EXPLORE: Information Through The Senses

This meditation explores the senses and invites you to focus in and then expand what your senses can tell you! What does joy sound like? We ask this and other questions in this meditation to allow you to deepen and improve sense-awareness! The mind-body connection is front and center and this journey and I invite you to explore these incredible tools!

Transcript

Hey there,

This is Jen with Laughing Lotus Wellness.

Welcome to our meditation practice.

So welcome into our meditation.

Today we're going to explore information through the senses.

And today we're just going to take a look at all five of our senses.

Creating space for each of them and expanding how we experience them a little bit.

So there will be some really traditional ways of experiencing our senses.

And then also I'm going to challenge you a little bit to try some different exercises with your mind and body and senses as we do this journey today.

And so I invite you to take a comfortable seat.

If you're seated I always invite a nice tall spine for the breath.

If you're lying down you can put a pillow beneath your head,

Maybe something beneath the knees.

So getting settled I invite you to close your eyes if you would like or soften your gaze.

And beginning to deepen and lengthen the breath.

With a small emphasis today on just a little bit of an extension on the exhale.

So maybe making that exhale just one count longer than the inhale.

And I invite you to begin today by becoming deeply aware of the state of your physical being.

Just noticing how the physical body is feeling in this moment.

Without any judgment.

Just noticing how the physical body is feeling.

And then releasing that aspect of your experience as we move more deeply into the mind.

And where we might take note of the mind space and emotion.

How we're experiencing that right now.

Just noticing that.

And then releasing that layer of awareness,

Going deeper yet into the intuition.

The senses beyond the thoughts.

Just spending a moment here,

Again with no judgment whatsoever.

Just noticing how you're sensing your intuition today.

Easy and even breath.

Sinking into a breath now without any thought.

Just even in study.

Inhales and exhales.

And as we release that intuitive layer,

Move deeply into the connection of something bigger than ourselves.

A sense of a universal life force right in the center of your being.

A place of pure light,

Pure bliss,

Purest consciousness.

As we begin our journey together today,

We set the tone of our practice by creating an intention or Sankofa.

And you are welcome to borrow mine that I've created,

If that feels like it resonates for you,

Just planting the seed of this thought.

Repeating it three times to send it through the layers of our being all the way into that center being of pure light and consciousness.

I am grateful to explore the way all of my senses inform my experiences and intuition that I might be guided by my internal knowing.

I am grateful to explore the way all of my senses inform my experiences and intuition that I might be guided by my internal knowing.

I am grateful to explore the way all of my senses inform my experience and intuition that I might be guided by my internal knowing.

And first I offer that you take a moment here to just notice the state of being you bring to practice today.

Just a snapshot of how are you showing up in this moment.

Checking in with the eyes and the ears,

Nose and the mouth,

And the senses of the hands,

The sense of the skin.

And today we begin with our eyes,

Bringing awareness to the eyes,

Allowing them to become heavy in their sockets,

Allowing them to sink and settle and rest while we breathe here.

Allowing the breath to be the guide today.

Slow and steady inhales and exhales as we become aware of the insides of the eyes,

Sensing space in the insides of the eyes.

And using the sense of the eyes,

Imagining how they connect to the rest of the body.

And as you rest here,

Imagine what does joy look like?

What does peace look like?

What does connection look like?

Using the sense of the eyes,

Notice what joy,

Peace,

Connection look like to you.

Is there a color,

An image,

Memory?

What is the sensation deepening the experience of the eyes?

What does joy look like?

What does peace look like?

What does connection look like?

What colors,

Images,

Symbols,

Or sensations come to the surface as you imagine what those things look like?

How does the sense of sight experience the word narrow?

In the eyes,

Bringing awareness to the eyes,

How do they experience the word narrow?

How do they experience the word wide?

Allowing the sense of sight to take in these words and listen in for what the eyes have to tell you.

And breathing here,

You're so grounded and centered as you notice the breath and bring awareness to the eyes and your sense of sight as you explore and feel a sense of sight.

You breathe in awareness as we move into the sense of hearing,

Opening the ears as you expand the sense of hearing.

What do you notice in your space around you in this moment?

And what happens when you allow the ears to relax?

Bringing mindful awareness to the ears,

Releasing any tension around the ears or in the ears,

Releasing the ears as you breathe.

What do you notice you can hear with no straining?

