Could yoga help you enjoy doing dishes?
Hi! I’m a Registered Dietitian and Certified Yoga Teacher with a Masters Degree in Science. My goal is to help people stay nourished and calm. In this blog post I explore how the practice of mindfulness might help you enjoy doing your dishes as well as provide you with potential health benefits.
Please note the content in this post is for general information purpose only and is not intended to be used as personal health care advice. Opinion and research shared in this post should be interpreted cautiously. For questions or concerns regarding how you could apply this information to your personal health, please discuss it with your primary health care provider and/or a licensed mental health care provider.
Now, what is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the ability to fully experience what is happening in the present moment. For many of us, learning to practice mindfulness also means learning to slow down. This can be a challenge to those accustomed to living in a society that rewards people for operating at a fast pace. In this culture, taking on a never-ending to do list and ‘burning the candle at both ends’ is common. The problem with this is that it leaves little down time and can lead to feeling burnt out.
When you are always ‘on the go’ your sympathetic nervous system, which stimulates the body’s fight or flight response, is continuously activated. Without taking a break, it’s difficult for the parasympathetic nervous system to counteract and allow the body to calm down. This results in the body becoming off balance and over time it can eventually lead to health issues like depression, anxiety and certain gastrointestinal problems (1,2,3,4,5). Interestingly, some research suggests that the practice of mindfulness could help reduce depression, anxiety and certain gastrointestinal problems ( 6,7,8,9).
So, how does any of this have to do with doing dishes in the kitchen, much less enjoying it and potentially receiving health benefits?
Well, typically, we think of mindfulness as a practice that occurs while sitting peacefully cross-legged on a yoga mat. But, mindfulness can occur anytime and anywhere. You can practice it while engaged in daily tasks. In fact, tasks that you particularly dislike such as cleaning the dishes can actually be a great teacher of mindfulness!
Let me share what I mean by this with two scenarios…
Scenario one: You walk in the kitchen and see a pile of dirty dishes. You feel tense and irritated. Your jaw automatically clenches. These are all signs your sympathetic nervous system is engaged. As you grit your teeth and walk close to the sink you think of so many better things you could be doing rather than a giant pile of dirty dishes. Reluctantly you turn on the faucet and wait for the desired temperature. As you wait you look out the window. Your mind is pulled in several directions. You think about how you dislike dishes and how lousy and rainy it is outside. You reminisce about a difficult situation that happened recently at work and the thought makes your chest tense up. Your body is standing in the kitchen. You appear to be looking out the window but your mind has transported you back to work. You are reliving the event. Your jaw is tense. Your chest is tight and breathing is shallow. Your mind then let’s go of the event and you come back to the present moment. You look away from the window to test the temperature of the water from the faucet. It’s ready. You put a sink stopper atop the drain. The sink begins to fill with water. You quickly grab a sponge, put soap on it and wash a dish. As you wash the dish another thought pops into your mind about how you need to get the mail followed by another thought about a meeting you need to prepare for tomorrow. You pick up a mug from the soapy water and think what an obnoxious chore doing the dishes is as you forcefully stuff a soapy sponge inside the mug. Once the mug is washed and dried you quickly grab another dish. With each dish washed you continue to feel tense and have a sense of urgency; mentally vacillating between past experiences and future tasks to do.
Scenario two: You walk in the kitchen and see a pile of dirty dishes. You notice yourself getting tense and irritated. A sign your sympathetic nervous system is being triggered. You pause, take a deep breath in and slowly release it. You check in with your body and notice your jaw is tense. You take another deep breath in and relax your jaw. These are all actions to help engage your parasympathetic nervous system.
Feeling a bit calmer now, you walk over to the sink and turn on the faucet. As you wait for the water to become a desired temperature you look out the window. Your thoughts start to go back to a negative experience you had at work but you are mindful of this and bring yourself back to the present moment. You notice your environment. It’s rainy and cold. A thought pops in about how lousy the weather is but instead of focusing on that thought you choose to instead mindfully focus on the rain drops. You see droplets landing on the window sill and become entranced by the rhythmic falling of the drops. They fall, land and break on the sill; over and over again. You begin to notice the sound of the rain. You feel a calmness come over you. It’s cold outside but you notice that you feel relaxed, dry and cozy inside your home.
You test the temperature of the water from the faucet. It’s ready. You put a stopper atop the drain. The sink begins to fill with water as your gaze reverts back to the rain drops falling on the sill. You take a deep breath in and slowly release it. You grab a sponge, soak it in the water and then remove it. You notice the springy, squishy, texture of the sponge as you squeeze and release it. You grip it tightly and feel water release from it. Droplets land in the giant pool of water in the sink. You drizzle soap on the sponge and pull a dish from the sink.
As you begin to wash the first dish you check in with your body. You notice slight tension in your jaw again and take a moment to relax your whole face. Your thoughts divert again to the event you had happen at work recently. You notice you are breathing shallowly from your chest. You focus on the rain droplets outside and the sponge in your hand. On your next breath in you breath deep into your abdomen and slowly exhale. Bringing your attention to your hands, you feel the soothing warmth of the water all around as you grab a mug from the sink and begin to gently clean it with the sponge… Once washed and dried you grab another dish. With each dish washed you make a conscious effort to remain in the present moment; taking deep breaths and focusing on finding peace and beauty in the experience.
Let’s recap this..
In both scenarios you do dishes but the experience is different based on your mindset. Your mindset also effects actions you take to balance your nervous system or not. Scenario 1 shows us an example of a mindset that could keep the sympathetic nervous system engaged. Scenario 2 encourages the use of mindfulness which can promote the parasympathetic nervous system to be more engaged in the body. Of course it is unrealistic to think that every time you wash the dishes it can be like Scenario 2. Sometimes we just need to get things done. But I’d encourage you to play around with mindfully washing your dishes. Explore the effects it may have on your body and mind.
Peace,
Jennifer
RESOURCES:
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