Week 17 of the mindfulness challenge has delivered another somewhat dull task. The week of the ‘touch point’. The exercise is designed to bring you into the present moment several times per day. I was to decide on a ‘touch point’ – any object that I come into contact with quite frequently – and every time I touched said object, I was to stop what I was doing for a few seconds and pay attention to myself and my surroundings. When present, I was to consider my emotions, physical sensations, sounds and what’s going on around me.
In theory, this task would be right up my street. I like the idea of taking time out throughout the day to check in and be present. But in practice, it just kind of never really took off. I considered using my dog as my touch point, but I am up and down so often at the moment whilst working from home going to stop her barking annoyingly at a bird, a cat, the wind or her own tail, that if she were my object, I would spend more time being mindful than I would be doing anything else. It’s not necessarily a bad thing I suppose, but it just seemed a bit excessive and I was unsure I’d get anything else done.
Then I considered my glasses. I have to wear them for work because my eyes strain working on a computer all day. I lost my favourite pair when I was drunk in a bar after work a few months ago, and have had to resort to my spare pair which are disgusting. I am way overdue an eye test and was actually in the process of picking out new frames before lockdown hit, which is annoying. Anyway, I considered using these as the touch point but it felt wrong to give them any more undue attention, given that I hate them, I felt it might draw my attention to the fact that I dislike them so much, and it kind of seemed besides the point.
After spending a few days thinking about what could be the touch point, I realised I hadn’t even started the challenge. If the truth be told, I just didn’t really connect with this task and think it was a bit of a subconscious thing – procrastinating to avoid doing this one. It’s now Sunday and I can safely say it never really took off, which is unfortunate.
Oh well, tomorrow is a new day and a new challenge, so hopefully that one will be a bit more eventful!
Reflect and Introspect 