This week I invite you to expand and deepen your sensory awareness with a sense meditation.
- Find a comfortable place to sit outside and begin with your eyes closed, focusing on your breath. Bring all of your awareness to the surface of your skin.
- How does the air feel? Is it humid or dry? Can you feel which way the wind is blowing from? How does the fabric of your clothing feel against your skin?
- Once you have activated the entire surface of your body, start listening.
- Can you hear any birds? If so, how many different ones? If you are in a populated area, what do you hear in your neighborhood? Cars driving? People talking? Music? What is the closest sound to you? What is the furthest away sound you can hear?
- Bring your awareness back to your breath but now focus on what you can smell. Take slow deep breaths and then shallow quick breaths.
- Which breathing technique helps you smell more? Can you pick up on any subtle smells in the air? Are there any flowers blooming? Can you smell anything cooking?
- Finally, open your eyes.
- Can you look at the world without labeling what you see? What colors do you see? What shapes? What patterns? What is the most distant thing you can see? What is the closest thing you can see?
- Now try to see with wide angle vision, focusing on your peripheral vision rather than what is directly in front of you. See if you can really take in the bigger picture rather than just the details.
- Now all of your senses are activated, how do you feel? How has the world around you come to life?
This is a technique I learned while working at the PINE project, a nature connection school based out of Toronto. This sense meditation can be a tool to ground into your body and deepen your relationship with the land. See how the magic of the world reveals itself to you when you activate your senses!