And allowing the body to stay at rest as we allow the sense of hearing only to expand.

And now for a moment,

Imagine what love sounds like.

What about kindness?

How these sounds present to you,

These words,

As a flute,

A motor,

Singing.

Perhaps a memory flows into mind where there is a sensation in the body.

Pausing here with the breath and expanding the sense of hearing,

Releasing the ears and body to the experience.

And when you think of something painful,

What do the ears do?

When you think of something beautiful and generous,

What do the ears do?

Exploring the sense of hearing and what's happening to the ears and listening,

Creating connections in the body and mind.

What would your soul want you to notice as you listen?

What does it have to say?

Breathe here to listen for a moment.

And notice what the word loud feels like here.

How the ears respond,

How hearing reacts to the word loud.

And then what happens when we think of the word soft?

What happenings in our ears and the listening?

What happens as those words come in?

What experience happens for the ears and your hearing?

Breathing here,

So grounded and centered as you notice the breath,

Bringing awareness to the ears and your sense of hearing as you explore and feel into the sense of hearing.

Now moving into the sense of smell,

Bringing all of your awareness to the nose,

The nostrils.

The air flowing in and out of the nostrils,

Pausing here for a moment just to sense the nose.

Vibrant life force flowing into and out of the nostrils,

Connecting here,

Rooting into the sense of smell.

And as you explore the sense of smell,

Bringing awareness to the connections you may have to what love smells like.

What happens in the nose as you imagine love?

Calling awareness to what peace smells like.

Does a memory come forward?

Is there a scent that represents peace for you?

Does an emotion come forward?

Noticing what the nose does when you think of peace and breathe into that here.

I invite you to consider what it smells like when we feel hope.

Sending awareness to the nose,

The nostrils as the breath is flowing in and out.

And imagine what hope smells like,

Allowing the olfactory sense to be your guide for this moment as you notice what hope smells like as you breathe here.

You are so grounded and centered here as you notice the breath and bring awareness to the nose and your sense of smell to explore and feel into the sense of smell.

As we journey now into the sense of touch,

Placing awareness in the hands,

Really feeling the palm of the hands,

The fingers.

Bringing the sense of awareness and touch to the hands and fingers.

Imagining the swirls of the fingertips that are distinctly you,

Like your own personal map in the very ends of the fingers.

And now allow the hands and fingers to relax and release,

Bringing peace to the hands and the fingers.

And with that awareness in the palms of the hands,

Imagine you can see the lines running across the hands in different directions as if you were seeing them with your inside mind,

Not the eyes.

The lines and crosses that fill the palms of the hands.

As you light awareness in the hands and fingers,

Fingerprints and palms,

What do you notice happens to the hands when you imagine the word press?

What happens in the body,

The mind,

The soul when you imagine the word press?

Is there a color,

Texture,

Anything else come forward for you?

What happens in the hands with the word press?

And what about the word caress?

What happens for the hands and the fingers as you notice the word caress?

And what happens when you sense the word gripping in the hands?

What comes forward in the body,

Mind,

Sensation of the hands when we consider what it's like to grip?

Taking a cleansing breath,

Inhaling in,

Exhaling out.

When we explore and expand the senses of our hands,

What happens when you consider kindness and touch?

Taking a moment to notice kindness in the hands.

Taking a moment to notice what power feels like in the hands.

And does an emotion come forward,

A sensation?

And one more cleansing breath here as we're breathing,

Nice inhale,

An elongated exhale.

And now notice the word heal in the hands,

Bringing awareness,

The sensation experience of healing in the hands,

Pausing here as you breathe,

Just noticing healing in the hands,

The emotions and sensations of healing in the hands,

Breathing here,

So grounded and centered as you notice the breath and bring awareness to the hands and your sense of touch as you explore and feel into the sense of the hands.

And last we move into the sense of taste,

Bringing the awareness now to the inside of the mouth,

Relaxing and releasing the tongue from the roof of the mouth,

Really sensing the inside of the mouth,

The roof of the mouth,

The teeth and the tongue,

Relaxing and releasing,

Even releasing a sense of tension that might exist in the jaw and allowing the mouth to open just a little bit to deepen the relaxation of the mouth.

As you expand your awareness into this beautiful space,

Relaxed and released,

Sense of taste,

Imagine the taste of softness in the mouth.

Can you imagine and explore softness in the mouth?

What is that like?

