In the Current Mindful Moment
a tanka on mindfulness

softly lit warm light, pins and needles of my foot, soft hum of the fridge, wafting chicken noodle soup, savoury profile of lunch.
A tanka is a poem with the following syllable structure: 5/7/5/7/7. Adapting the 5–4–3–2–1 grounding exercise, which is my all-time anxiety management coping skill that has an element of mindfulness and presence in it, I crafted a poem with the following structure:
- 5 syllables: appealing to sense of sight
- 7 syllables: appealing to sense of touch
- 5 syllables: appealing to sense of hearing
- 7 syllables: appealing to sense of smell
- 7 syllables: appealing to sense of taste
This was adapted from R. Rangan PhD’s broader prompt of mindfulness for one of my favourite healing publications: science and soul.
If you tackle her mindfulness prompt or my stricter version of this sensory tanka, do tag me so that I can read it and share it on social media!
Hi I’m Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) and this sensory tanka perfectly describes my soft and slow Sunday routines. I’m sitting in the relative dark because it’s rainy outside. I have poor posture so I constantly give myself pins and needles from sitting on my foot. My fridge is in constant harmony with my dehumidifier. I’m currently making meal prep, which is chicken noodle soup, so my whole apartment smells like it. And finally, I also just had lunch, so gross as it seems, I can faintly remember the savoury taste of kimchi, sunny side up eggs and beef flavoured instant noodles.
^ by Las siete y más
