The creak of the porch swing fades in the background only to give way to the birds chirping on high. The sweet scents of apple blossoms and lilacs float in the air. New grass sprouting through the earth brings promises of warmer days while a cool ground gives rest to bare feet. The colorful landscape is full of life renewing and emerging.
This is a memory that dates back to when I was 15 and16, living in an old farmhouse for the summers, but I can still sense it as if it were happening right now simply by conjuring up the memory; all my senses are engaged.
It is only when we engage all of our senses that we feel so alive
This is one of my fondest memories, an idyllic picture, still etched in my brain 25 years later.
It’s rare that a busy life gets the chance to stop for a moment and fill their senses. The magic of these experiences form permanent memories, a fuller life, yet we forget the power of our senses. We forget to contribute to the positive memory bank.
We forget to eat because our sense are dulled due to stress; or we might eat too much, not feeling a sense of fullness in our bodies.
Recently I read an article on mindful meditating with your five senses. I’ve long known the benefits, and necessity, of using the senses (taste, touch, smell, sound, and sight) in hypnosis and guided meditation scripts (to form better habits through hypnosis or mediation, senses must be utilized).
Using, and appreciating, your senses is what it means to be alive with joy. Unfortunately, many of us call living setting forth on autopilot with a frantic busy-ness, and only stopping long enough to view scenes on a TV or device for stimulation.
In modern urban life, we suffer from both sensory overload and sensory deprivation.
The deprivation is narrowing of our physical environment- routines and computer screens. The overload is a bombardment of input we are unable to fully process and appreciate.
We pity someone like Helen Keller being robbed of two senses (sight and sound) yet she over-developed her other senses in ways that none of us can fathom. This portrays the importance of senses, but also the possibilities to developing them beyond what we are already operating on. Helen Keller had to imagine the world inside her mind, and she did it expertly.
Within your daily routine, have you found things that you might call “preferences” or “simple pleasures”- that you just can’t get enough of? How about the smell and taste of your favorite coffee? A certain spice or dish you enjoy? Gardening? Walking bare foot? A leisurely shower or bath?
These “simple pleasures” are your “life” within your life because they awaken a few of your favorite senses to the world around you. Senses connect the world out side of you to the world inside of you. It can be dull or rich, depending on how you use your senses.
You might dream of beach vacations for the very reason you need to feel alive. You dream of a day without agendas only to find typically unhealthy escapes instead. Do you drink too much? Eat too much? Stress too much?
If we’re not creating enough opportunity for expressing our senses, allowing them to awaken us, we deaden and dull our perceptions (and life). We fall prey to bad habits and are left to wonder how we developed and continued those habits for years.
Kids begin life touching and tasting everything around them- that’s how they learn. They make memories too. Over time our senses weaken if we don’t use them.
Our senses can show us the aliveness we crave in everyday activities.
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Take a walk and listen for a full two minutes to everything around you.
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Stand outside for a moment and really look at everything in front of you. Turn to your left, look at everything in that direction, now the right. take it all in.
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Eat your lunch with three different flavors. Taste each…one…at…a…time.
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Make a list of 5 memorable events in your life. Describe the smells in each one: baby’s head, puppy breath, grandmother’s kitchen….
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Go barefoot. Feel the ground. Pet your dog or cat. Feel the fur. Spend time in your hobby with your hands.
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Listen to a self hypnosis or guided mediation script each day (I’ve got plenty to choose from on this site).
In addition, try this little test to see which senses you prefer. These are ones you need to satisfy while also exploring your less-used/ or preferred ones more.
The test: For a day or two notice in your writing and everyday speech, how you describe things or talk to others. Do you use the words, “I FEEL” a lot? Or “SOUNDS good”? “I SEE what you mean.” We all use language that determines the senses we lead with. Most prefer one, sometimes two.
I recommend using your senses for change as well. Meditate on your desired outcome- slim down, be confident, less stress. Use all your senses to create not only the end result picture, but the steps it takes to achieve what you desire.
Let me start by saying, you won’t find me dressed in monk-garb meditating on a mountaintop in Tibet, but you will find me practicing mindfulness and meditation effectively and successfully in my life!