Does it have a taste?

Is there a sensation?

And where in your mouth might you feel activation or taste?

And for a moment,

Imagine the word bitter.

What happens when you are present in the mouth and in taste?

How do you experience the word bitter?

Allow the mouth and sense of taste to explore the word bitter.

What do the taste buds do when you consider the word bitter?

And releasing that,

Taking a beautiful cleansing breath,

A nice inhale in,

Elongated exhale out.

And bringing awareness to the inside of the mouth again,

Imagine what uncertainty might feel like.

What does uncertainty taste like?

What sensation do you notice in the mouth?

And cleansing breath again,

Inhaling in,

Exhaling out.

Now imagine what confidence tastes like.

Expand and explore the sense of confidence and taste.

Is it a memory?

A flavor?

And as you breathe here,

Now call up when the experience happens,

When you think of the word tight.

Calling up the word tight in the mouth.

What happens?

Experience this moment and now experience a moment of gentle in the mouth.

Taste or sensations floating in and out.

Exploring these two opposites for a moment.

Tight and gentle.

And breathing here again,

You are so grounded and centered as you notice the breath and bring awareness to the mouth and your sense of taste as you explore and feel into the sense of taste.

And now releasing all parts of the senses as the body as a whole is a receptor.

Bringing awareness now to the length of the body,

The whole body.

How does the body experience joy?

Allow the body to explore the word tall.

Allow the body to explore short.

How does the body and senses experience the sense of being alive?

What senses light up for you the most when you think of being alive?

Allow the body to explore the senses to explore what it's like to be alive.

And what of the breath?

What happens when you drop into the breath?

Add the word slow to the breath and explore the shift.

In this moment,

Really taking this moment to just be aware of the senses that are most deeply engaged,

How they feel.

The words,

Sensations,

Experiences that most describe a sense for you in this moment.

A cleansing breath here,

Inhaling in,

Exhaling out.

Now placing awareness in the whole of the body,

The whole of the body and exploring floating.

Any memories,

Sensations,

Experiences as we allow the body to explore floating.

And now breathing here to explore grounding.

What do you notice in the body as you move from floating to grounding?

Sensations,

Experiences,

The senses.

And now in the whole body,

Explore peace as you breathe here.

Explore the word peace through all of the senses,

The muscles and bones,

The cells of your being,

Experience peace.

And returning to Sankalpa for our practice as we close today,

Using my words as your words if they resonate.

I am grateful to explore the way all of my senses inform my experiences and intuition that I might be guided by my internal knowing.

I'm grateful to explore the way all of my senses inform my experiences and intuition that I might be guided by my internal knowing.

I'm grateful to explore the way all of my senses inform my experiences and intuition that I might be guided by my internal knowing.

Slowly returning to the earth body,

Feeling the sense,

The muscles and bones and how they root you in the physical plane.

Taking a moment to explore and coordinate the physical body,

The breath and senses.

Making space to expand the awareness in this inner realm of your being.

Bringing awareness to how you are feeling now,

Just exploring how the body,

Emotions and breath connect you to this very moment.

Bringing awareness to the breath in your body as it expands the chest,

Ribs and belly,

Bringing in vital life force energy.

Just exploring that breath.

Beginning to run the thumbs across the hands of the fingertips,

Bringing sensation into them.

Beginning to bring awareness in the fingers and hands.

You might rub your hands together to create some warmth and sensation.

And gently place those hands over your heart or belly or both.

Just sensing the movement of the body as you breathe.

Connecting this moment to how you are feeling as you breathe.

Pausing here as you take a moment to explore the sense of having been on a journey of the senses.

How deeply connected our senses are to our experience and journey here.

How they have the power to inform us of memory,

Emotion and experience.

Imagine how you can take this tool and skill with you into your daily life.

How you might more deeply experience the very moments of your life.

How can this help you expand intuitively?

I invite you to hold on to this experience and allow it to take root in your soul,

This internal landscape.

And pause for a moment of gratitude for all the ways your senses enhance the journey you take.

And as we close,

I'm so grateful for this connection and our senses today.

For the awareness and present moment of sharing and exploring our senses together.

I invite you to bring your hands to a pair position at heart center if that feels good.

And otherwise you can leave your hands at rest.

As we close,

I say the sense of knowing in me and the sense of knowing in each of you.

Making us one in the collective knowing.

Namaste.