Each time we use our sense of
smell, sight, touch, taste, or hearing to fully experience the moment, we feel more grounded and joyful.
Post Updated 8/07/2023
Mindfulness is a self-care practice that helps us engage in activities wholeheartedly, have a greater capacity to
recover from adversity, and show up for ourselves and life as it unfolds.
Awesome Ideas to Help Us Use Our 5 Senses for Mindfulness
Breathe Deeply
If we feel anxious, afraid, or stressed we may not notice our breath is shallow.
Nonetheless, our brain translates this emotional reaction as a threat. It triggers fast, flight or fight breathing to drive oxygen to our muscles to prepare for battle or escape.
To regain equilibrium, we can learn simple ways to override this automatic reaction and take back our serenity.
Here are several deep breathing techniques from Web MD to help us reduce stress and relax.
Smell Mindfully
Our sense of smell can be our most powerful "sense-asset."
It alerts us to offensive and dangerous odors including a gas leak, fire, or rotten food.
It also sends messages to parts of the brain that process emotion and memory.
Our sense of smell allows us to get pleasure from the intoxicating aroma of freshly baked bread, salty sea air, and orange blossoms.
Our nose knows. Our sense of smell helps us recall people, things, or experiences.
For example, getting a whiff of a loved one's signature perfume or aftershave, or smelling the aroma of popcorn, wood, or pine needles can jolt our memory of things that happened many years ago.
As a key element of human and animal survival, a keen sense of smell enables living things to track food and water, find a mate, and even communicate with others of its species.
Tweak Hearing
When we pause to listen to sounds in or near our bodies like our stomach gurgling, a belch, or clothing rustling, we are anchoring ourselves to the "here" and "now."
Experiment with the concept of mindful listening.
The first day, reserve 5 minutes to sit quietly and take a break from busy-ness.
Observe sounds around you. Perhaps you will hear noise in another room, or notice the beep or ting of an electronic device, or the rumble or purr of a fan, air conditioner, or heater.
The next day, take 6 minutes to walk outdoors and focus on the outdoor sounds that you hear.
Later on in the day, check in with
yourself. Do you notice when you take time to move around or sit quietly to focus on sounds in nature, your head clears and you feel refreshed and awake?
This sweet relaxation activity can be
part of your self-care routine, whenever you need it.
Savor the Flavor
Mindful eating is the practice of bringing
open-minded awareness to food selection to note how, when, and where we eat meals and snacks.
When we look non-judgmentally at our eating habits, we observe the ways certain foods impact our
body, emotions, and thinking.
We can use this information to identify times we eat on autopilot, or try to compensate for loneliness, anger,
boredom, and fear with food.
Mindfulness helps us sense real hunger and select foods that taste good and deliver energy for our bodies to work at peak efficiency.
Mindful eating can be much more. When we eat with our full being, we delight in the flavors, textures, aromas and sight of meals. For more read Favorite Foods for a Good Mood.
Try this. Make a conscious effort to slow down and eat foods with mindful eyes, nose (olfactory receptors), ears, taste buds, heart, and palate.
Then see Key Reasons to Eat Mindfully and Tips to Succeed.
Tune in to Touch
Our sense of touch helps us communicate through non-verbal expression,
either by touching or not touching each other in various ways.
Touch may be the most primal or basic form of relating, and
is the way things are introduced to infants, even before infants have learned
anything about other modes of communication.
Touch is an important, immediate messenger for humans. All of us need loving, caring touch to thrive. So when you're tempted to text, reach out and call or give an actual hug.
A fun way to learn more about our sense of touch is to try this.
See with Wonder
Young children see things with wonder, and we can take in everything with "fresh eyes."
One simple way to see things with wonder is to practice being a fully present observer of things as they happen.
Try this. Select a piece of fruit such as an apple, banana, pear, orange, or grapefruit and place it on a table. Sit next to the table to assure the object is totally in your line of vision.
Focus on it and imagine you are seeing this item for the very first time.
Ask yourself: do I know what it is? Can I identify its color or do I relate its hue to something I already know?
Can I guess how heavy or light it is just by looking at its size, surface texture, or shape? Can it move or roll? Then think of other questions that occur to you and ask them of yourself.
Our eyesight is a gift that allows us to experience the world in living colors, and see with awe and joy.
Instead of taking our home, career, people, or surroundings for granted, we can recognize each one as unique and appreciate it.
When we observe people, places, and things with curiosity and interest, our pro-action helps us experience the richness in each moment.
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Your work life and leisure time will bring you more satisfaction, if you use your 5 senses to take in life's abundance with mindful gratitude.
Read more about noteworthy benefits of being mindful here.
Share the love by commenting below.
Which one of your 5 senses do you feel helps you the most?
Are you sensitive to certain sounds, tastes, smell, touch, or light? Please explain.
Do you think you use your 5 senses to increase the quality of daily living? How?
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