Everyone needs a little escapism in their lives; whether it’s perusing Instagram or nestling in for some Netflix, we are all for occasional blobbing out! But if you were to add up all the ‘in between’ moments in your day, you might find that the bulk of this time could be used to incorporate some mindfulness practices based on the 5 senses – significantly improving your Mental Health and helping you savour the special moments your day can bring.
These days, we are constantly distracted by the sound of a phone notification, advertising messaging, excessive media consumption, multitasking – and it’s desensitising our senses. To combat this we have come up with some ideas for each day of the working week to recenter and keep you in tune with yourself. It’s about noticing the world around you, taking your time to cherish and seek out activities that make life more pleasurable.
Monday: Taste
- Get to an upcoming food festival or local farmers market
- Try a new recipe from a foreign land
- Grab a friend or your partner to have a blind taste test
- Eat outside, chew slowly
Tuesday: Touch
- Join a pottery class or paint something using your hands or feet
- Walk barefoot in the forest or on the beach
- Massage or spa day
- Really engage with how soil or hand cream feels against your skin, amongst your fingers
Wednesday: Hearing
- Seek out birdsong in a forest or waves crashing at a beach
- Attend a concert, ideally one with instruments
- Sit down on a park or street bench and simply listen to all the sounds around you
- Go somewhere where silence will almost be guaranteed in order to just hear your own breath
Thursday: Smell
- Take part in a cooking class, like one of these
- Do the lawns
- Go to an aromatherapist or perfumery to try different scents
- Walk through your house, noticing all the different aromas or (odours!)
Friday: Sight
- On every hour of the day take a photo of what’s in front of you at that very moment
- Go to an Art Gallery and appreciate something much older than you
- Pick a colour each Friday and seek out anything in that colour for the day
- Fly a kite in the wind to see how it moves in the elements
We will be Instagramming some of our 5 sense explorations this month – join us by simply tagging @happylocalapp!