A Morning Connection- Engaging Your Senses

Good morning,

One of the most powerful things you can do each morning is engage your senses. Indulge yourself in a ridiculously simple yet powerful practice to ground yourself in YOU, before you shimmy along too fast into the day. Before you accidentally choose thinking over sensing, moving over pausing and ‘holding on’ over deep connected moments of breathing.

We spend a lot of our days under the belief that if we act or consume ourselves with thinking about something that in some magic way things will be ‘fixed’. The human mind tends to keep itself busy by playing back the past or analysing the future. That is unless we train it to be here, right now. Train it to be mindful.

So, start the day without your phone on. Carve out a precious window away from the technologically connected world. Cultivate and train your way into “be-ing” mode before you almost certainly shift into “do-ing” mode. Be free to enjoy the waking morning experience from moment to moment. Being in this state cultivates space, awakes your sense, connects you to the corners of yourself. Overtime this is a complete antidote to stress and helps you re-engage with yourself at any moment you need it.

How to do it?

What you simply do in this exercise is notice things that you are experiencing through your different senses. You are not judging anything that you are sensing, you are just bringing them to your awareness. You can do it in a couple of minutes or indulge yourself for longer depending how much time you have.

Stand up, stretch your body, feel the ground beneath you and then take yourself somewhere where you can joyfully engage in your senses. I often go to the window, or I take a step outside. If I am heading out I like to do it barefoot to increase the connection and openness into the day.

Step 1 Notice five things that you can see.

Simply bring your awareness to five things you can see. Try to pick things that are not obvious or things that you normally would not be aware of. Go to the detail of an edging, the pattern or formation that nature makes or materials create. Zoom in further than you would when casually using objects through the day.

Step 2 Notice four things that you can feel.

The next step is to bring awareness of things that you are you are currently feeling. For example, the texture and softness of your clothing or the coolness and roughness of materials. It might be the sandy side of a wall edge, the cold contact of a work surface or the damp springiness of grass underfoot. It may even be the feeling of the cool air that blows on you.

Step 3 Notice three things you can hear.

The next step is to take a moment to things that you can hear. Start close, go wide, notice what’s in the middle. Hear the layers of the birdsong, pull out the different birds and notes. Unpick the noises till you hear the ticking of a clock, the deep breathing of your pet or the tapping of your fingers on a cup.

Step 4 Notice two things you can smell.

Next take a moment to become of aware of two things that you can smell. These can be things that you may not ordinarily notice. It can be the smell of a flower in bloom, a scent on your skin that you didn’t normally detect. Perhaps it’s the freshly brewed coffee or even something less than sublime like a dank smell in the distance that you can faintly detect!

Step 5 Notice one thing you can taste.

Lastly bring your awareness of one thing you can taste. This can be the glorious finale of the exercise as you take your first drink of lemon water, tea or coffee. Or it may be about bringing awareness to the current taste in your mouth. Perhaps it’s even noticing if the air has a taste when you breathe in.

It’s a great once to use when you are in a proper pickle during the day too. It’s a life saver when under intense stress because it unplugs you from the cycle of thoughts that can result in raised heart rate and exaggerated anxiety.

Let me know how you find this and if you have any similar ideas or ways to improve, I’d love to hear more.