Mindfulness has taught me a game called “I don’t know”. The point of it is to see objects without engaging thinking. It goes like that: I can see a common sparrow on my balcony. My mind is immediately producing an assessment like: “It is an unimportant bird and it leaves droppings on the balcony-no good”. But when I play that game I just look at the sparrow as if I have never seen it before. I sense the colors and form it has, I observe the way it turns its head and its constant moving; I share with it the same air and the same place. I experience its presence in my life.
I can play that game with anything. Take a cup of coffee for example. I engage all my senses to receive this ordinary drink into my life. I see the shape, texture and tones of the cup, the color and density of the liquid, I feel the temperature it has and the taste of it. I sense how my body reacts to it- kinesthetic response to the sensation of coffee. I allow myself to be in the presence of that cup. And I remove my attention from any commenting thoughts.
This game is about feelings and sensations and disengaging from assessments and judgements of the intelligent mind.
The skill learned there can be very useful in situations when my mind is locked, running around on a trade-mill or can’t find any explanation or solution to a certain situation. When the mind in spite of its repetitive efforts doesn’t know, truly hasn’t got a faintest I redirect my attention to my body, because it can always tell me something through feelings and sensations. So I stay with it, I concentrate on the kinesthetic feeling I have about the situation or a problem and I allow the energy in my body to move. It is really worth trying. It is also called meditation.