(NEWSER) – Washing the dishes can be a calming activity, and not just because it’s repetitive. Reporting in the journal Mindfulness, Florida State University researchers say that those who do it mindfully (i.e., really smelling the soap, sensing the water temperature) enjoy increased feelings of inspiration and decreased nervousness. Not only that, but the participants who didn’t practice mindfulness didn’t reap any benefits. “It appears that an everyday activity approached with intentionality and awareness may enhance the state of mindfulness,” they conclude. To test this, researchers recruited 51 students to wash dishes, having half first read this brief mindfulness dishwashing passage written by Thich Nhat Hanh and the other half first read a few descriptive lines about dishwashing.
The mindfulness passage includes the lines: “The fact that I am standing there and washing is a wondrous reality. I’m being completely myself, following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions. There’s no way I can be tossed around mindlessly like a bottle slapped here and there on the waves.” The study is small, but the research suggests that mindfulness can be achievable through the most mundane, everyday activities, reports Time, turning chores into a chance to potentially lower stress levels. For better or worse, the researchers also noted that the “mindful dishwashers” reported overestimations of dishwashing time. (This study suggests you give up your dishwasher.)
Jeez, FSU, and you wonder why people don’t take your education seriously and yet you run around with these crack pot theories about how one of the most annoying chore ever is a great “stress reliever.” You know what relieves my stress? Jerking off and then immediately finding something funny to watch on TV and if you pick washing dishes over that, you’re as big of a square as this Thich Nhat Hanh fellow who writes hymns and biblical passages about scrubbing pots and pans. When you hear people talk about baller moves you hear shit like having a new pair of underwear and socks every day or buying new cars once a month. I think mines would be literally throwing plates out and never washing them. Now thats a stress relief. Just take a plate covered in spaghetti sauce and chucking it out the door like a frisbee. Its that annoying, doing dishes. Your kitchen gets all gross and you make as big of a mess cleaning it up as it is cooking to the point where you practically need a poncho and rain boots. You undoubtedly will over load the dish rack and by the end you have a leaning tower of dishes and pots and pans on your dish drying rack. The worst and i mean THE WORST part of doing dishes is when the water splashes off the dishes and gets onto the edge of the counter because its practically like front row at a Shamu show and the second the water hits your shirt and stomach, you freak out. I don’t know what it is but when unsuspecting water touches you when you’re expecting to be completely dry, it shatters your core.
The Ugly Orange 