A five senses attention exercise.
You can sit or lie down for this exercise.
Take a relaxed position without completely sinking away.
Gently close your eyes.
Follow your breath as it is flowing in and out of your body.
Become aware of the breath just breathing on its own.
I invite you to observe it with curiosity and openness,
Just like a little child.
I invite you throughout the exercise to keep this attitude of wonder towards the force of your senses.
Open your ears.
What can you hear?
Which different sounds can you distinguish?
Is there silence around you?
Then you might hear a white noise ever present in the silence.
Just let it come and let it go.
Are there different sounds around you?
Try to distinguish them as well.
Listen deeply.
Listen deeply with curiosity and without judgment about how beautiful or less beautiful the sound is.
Just let it be.
What can you taste in your mouth at this present moment?
Become aware of taste.
Maybe your mouth is dry or not.
Maybe you can distinguish between tastes in the front or in the back of your mouth.
Let's smell now.
Use your nose.
What do you smell in your surroundings at this very moment?
Use your nose intensively.
Can you perceive something?
If you can smell,
Then let the smell come in.
Maybe the smell of your own body or your own perfume or something in your surroundings.
If you can't smell anything,
Just bring your attention to your nostrils.
And with wonder and openness,
Be willing to discover whatever comes up like a smell.
Investigate.
What do you see behind closed eyes?
Circles or stripes?
Different nuances of light?
Or pitch black and darkness?
Now I invite you to open your eyes for a moment and just look straight in front of you.
Are there objects,
Colors,
Close by or far off?
Try to look at this picture completely fresh,
As if it were the first time you saw this.
Close your eyes again to focus on your inner world.
What do you see now?
Is this different than before?
I'm almost sure it is.
Just be present with it.
Now what can you feel through the contact that you can make with your skin?
Your skin,
The barrier between the inside and the outside of your body.
Maybe you can feel your clothes and how and where they touch your body.
Maybe there are spots where you feel how tight your clothing is.
Now I invite you to become curious about the difference of temperature of body parts that are not covered with clothes and those that are covered.
Is there a difference of temperature?
Can you observe a difference?
Maybe there isn't any and maybe there is.
Maybe you can observe the air moving over uncovered parts of your body.
The air of the room that is moving and that you feel passing on those parts.
Just bring your attention to your breath now with calmness and acceptance of what is.
Now imagine the room you are in behind closed eyes.
And whenever you are ready I invite you to open your eyes.
And just for a moment take in your surroundings with your eyes.
