice what you notice. Can you feel changes in the touch?
As the giver, massage the hand while focusing on each of these layers as you go. Take one layer at a time.
- Rub this person’s hand focusing on the physical feeling of the hand. What does the skin feel like? Can you feel the muscles underneath? Can you feel places of tightness?
- Next focus on massaging the hand for your pleasure. This means doing to the persons hand what feels good to you. Can you tune into the pleasure of the touch? Can you follow what gives you pleasure as you are massaging the hand?
- Next focus on the energetic layer by focusing on “what the hand wants.” If you were to use your intuition and let the hand itself lead you in the massage, what does it want? What kind of pressure does it want?
- Now focus on connecting to their heart through their hand. As you rub their hand, can you feel your heart connect with theirs? Does your massage change? What emotions or feelings come up? What does their heart feel like?
- As you continue to massage, see if you can connect to their soul through their hand. Can you sense their journey? Can you sense their life lessons and path?
- Finally, focus on their essence, their uniqueness and beauty as you massage. What do they feel like at this level?
Hand Massage Experiment – Lover Variation
Expand the hand touch experiment to other parts of the body, hugging, kissing and so on.
Also try:
- Change your focus with your lover and see how his or her response changes.
- Focus on your own sexual desire and see if you can send it through your touch.
- Both of you touching with the same intention—heart, humanness, soul, and so on. How does it change it? Is it amplified?
- Both of you switching your focus randomly and seeing how it impacts your love making.
- Can you bring on other senses? Can you sense and follow your lover? Can you let the love making itself, lead you? What wants to happen? Where is the energy moving you?
Eye Gazing Variation Experiment
Eye gazing has been scientifically proven to impact our feelings of love and compassion. Sit with a partner and simply look into each others’ eyes. To get the full effects, you should do it for five minutes or longer. This can be done by both people at the same time.
Variation – While eye gazing, experiment with changing your focus and senses and see how it changes your experience. Try soft and wide, or laser in on their eyes or part of their face. Bring your attention to feeling their heart, soul or uniqueness while doing it. Is the experience different?