One-Minute Practice: Sensory Awareness

Take a moment to notice your senses.

First, bring your sense of sight into your awareness. Let your eyes soften as you look away from the screen and see around the room or outside. Notice something you haven’t seen before. Observe the particularities.

Now tune into your sense of hearing. Allow the sounds around you to come to the forefront of your consciousness. Notice sounds that are usually out of your awareness. Perhaps close your eyes for a moment and let your hearing be the main thing.Now turn to your sense of touch. Allow sight and sound to drift out of the forefront of your awareness and attend to what the clothes on your body feel like. What about the air touching your skin? Your fingers on the mouse? Your feet in your shoes on the floor?

If you like, add smell and taste in this mindful way.Now you will add your kinesthetic and proprioceptive senses, your sense of where you are in space and what you feel within your own body. As you notice if you are balancing easily and what your muscles and joints feel like, invite a little space into your head/neck joint and into your spine. Allow your bones to hold you up as you continue to release unnecessary effort in your muscles.

As you go back to your day with a bit more conscious awareness of your self in your environment, continue to let yourself use less effort. Enjoy the sense of a little more ease.