"Being present is the moment to moment interest in your experience." ~ G Ross Clark
Coming Back to Your Senses: Our senses are a gift.
Jack: A well-known teacher was asked to describe the modern world. He answered, “Lost in thought.”
TALK When we take a good look at our daily lives, we see that much of the time we are worrying, planning, regretting, being somewhere other than where we are. Often, what's going on right where we are is disregarded because we're so focused on the next thing we need to do, and the next. There's a cartoon that shows a family crossing the Sahara Desert, parents on one camel, children, three of them, on the next three smaller camels. The father's responding to the last little girl and says, “Stop asking if we're almost there yet. We're nomads, for crying out loud.”
We spend much of our life waiting to arrive somewhere else. Like waking from a dream, we might suddenly realize we’ve been gone for minutes maybe hours. It’s like driving in a car and all of a sudden realizing we have no idea of the landscape we’ve been through. It’s as if we are being propelled by an irresistible current speeding along unable to actually arrive in our life. If our habit is to be on our way somewhere else, we miss out on whatever's in front of us.
You might say, “I hate my job” or “Driving on the same stretch of freeway every day is boring, so why not space out?” But the habit of being lost in thought can also mean you miss out on the parts of life you cherish; the sound of wind in the trees, the taste of a fresh strawberry, the glow in a child’s eyes, the touch of a loved one.
A social experiment by the Washington Post put a man with a violin playing Bach pieces for 45 minutes in a Washington, D.C. metro station. During that time approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. Only six people stopped and listened for a short while. No one knew this, but the violinist was the renowned Joshua Bell. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth $3.5 million.
If so many of us do not have a moment to spare to stop and listen to the best musicians in the world, how many other things are we missing? Mindfulness teaches us how to slow down and live our moments right now to be present to life with our senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching, and feeling what is going on inside the body. Neuroscience research has shown that the part of the brain responsible for all forms of sensing including the interior of the body grows with mindfulness training.
And being aware of your senses and sensations in your body can enhance empathy and help you make wise choices. When our senses are open, the adventure of living begins. We start taking in our world with immediacy and freshness, with vividness and wonder. Poet Kahlil Gibran writes, “And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.” When we are present, we share that delight.
PRACTICE You've started your mindfulness training arriving in presence, pausing, and feeling your body breathing, relaxing, and opening to your moment-to-moment experience. In this next guided mindfulness practice, you’ll explore how to deepen that sense of presence by intentionally awakening to your senses.
Again, find a way to sit comfortably and undisturbed for about five minutes. Gently close your eyes. Begin with three deep breaths, letting go of any tensions you can. Let your body breathe naturally again. Now, feel the weight of your whole body on a chair or cushion, the feeling of pressure or warmth where your bottom contacts the seat. Feel the places of contact where your hands rest on your legs or touch each other - where your feet contact the floor or ground. Let yourself also be aware of the feeling of your clothing as it touches your skin - and the air as it touches your face. Keeping your eyes closed. Let your awareness receive the play of images and light at the eyelids. You might notice a flickering of light and dark - or shades, shadows or images. Take a few moments to attend to seeing with relaxed, receptive awareness.
Feeling your breath and sensing the space around you, be receptive to any sense that might be in the air. Discover what is it like to smell and receive the odors that are present just where you are. Now, let your awareness open to the sounds around you. Receive the symphony of sounds and let it wash through you; sounds soft or loud, not just with your ears but with your whole awareness. Take a few moments to listen to the play of sounds - and the space between sounds. Nearby sounds - distant sounds.
Now, with the same receptivity, come back to sense the sensations and aliveness in your body. Bring your awareness inside your hands - feeling sensation there - inside the soles of your feet - inside your chest - and head. Invite your awareness to fill your whole body and sense your physical form as a field of changing sensations.
There is tingling vibration, heat, cool - hard or soft - tight and flowing. And now let all your senses be wide open together - your body and mind relaxed and receptive. Allow life to flow freely through you, listening to and feeling your moment-to-moment experience. Sense what is present here and now. Let yourself appreciate this awake, inner space and presence and the full expression of aliveness that is here.
