Mindfulness Of The Senses

We can use our 5 sense as wonderful doorways into presence. This practice invites in time to notice each sense, how alive areand we are in any given moment. Connection like this is allows us to appreciate aspects of ourselves that often are more in the background of experience.

Transcript

Welcome everyone into this practice,

This meditation,

Where we will have an opportunity to connect to all five senses as they beautifully provide a map that guides us to presence.

Because our senses are something that's always here with us all the time.

We're not seeing or hearing into the past or smelling beautiful scents into the future.

When we are able to connect to these really important and precious aspects of this being human,

It really invites a sense of wonder,

Appreciation,

And connection.

So let's begin.

Just allow yourself to find a comfortable seat if that's how you'd like to explore this practice.

But you're also welcome to lie down if there's a place in the grass or even stand as long as it feels comfortable in your body right now.

Let's invite in five slow rounds of breath where you can really allow the body to draw the inhale in fully as if you wanted to bring it down to the soles of your feet.

And then allow the body to naturally release the breath out.

Taking a few rounds of breath allowing for this innate,

This natural rhythmic quality,

This flow that's always here with us.

But our breath tends to be something that sort of hovers in the background of experience.

So by allowing it to be what we're placing our attention on creates this real opportunity for feeling more clearly here.

Just noticing breathing and noticing the feeling of the body.

So whether you're feeling the connection of the sit bones to the chair or the feet into the ground.

These little signals of sensation really just allow us to feel like we can land more firmly here because sometimes it can take a little bit of time if the mind was busy,

We were multitasking,

Or just feeling a lot.

And as you're settling into the place you are,

We'll begin to start to draw our attention to these five sense doors.

And we'll first just allow ourselves to connect into our vision,

This sense of sight.

And so often the eyes are scrolling through screens and taking in a lot of sometimes too much information.

And now we get to really widen this lens and just be an observer to what's in front and around.

So I invite you to just allow the eyes to be placed and notice three things in front of you.

It could be an object like a tree,

It could be a person,

Could be some grass,

Artwork that's here.

But just allow yourself to slowly take in three things that you can see easily in front of you.

And in that maybe noticing color,

The size of the objects you're focusing on,

The texture.

Allow yourself to fully take in what you're seeing,

All these elements of the objects that you're using in this particular practice.

Whether it's near or a little bit further away from you.

So you can even bring that sort of element of distance in or nearness.

And then after you've had some time to just allow the eyes to take in this delight of color and texture and form,

We're going to draw our awareness now to the sense door of the ear,

Of listening.

And see if you can connect into two sounds just so it doesn't feel too much or too overwhelming.

You could even use my voice if that's something that feels easy to connect in to begin this connection to listening.

You could take in the sound of a bird or someone chatting nearby or the sound of someone moving,

A car driving by,

Feet walking on the pavement,

Whatever it might be.

And just taking in the quality of sound.

Is it loud?

Is it soft?

A short sound or something that's sort of continuing for some time.

Just noticing sounds.

And that that can really be a beautiful doorway to presence,

Seeing and hearing.

Next we're going to gently move our awareness to the sense door of touch.

And it could be noticing what your body is sitting on.

So if you're in a chair,

Feeling that connection of the body to the chair or the bench.

It could even be just maybe your hand placed on your knee or feeling the touch of the clothes on your skin.

Or if you're holding hands with your child or a partner,

Just noticing that sense of touch.

It could also be the breeze,

You know,

Sort of gently tickling the skin.

Just allow yourself to connect into touch.

And it's okay if now and then something distracts you from the practice.

That's natural to happen.

Our mind can take in a lot so can all these other sense doors.

But once we notice distraction comes in,

We can come back to this point of focus,

Which is touch in this moment.

We'll slowly allow the quality of touch or the texture of touch to drift into the background of experience and draw yourself now to scent.

Placing your attention at the tip of the nose and see what you notice here.

It could be the scent of food,

The coffee or tea,

The scent of flowers or other sort of sense that come from being outdoors.

Just see what you can detect when you're focusing your attention fully in this way.

In this connection to this portal of scent.

And just connecting in these ways to just one point of focus allows the mind to rest from busyness and all these other ways of being.

So this practice becomes restful when we can just be single point focused.

And we'll finish with allowing your attention to drift into the sense door of taste.

Maybe even moving the jaw a little bit,

Allowing the tongue to move in the mouth.

And maybe you can detect the taste of something you've just had recently.

If you had breakfast or a snack or lunch.

Sometimes you can detect the taste of coffee or tea or juice.

And if it feels a little difficult to do that,

Then sometimes it can help to imagine what you just recently ate.

What did that taste like?

What was it like?

Was it salty,

Sweet,

Bitter,

Spicy?

Even imagining the sense door connects you to it and to presence.

Being with this quality of taste,

One of the things that helps us feel alive as a human being.

Tasting the goodness in food,

Enjoying this aspect of life.

Now softly allowing this sense of taste to drift into the background of experience.

And let's come back to just noticing your whole body as it is.

Whether you're seated or standing or even if you found yourself taking a slow stroll,

Just noticing how you're feeling right now and how alive our bodies are in any given moment.

With sight taking in what's around us,

The sounds,

The touch,

The taste,

The sense,

The sensations in our body.

How all of these beautifully show us where here is.

Because there is no other place to really be except in the here and now.

And let's finish with three slow rounds of breath,

Allowing the inhale to travel in gently but also in a way that feels generous.

And really releasing the breath out like a sigh.

Taking two more deep rounds of breath like this.

And then coming back to just this wider lens of where you are right now.

I really hope you have enjoyed this practice and this connection to these aspects of ourselves that sometimes we just forget about.

I hope it's been a benefit.

Thank you so much for spending time with me.

And take care.