It is that wonderful time of year to say goodbye to bleak winter and hello to spring! No matter what part of the world you live in we all go through the natural cycle of the seasons. For many, winter represents a period of dormancy and introspection, while others might feel over stimulated, stressed, and lacking in focus and direction.
With the arrival of spring we have a chance to bring our selves back to life in a whole new way! It is a time to grow and stretch and awaken our senses. How might you do this? The answer lies in deciding what’s most important and also, what’s unimportant. When you choose one thing to focus on, you are also choosing one of your senses to focus on. You might ask yourself, “What sense am I choosing right now?” and “What might distract me from this experience?” We invite you to focus on one sense each day for a week leaving one day at the end of the week to savor the learning. For example, to honor your sense of sight, you might turn off the TV and create the environment where you are savoring and being with what you see around you. And, we invite you to share with us what came up for you after reading this and/or how this worked for you.
To get you started we would like to share with you some sensual experiences from our travels, along with other suggestions you might use to celebrate your senses:
Sight – lush rolling hills of wine country, sunsets of the red rock in Sedona, and the unique desert trails with miles of cacti in Tucson
Other ideas: view your favorite art at a museum or rent the movie, Under the Tuscan Sun.
Smell – wildflowers along the trail near Los Olivos, in wine tasting the bouquet where you stick your nose in the glass
Other ideas: fresh baked bread, a scented candle, or take in the aroma of a wood-burning fire.
Touch – As Susan’s favorite sense, she has enjoyed full body hugs, a free massage from a massage student she met in Sedona, and the feel of cashmere socks she bought at the Quartzsite flea market.
Other ideas: petting an animal and wearing your favorite comfy clothes.
Taste – fresh cooked kettle corn, a late harvest Cabernet wine, and aged Gouda in Solvang (Yum!).
Other ideas: rediscover a familiar food from your past along with the pleasant memories it evokes. Or, order something at a restaurant you have never tried, savoring every bite that enters your mouth.
Hearing – waves crashing against the shore while taking a nap with the windows open in the RV on Pismo Beach, the sound of silence at a nice, quiet campground (in contrast to car alarms and booming music when we stay overnight in a Wal-Mart parking lot).
Other ideas: the laughter of children at a playground. Also, listening intently to another person you deeply care about.
Intuition – This is a sense you may not be familiar with and is referred to as the “sixth sense”. It is a gut feeling, the knowing of something beyond the other five senses, though we all experience it in different ways. As coaches, we use this often as a way to expand the coaching and offer other options to our clients. We also use our intuition when we are unsure which way to turn at an intersection. Many times, we have sensed that something is just not right about a situation without any tangible reason in our heads, later finding out that there was a traffic jam or the gas prices really were cheaper at the previous location.
Other ideas: when unsure of a decision, see what your intuition has to tell you.
