Five Ways to Use Your Five Senses

Creativity, Health, Mindfulness, Sophrology, Spirit

“One of the greatest keys to unlocking our potential, finding happiness, and freeing ourselves from anxiety and the effects of stress lies in increasing the amount of time we spend in an appreciation and full awareness of the present moment.”

– Philip Carr-Comm, Empower Your Life with Sophrology

Today I want to give you five ways to use your five senses as a way to spend time in appreciation and full awareness of the present moment.

Last year about this time, I shared my Five Senses Mindfulness Activity as a quick way to get grounded. If you are curious, you can either click the link above to get the full activity with audio recording and PDF, or you can just read the description below to get the gist.

1. FIVE SENSES MINDFULNESS ACTIVITY

Wherever you are, go through each of your senses and define what you can feel, hear, see, smell and taste. Take your time to list out everything you can for each sense.

How does it change your impression of the situation?

How does it feel in your body?

I’ve always found that experiencing the world around me through my senses is a quick and effective way to get out of my head, if I catch myself thinking about the past, projecting in the future or even experiencing frustration or impatience in the present. I’ve done this in slow traffic, grocery store line-ups, on my Creative Walking Tours and even while relaxing in the jacuzzi!

The Senses in Sophrology

When I started my sophrology training, I also learned that the senses were an important part of the method, both in the dynamic relaxations and positive visualisations. In the Five Senses Contemplation, you touch and reflect on all your sensory organs, while imaging their function.

It’s easy to take your eyes, ears, nose, skin and mouth for granted, as just things that automatically work. But when you stop to think about it, touching your face as you contemplate all the functions, you realise how amazing the human body is. What a gift your senses are! They’re working all the time! Here’s a brief description of the exercise that you can do on your own.

2. FIVE SENSES CONTEMPLATION

Close your eyes and reflect on all your senses.
Feel your nose and imagine its function
Touch your mouth and imagine its function
Explore your ears with your hands and imagine their function
Lightly caress your eyes and imagine their function
Use your fingers to touch different textures (clothes, skin) and imagine the function of touch

Reflect on how amazing your body and its senses are and how all these things function on their own without any intervention on your part.

Contemplate the miracle of it all.

3. FIVE SENSES CONTEMPLATION WITH A PHYSICAL OBJECT

If you like, you can also try using your senses with a physical object, such as a piece of fruit or chocolate, or maybe a cup of tea or coffee. Look at it as if for the first time. Smell it and listen to it as you touch its textures or cut it open or stir it with a spoon. Taste it with all your presence. What do you notice? What’s new to you? How does this make you feel?

4. FIVE SENSES CONTEMPLATION IMAGINING AN OBJECT

You can also try to do the same thing with your eyes closed, just using your imagination. Think of any piece of fruit and experience it through your senses in your mind. Can you see it, smell it, feel it, hear it and taste it?

Positive Visualisations in Sophrology

Whether it’s to remember what success felt like in the past, contemplate current values, project a future event or just experience the positive feelings of a favourite place, the five senses are the way we set the scene.

Once relaxed, you are invited to think of a specific place. You see it and admire the colours and textures, then you tune in to hear the sounds of this place and maybe you inhale to smell the particular scents. As the scene becomes clearer, perhaps you become aware of anything you can touch and taste.

When you do this with your body fully relaxed, it’s as if you were really there. Any positive feelings associated with this place are activated and registered in the body. Positive feelings feed into positive thoughts and positive actions. The encouragement of these positive thoughts, feelings and actions is one of the guiding principles in sophrology.

It’s a positive cycle that can work in any direction, as you can see in the diagram below.

Try it for yourself!

5. FIVE SENSES VISUALISATION

Get into a comfortable position, close your eyes and begin to relax your body from head to toe with a quick body scan. Once you are relaxed, think of a calm and pleasant place.

Observe this place, its colours and the people who are there with you
Bring your attention to the natural sounds, voices and laughter and all the other things you can hear in this place.
Breathe in the scents, perfumes, odours and everything you can smell in the air.
Touch the objects and materials in this space.
Welcome all the positive sensations that you experience in this place.
Become aware of all the sensations in your body.
Integrate those sensations.

Remember that these sensations are always present in your body and that you can activate them at any time.

Throughout your daily life, as you’re doing the dishes, drinking your tea, taking a shower or getting dressed, take a moment to tap into your senses. By finding a way to be more present in what is currently happening, you will naturally become more mindful, meaning that you are less likely to feel stressed, anxious or worried.

By tuning into how things are right here, right now, you will be reassured.

If you try one or more of these exercises for your five senses, be sure to let me know how it went in the comments below or by sending me a message via the contact page.