You're not dumb! It just takes practice. It's okay not to know how your hand (or any other body part) feels at first, the important thing is to pay attention and notice that you feel "something." Maybe while you're out of town, you can take just 15 minutes either first thing in the morning, or right before bed and read a few pages in the book, or just find a single exercise that seems do-able to you, and practice that one each day. You could even find an exercise before you leave and write it out on an index card, then just bring the card with you...or read it out loud and record it then play it back each day. Then, you wouldn't even have to bring the book.

I love mindfulness exercises...when I'm feeling really disconnected, it's about the only thing that will ground me. I tend to start by just focusing on my breathing for a while, then, when I'm totally focused on my breathing, I start to let myself notice other things with each of my senses, and just notice each thing, not judging, just acknowledging it. It's HARD, especially when my emotions are super high. I've been super disconnected from the world around me for the last 3 weeks, and simply could not get grounded. My T suggested doing a mindfulness exercise together at the start of the last session, and 15 minutes later, I felt more grounded than I have in almost a month. By the end of the session, with mindfulness reminders from my T, I was almost fully connected again. I'm actually going to email my T and ask if we can do another exercise next session.