Coming to your senses
Do you struggle with a busy mind? Do you get caught up in your thoughts and forget to experience the world through your body? If you’re anything like me, you may have spent most of your life feeling like your body is just a vehicle for your brain. In Western culture, intellect is often valued over bodily wisdom, so it’s not unusual to have a “brain-heavy” approach to life.
American author Gretchen Rubin noticed this brainheavy approach shortly after fi nding out she had a higher risk of retinal detachment, which could leave her blind, vowing from that moment to better appreciate her body and senses. Rubin wrote about her journey towards a more body-centred existence in her book, Life in Five Senses. She writes: “I needed to connect with my senses. I’d been treating my body like the car my brain was driving around town, but my body wasn’t some vehicle of my soul, to be overlooked when it wasn’t breaking down. My body — through my senses — was my essential connection to the world and to other people.”
Managing Stress Well
Your senses connect you to the wider world and are fundamental in helping you manage stress. While not all stress is bad, being in a stressed state too often can be damaging to your physical and mental wellbeing. In his book, The Stress Solution, Dr Rangan Chatterjee writes: “Stress can have devastating long-term consequences for health. Too much of it contributes to the development of obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, strokes and Alzheimer’s disease. Stress is also a key player in insomnia, burn-out and autoimmune disease, as well as many mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression.”
Reconnecting with your body can significantly lower your stress levels, boost your mood and help regulate your nervous system. By fi rst changing your physiology, you can positively impact your psychology. For example, by breathing more deeply, you can slow your heart rate, which, in turn, calms your amygdala, the fear centre of your brain. Going for a swim in the ocean reduces your stress hormone cortisol, while the cold water stimulates your vagus nerve and activates your calming parasympathetic nervous system. Listening to music increases dopamine, while exposure to sunlight boosts serotonin levels, all important for mental wellbeing.
A tool for resilience
Engaging your senses can also help you navigate difficult times, as I have personally discovered. When I first set out to write this article, I wanted to explore how our senses can help us feel calmer and experience more joy and wonder. But by the time I sat down to write, my life had changed quite a lot. I was now navigating a chronic illness.
Even though I’ve had a chronic illness in the past, my latest health challenge came as a surprise. When I was in my 20s, I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome after getting glandular fever during my final year at university. It took me seven years to rebuild my health and life. I honestly believed chronic illness was firmly in my past. However, in 2022 after getting COVID-19, I experienced a flare-up of past health issues. A year and a half later, I’m still trying to recover.
It’s been an incredibly hard experience going through chronic illness again, especially now I’m a wife and mother. I’ve felt deeply frustrated not being able to do the things in my life that I desperately want to do. I’ve felt so much loss, pain, grief, anger and uncertainty. Humans need a sense of control and agency in life to remain hopeful, yet a lack of control is a common characteristic of living with a chronic illness.
I’ve struggled with this lack of control, often feeling like a prisoner in my own body. While I haven’t been able to control what’s happening to me, I have been able to control what I bring into my day. I’ve aimed to bring as much comfort, joy and pleasure as possible into my days, by intentionally engaging my senses. I’ve used my senses to make the hard days more bearable by doing things like:
- Savouring the smell and taste of my morning coffee
- Sitting in the sun while reading a novel
- Lighting my favourite candle while I meditate or rest
- Having a warm bath with fragrant salts
- Dopamine dressing by wearing my favourite bright clothes, necklaces and lipsticks
- Listening to my favourite uplifting songs
- Resting under my gorgeous handmade Tibetan blanket
- Being by the ocean and having a quick dip or just watching the world go by
These small sensual moments in my day have become important tools for resilience. I’ve found comfort in the simple joys and pleasures in life. My senses have helped me get out of my head, reminded me of the
beauty in the world, and helped me be grateful for the little things that make up my current life. It doesn’t take the pain, loss or grief away, but it does make it easier to face another day, to feel more in control and to hold onto hope.
