Witnessing

The Concept

While doing common tasks, practice relaxing your hold on the concept that you have some sort of consciousness that directs your actions. Try to be the most mindful you can, and simply let your hold on The Self go, riding the stream of events that takes you through the task. You can do these exercises while doing any task at all, not just chores, but it may be easier to start with simple household tasks that you do every day.

Progression

As you unlearn The Self, you should be able to progress something like this.

• Small, rote tasks - combing your hair
• More complex tasks - emptying the dishwasher
• Medium complex tasks - writing an email
• Very complex tasks - writing a creative paragraph
• Long Durations - shopping
• Everyday Enlightenment

The Pattern

Each exercise will feel a little different, and there are some ideas below, but the general pattern is

• Start your task
• Become as mindful as you know how, let all thoughts evaporate, let go of any need to understand or control the moment
• Appreciate the task as a whole, sensing that it will get accomplished without you having to push it
• Begin to slowly appreciate the major steps or movements necessary to get the task done
• Once you have learned what you need from this "top down" approach, reverse the flow of observation...
• Note that the tiniest muscle movements you need for anything will never be under your conscious control - there are thousands of micromovements taking place each second
• Move up from that into an awareness of small movements that happen without any conscious thought
• Continue to move further up into the larger motions and how they also are simply taking place
• Finally note how decision making (such as when to change the comb to another hand) also do not require conscious thought

Brushing Your Teeth

This is just one example; it can be applied to any trivial activity. Note that you may not be able to do all of these steps at first - don't worry about that at all. Just try to understand the general flow see which parts start falling into place for you. Also note that this exercise uses a mirror but that isn't a requirement at all - see for example "Emptying the Dishwasher" below.

• Stand in front of the mirror with your hands at your sides
• Become as mindful as you know how
• Look at yourself in the mirror and allow your attention to The Self evaporate and sense that the Mirror Self is going to do something
• Notice that the Mirror Self picks up the toothpaste
• Notice that the micromovements and larger movements for this simple task didn't need any conscious direction at all, it just happened
• The Mirror Self now lifts its other arm and unscrews the cap, placing it on the sink, and then picking up the toothbrush.
• Appreciate that three steps in one larger task all took place as if they were puzzle pieces fitting together seemlessly
• Continue on in this fashion as your teeth are being brushed
• Do not try and tell your Mirror Self which tooth to brush next or how long to linger on each tooth, just allow that to happen
• Do not try and tell your Mirror Self when the task is done, just let it end naturally
• Once you are done, and the toothbrush and toothpaste are back in their places, mentally review the steps listed in The Pattern above and appreciate what just happened

Related

Releasing your grasp on Free Will can be done throughout many exercises. Particularly

• Walking
• Mirrors
• The Headless Way