We are often asked how to practice mindfulness during the day. One practice, interestingly, is from a person who is not a mindfulness teacher. Deb Dana, who writes primarily about polyvagal theory, coined the term glimmer. She writes: "glimmers refer to small moments when our biology is in a place of connection or regulation, which cues our nervous system to feel safe or calm. We're not talking about big expansive experiences of joy or safety or connection. These are micro moments that begin to shape our system in very gentle ways."
Some examples of glimmers include:
• petting an animal
• gently rocking your body or wrapping yourself in a soft blanket
• humming
• savoring some delicious food or a hot cup of a favorite beverage
• gardening
• listening to a favorite song
• feeling the warmth of the sun on your skin
• receiving or giving a hug
• stopping to notice the shape of trees or flowers in bloom
• listening to the birds singing
• looking at a photograph of someone you love
• watching a child laugh or a puppy frolic
Savoring glimmers bring moments of calmness, joy, and peace. If we pay attention, we’ll see that glimmers are everywhere!
Here are examples of glimmer moments from mindfulness teachers:
• Bringing mindfulness to something you do every day. I was in the Peace Corps in Nepal, and there was no running water in my village which was cold in the winter. Over 40 years later, I enjoy my showers and feel gratitude that I have this regular pleasure.
• I savor my morning cup of coffee, especially in the cold weather when I wrap my hands around the warm cup.
• Choosing passwords that make you smile, for example, Breathe123. My favorite password was Yogibooboo22. It never failed to bring a smile to my face.
• Wearing a bracelet, necklace, ring, or something in your pocket that reminds you to breathe or smile.
• Taking a moment to look out the window and feel the gratitude and joy in simply being alive.
• Bringing attention to your breath when waiting at a stoplight, road construction, in line at a store, etc.
• Breathing before and after using your cell phone or email or computer.
• Keeping a gratitude journal to note what you are grateful for.
• Practicing small acts of generosity: opening a door for someone, letting someone go ahead of you in a line, asking a clerk how their day is going, and many more possibilities.
• When I take my daily medications because of my aortic dissection three years ago, I feel gratitude that I survived. This was especially true when I held my latest grandchild in my arms!
• Looking at good news websites. Simply Google the title to browse the website: Daily Good, Karuna News, Reasons to be Cheerful, Good News Network, Nice News.
Every day I make the intention to pause about 10 times a day to ask and respond to two questions:
1. Where am I?
Am I here or in the future or in the past or somewhere else, maybe the Bahamas?
2. How am I?
I take a few seconds to register points of tension or discomfort, for example, eyes, facial muscles, tongue, jaw, shoulders, back, etc.
I take a few seconds to register emotions that are present and their strength or intensity.
These two pauses take less than 30 seconds. Almost always they bring me to a state of gratitude and calmness.
It is so easy to feel despair in these times, whether you get your news from the newspaper or on the web. Deb Dana says that there is research that we can change our nervous system by noticing glimmers more often, as little as 10 times a day. Of course, we start small, one glimmer at a time!