Tuning in your Senses
Whether you’re facing your own tough times, or simply want more calm and joy in your life, engaging your senses can help you live more fully. Try these suggestions to bring your senses to life:
Sight:
- Visit a museum or gallery
- Go out and take photos
- Watch a sunrise or sunset
- Walk at dusk and notice the changes in the environment
- Put colourful fl owers or indoor plants in your home
- Declutter your home environment for more spaciousness
- Put photos up around your home of your happiest memories
- Try dopamine dressing to brighten your mood
- People watch at a cafe
- Journal to externalise your thoughts and see your inner world
Hear:
- Listen to the sounds of birds and nature
- Create a playlist of your favourite song
- Experience a sound bath with Tibetan singing bowls
- Listen to binaural beats to boost your mood and focus
- Play a musical instrument
- Sing in the shower or join a choir
- Listen to a podcast or audiobook
- Enjoy time in silence each day
- Laugh with others or try laughter yoga
- Go to a concert
Smell:
- Light your favourite fragrant candle
- Have a warm bath with essential oils
- Savour the smell of your morning coff ee
- Bake something that smells great
- Wear your favourite perfume or cologne
- Enjoy the “fragrance” of fresh air
- Enjoy freshly washed, sun-dried sheets
- Bring fragrant flowers into your home
- Smell citrus to enhance your focus
- Spray lavender oil on your pillow to relax into sleep
Taste:
- Eat something new at a cafe or restaurant
- Savour a piece of chocolate or indulgent treat
- Drink an icy cold drink
- Make your favourite meal for yourself or a loved one
- Savour the first sip of your favourite beverage in the morning
- Eat a meal that’s nostalgic to you
- Have fun with a blind taste test with friends or family
- Block your nose to notice how much smell influences taste
- Abstain from a favourite treat, then notice the intensity of flavour
- Quit sugar to notice the natural sweetness in food
Touch:
- Wrap yourself in your favourite blanket on a cold day
- Invest in new towels or sheets that feel luxurious
- Stroke your pet
- Walk barefoot on the grass or sand
- Take a cold shower or an ice bath
- Get a massage or self-massage your acupressure points
- Make something messy with your hands such as pizza dough
- Sit outside and feel the sun or wind on your face
- Swim in the ocean and feel the cool, salty water
- Hug someone, hold hands or kiss a loved one
Creating sensual rituals
Small sensual experiences each day can help support your body, mind and soul. You don’t have to make big changes to experience transformation. Try things from the list above and notice what works for you and start weaving them into your day. Or create your own sensual rituals.
Imagine how you would feel if you started the day by listening and watching the birds or having fi ve minutes to yourself to enjoy silence. Imagine savouring the taste of the fi rst sip of coff ee in the morning, or how your soul would feel if you went for a walk each day at dusk and watched the sun setting.
By creating sensual daily routines, you’ll not only feel better, but you’ll be supporting your brain and nervous system. Chronic stress causes your amygdala to become more sensitive and reactive, but your sensual rituals can keep your amygdala in check.
With a calmer amygdala, your ability to deal with stress improves.
- What is one thing you could do daily to enhance each of your fi ve senses?
- How could you engage your senses more in the morning to start your day well?
- How might these changes improve how you think, feel and work?
Calming an anxious mind
Engaging your senses allows you to live a more mindful life. Being in the present moment is an important skill to have if you experience anxiety. If your mind becomes anxious, try going for a walk and tune into your sense of sight by looking for everything that is green, blue, red etc. I’ve found this simple exercise a great “circuit breaker” when I feel stressed, worried or anxious.
You can also try the 5,4,3,2,1 technique that helps you tune into your environment by noticing:
- 5 things you can see
- 4 things you can hear
- 3 things you can touch
- 2 things you can smell
- 1 thing you can taste
I use this technique with my son when we’re out and about. I love it because it challenges him to be entertained by the world around him, without needing a screen. This technique focuses his mind on the here and now, and he learns to be more observant of things around him.
Reconnecting with awe and wonder
In the busyness of life, it’s easy to lose connection to a sense of awe and wonder around you. By noticing and enhancing your fi ve senses, you can become more mindful, more connected to the world and more open to noticing awe and wonder.
This is especially true when you engage with nature, as you witness a brilliant sunset, the power of crashing waves, a magnifi cent rainbow or a shooting star. It’s in these moments of beauty, awe and wonder that you’re lifted outside of yourself and you connect to something bigger.
In her book Phosphorescence, Julia Baird writes: “Awe makes us stop and stare. Being awestruck dwarfs us, humbles us, makes us aware we are part of a universe unfathomably larger than ourselves; it even, social scientists say, makes us kinder and more aware of the needs of the community around us.”
