5-4-3-2-1 Sensory Exploration

Learn and practice a sensory awareness technique to open to your surroundings with fresh eyes. 5-4-3-2-1 stands for finding 5 things you can see, 4 you can hear, 3 you can touch, 2 you can smell, and 1 you can taste. Enjoy the adventure!

Transcript

Let's take a short,

Mindful pause to explore our senses.

This technique is called 5-4-3-2-1,

And it teaches us to see sensory inputs as invitations to be present.

So let's go ahead and practice together,

Starting by looking around the environment that you're in and noticing five things that you can see.

Letting the eyes move about the room,

Resting,

Exploring different objects.

And start to explore your sense of touch.

Are there four things that you can touch and experience in your environment?

Noticing textures,

Even the temperature of the objects that you're touching.

You can even touch your own skin,

Your own clothes,

The surface that you're sitting on.

And then shifting now to notice sounds in your environment.

You might close the eyes down to help focus the mind a bit more.

See if you can notice three things you can hear,

Both near and far.

What about two things that you can smell in your environment?

Maybe opening the eyes again and finding a beverage or some flowers nearby.

You can even smell your own hair or your perfume.

And finally,

Exploring your sense of taste.

Is there one taste that you can still detect in your mouth,

Maybe from your last drink or your last meal?

Perfect.

So that's the 5-4-3-2-1 technique.

It's totally transportable to all sorts of activities in your daily life.

And it works really well with kids.

If you have younger kids in your life and you want to teach them to be more mindful with their sensory inputs,

This is a great way to do so.

Thanks for taking a pause with me today,

And I look so forward to practicing with you again soon.