Carlotta was telling me about her fingers while eating a folded wrap with hummus, on our way back home. She had her first piano lesson at school, since March.
After 6 months of absolutely NO practice.
‘Mamma, it was like if my fingers were moving on their own!‘
Miss Sophie took her to the music classroom last Wednesday morning, and asked her to play ‘Minuet in C’ and ‘the Egyptian Level’, which she practiced all January and February.
The music book opened on top of the piano for her to read the notes. But …”mamma, sometimes I can’t remember where the notes are on the keyboard, but I can’t dare saying it to Miss Sophie“.
And then the magic happened.
Her fingers knew where to go, and just moved finding the correct keys.
The brain remembered.
How amazing is that?
Isn’t it incredible when you type a WhatsApp message that your fingers just move on their own… knowing where to find the ‘a’ and the ‘j’, without having to look where they’re on the keyboard?
Our brain is incredibly efficient. When we repeat something over and over, it becomes an automated reflex.
And so fingers move on their own.
Why am I telling you this?
When I teach Mindfulness Meditation I always say: this is training for the brain!
You train your mind to return to the present. You make this an automated reflex.
And why this might be helping, you may ask?
Think: How have you trained your mind, so far?
Have you perhaps practiced to automate crazy reactions (like raising your voice, or nervously go for 1 piece of the chocolate bar [that then becomes the whole bar]) when worrying “how the hell am I going to cope with another lockdown“?
You’ve the chance to practice instead a different automatism: how to return present. And stop only living the movies in your head.
Practising meditation is like practising piano, or typing your Whatsapp messages.
You train your mind (and brain), and the mind will learn where to go.
And so, when worrying about lockdown, you can flip right back to the present. And have the clarity to plan for it.
I’m curious, what crazy automated reactions have you got?
Leave a comment, I’d love to know.
To a life to enjoy,
Laura
PS: I still have some crazy automated reactions myself… Chocolate spread! But the training to stay present is proving helpful. I stop at the second (or third) spoonful.
