The Six Senses: A Mindfulness Exercise

Today I took my one year old on a walk in her stroller. Walking is a practice that helps me lighten my load when I am anxious. What are the practices that help you to re-center in the midst of the stress of life? For me, breathing, playing with my daughter, singing, yoga, walking, prayer, meditation, conversation with friends, connecting with animals and being in the great outdoors are ways I release worries. During the pandemic, trips to the Chattanooga Zoo have really helped to calm my spirit. The wonder of the male peacocks fanning their tails, beholding monkeys swinging on their ropes, watching giraffes eat leaves off a tree and witnessing children joyfully riding camels helped me connect to the here and now.

The word “grounded” seems to be a buzz word these days, but what does it mean to be grounded? To be grounded is to live with deep awareness of your thoughts, feelings and body. If you are grounded you are able to connect to your surroundings and the present moment. Sometimes being grounded feels like an impossible task, but it is so important to strive to be mindful to connect with the reality of this very moment, instead of allowing your monkey mind to hijack your attention.      

On my walk today with my daughter, the walk itself did not seem sufficient to ground me. I was worried about a situation in my personal life and even though the walk was lessening some of my anxiety, I was still ruminating about a stressful life event. Since I couldn’t shake my fears through the walk alone, I decided to use a simple anxiety reducing technique I often teach my clients. I may be a therapist, but when adversity strikes in my life, just like everyone else I am very human and have the propensity to get stuck in an anxiety loop. Thankfully, my day job equips me with some mindfulness methods in my Emotional Intelligence (EQ) tool bag that help move me from fear to life.  

One of the most effective ways for me to ground myself is to do a simple exercise I call, “The Six Senses.” As I walked with my 1 year old toddler in my neighborhood, I started the exercise by paying attention to my breathing. When I am anxious it often helps me to deepen and lengthen my breath. For example, it is calming to inhale to the count of 1-2-3-4 and then exhale to the count of 1-2-3-4-5-6. When your exhale is prolonged this signals your parasympathetic nervous system, which will calm your body down. After I tuned into my breath, I acknowledged the following six senses.

What do you see?

I saw some pink and purple hydrangea in a neighbor’s yard. When you practice this technique, I encourage you to choose something you can see that is comforting.

What can you touch?

I put my hand on my daughter’s head and she grinned back at me. When you do this exercise you might touch the earth below you with your feet, a leaf or you could even place your hand on your heart.

What do you hear?

I listened intently and heard car engines rumbling, dogs barking and birds tweeting. When you listen for something to hear, it can be your belly rumbling, bees buzzing or if you are inside it might be the sound of a fan.

What do you smell?

It took a few minutes of walking before I smelled the sweet nostalgic aroma of honeysuckle. Honeysuckle takes me back to my childhood, when I loved to pick the flowers and eat the sweet honeysuckle nectar. Be patient with yourself if it takes a while to identify something you can smell. If you have trouble finding something to smell, find a flower or if you are inside you might smell some soap or essential oils.

What do you taste?

This is usually the toughest sense for me to access when I complete this exercise. However, today I decided to get in touch with the seven year old child inside of me and taste the honeysuckle flower I had just smelled. It took some courage to taste the honeysuckle, because I was fearful someone might have sprayed the bush with pesticides! But I went for it anyway and the honeysuckle was just as delicious as it was when I was a child. If you are trying to find something to taste, you might lick salt from your lip, be aware of the taste of your morning coffee lingering on your tongue or remember something you tasted previously in the day.

What do you feel or intuit?

At this point in the exercise I experienced what I sometimes call “God chills” or the sense of an energy bigger than me that is with me in the midst of all my worries. This is a time to be introspective and tune into any feelings you have, whether you are tuning into your intuition, emotions or a divine force.

“The Six Senses” exercise that I teach clients had worked for me. I felt calmer and more connected. Connecting to my breath, seeing the colorful hydrangea, touching my lovely daughter, hearing the sounds of cars and nature, smelling and tasting the honeysuckle and perceiving a sacred presence had pulled me out of my worry and reconnected me to the present moment and to the abundance of life. I was grounded, connected and more mindful of the gifts in my life. Were my worries gone? Not at all. My problems were still with me, but this walk and grounding exercise reminded me that I could push the pause button on my fears and it was as if the birds and all of nature surrounding me were sweetly singing to me that everything was going to be okay.   

Let’s tune into our senses,

Christy

A version of this article was originally published by The Lookout Mountain Mirror. www.mountainmirror.com