Mindfulness How to start the day with the 5 senses

Some time ago in an interview in my clinic to select a psychologist for our online therapy service, in his curriculum it consisted "Specialist in Third Generation Mindfulness Therapies" and I asked what "that" was, he told me that it was the newer therapies, the latest in psychology, "la creme de la creme" ...

Before his answer, I kept investigating and later I realized that "that" that they were telling me was novel, I had already heard it, and I personally practiced it for a long time, and that it was also one of my most common practices in my clinical work ... Let me tell you:

When I was six or seven years old, I was lucky enough to spend some time in town with my grandfather Santos.Every morning when I got up I would watch his organic coffee being made, I would pour him his stale bread and sit on the steps of the patio (if it was very cold he would open the top door and lean on the edge of the door), sitting there for a few minutes he would drink his coffee while looking with his little blue eyes at the sky, at the ground, breathe deeply, savor his coffee and hugged her warm cup ...

I used to sit next to him and had breakfast with him in silence, because as a good man from Burgos, he had few words and also something told me at that moment that words were too much ...

I didn't really know what my grandfather was doing, but I noticed that something was happening in him while drinking that coffee with stale bread, and one day I asked him:

- What are you doing grandfather? ...

He did not answer me, he continued to breathe deeply, looking at the sky, the ground, the fig tree in the courtyard ... and when he finished his coffee he told me:

-"I'm saying good morning", he got up and go away.

From that moment every day we sat together to say good morning, and one day that I will never forget, he looked at me, smiled and said the following:

• I look at the sky and see if there are clouds, it is blue, whitish ... I observe with my eyes what it is like ...
• I check its smell, because the days smell different ... like water, dry leaves, flowers, smoke ...
• I feel the warmth of the cup in my hands, the breeze on my face, the sun on my body ...
• I savor the coffee and bread in my mouth, I focus on their warmth ...
• I listen to it ... And that's my way of saying good morning to this day that is beginning.
• And finally I notice how I feel inside.

He got up and go away.

From that day on I have enjoyed that simple teaching that enriches my life, bringing calm and awareness to my person, also joining my surroundings..

During years of profession I have transmitted this same exercise to my patients and they have told me of its effectiveness, of the pleasure that it is start the day by concentrating on the five senses and how taking a few minutes to say "Good morning" makes you start the day with other emotions.

And this was one of the great legacies of my grandfather ... my grandfather Santos taught me to attend with full consciousness, being with an attentive and reflective presence to what is happening in the current moment ... without valuing what it feels and, from what I have read, and now I know, this is the essence of mindfulness ... , one of the third generation therapies considered the most important, but I did not learn it in a course, a master's degree or at the University, my grandfather taught me more than forty years ago in the courtyard of his house in the village, next to the fig tree, saying "Good morning".

And by the way, if you asked BUDDHA, surely he would also have a lot to say ...