Showering and mindfullness

How do you go about taking a shower? Here is my 10 step process.

  1. Rinse entire body.
  2. Shampoo hair. Rinse.
  3. Conditioner in hair. Rinse
  4. Wash face with face wash. Rinse.
  5. Body wash and scrub. Rinse.
  6. One final luxuriating, cleansing lovely rinse.
  7. Towel dry
  8. Moisturize
  9. Dress

Nothing special here – I’m sure most of the world goes about their bath in some variation of this.

I have found a curious thing for me however – this sequence matters.

Most days, when I am mindful about my shower, I follow this sequence exactly. Such days, I can feel the warm water or cold water on my body, feel my breath change with the temperature of the water, the shampoo suds flowing out of my hair, the rough nylon scrub sloughing off dead skin. And my showers are short and comfortable and luxurious, all at the same time.

However, there are days when I get lost in thought of some project of mine,  or some fantasy of the wrongs done me and how I am a victim, or how awesome things are going to be in the future, or how things were in the past good, bad … you get the drift.

On such days, I tend to lose my sequence and sometimes, if I am aware enough, I find myself repeatedly washing my face or shampooing my hair! Those days I don’t really feel the water or the scrub or the soap…I am totally immersed in my mental world – not a part of the physical world at all. And also, on these days the showers on such days are much longer.

And so, I have found that most days, I prefer showers where I am mindful where I actually feel and enjoy and luxuriate my showers.

What about you folks, who actually luxuriate in long showers? What goes on in your minds? Do you enjoy it from a physical perspective or from a mental perspective? I would love to hear from you.


September 10, 2014