Using All the Senses to Experience Life Can Promote More Joy

See, Hear, Smell, Taste, and Touch are the five commonly understood senses that allow us to connect with the world around us. We use them all the time and amass sensory input in droves. But when life gets too busy and overwhelming, many of us stop paying attention, taking both our senses and their input for granted. Sensory engagement is an effective tool for a happier life so maybe it’s time we started consciously using all the senses to promote joy.

California Dreaming

I was recently fortunate enough to spend some time in San Francisco-adjacent Marin County. Marin is renowned for its natural beauty, encompassing diverse landscapes like the redwoods of Muir Woods, the rugged coastline of Point Reyes National Seashore, and the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. It is also home to a dear friend of mine who is a brilliant woman, a wellness expert, and an incredible hostess. Her home is nestled in nature and flows seamlessly between indoors and outdoors.

As I sat on her back deck, taking in the flora and fauna surrounding me, I felt my senses of Smell and Hearing become significantly heightened. I’ve lived in New York City long enough that I’m often oblivious to the offensive sounds and smells that permeate. I certainly don’t seek them out. But in California, I was able to inhale the fresh air and with it the opportunity to take a beat and use my senses for good. Sweet smells of so many different plants and flowers were everywhere. I could hear water running along a creek and wind chimes that lured me into a trance. I finally understood what true sensory engagement means. My mind and body felt more settled than they have in a long time.

Mindfulness and Intentionality

I returned home determined to notice more good. Negative sights, sounds, tastes, smells and feelings seem louder than the positive ones so it makes sense that we need to be mindful and intentional when it comes to using all the senses in the most productive way. Mindfulness and intentionality improve every component of our overall health. I always make it a point to notice the things I see as I walk. During the pandemic, my daughters and I embarked on a 365-days-of-beauty challenge where we took and shared a photo of something beautiful we saw each day. We felt joy in the beauty we noticed around us, enhanced by sharing.

Hear and Smell

The same is not as true for me where smells and sounds are concerned. Prior to my California trip I did not make a conscious effort to notice sounds and smells. Again, I live in New York City, which says a lot. Curiously, when we intentionally listen to hear the pleasant sounds around us, it turns out they’re there. Some days, I might detect four different sounding birds chirping at the same time. Without intentionality, I otherwise mostly hear ambulance sirens and honking horns. Birds chirping seems like the better sound choice if the goal is to feel happier. I even heard wind chimes on a recent walk and I’m now struck by how often I hear music.

Similarly, the smells that flow through when intentionality is absent may well be coming from the garbage, sewers, or dog poop. When I focus on smells, though, I find I love the smell of my clean laundry, the flowers in my home, the flowers outside, the food that I cook, and the smells emanating from a nearby bakery. Smell is my most neglected sense. This is possibly because I’m generally more concerned with avoiding the negative than appreciating the positive. I’m working on changing that.

Life in Five Senses

The concept of a most neglected sense comes from Gretchen Rubin, whose book The Four Tendencies, was the subject of an earlier post. The idea for her more recent New York Times bestseller, Life in Five Senses was born after a visit to the eye doctor where she started thinking about the things she would no longer see if she lost her eyesight. She launched an experimental journey to rediscover and reconnect with her world by seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching. The experiment reinforced the ways our senses can help us cheer up, calm down, live in the moment, experience more pleasure and energy, deepen connections, and even touch the transcendent. By tuning in to the five senses, we can forge a path to a happier and more mindful life with more energy, creativity, luck, and love.

In a place like Marin County, much of life is lived outdoors. It seems easier to launch the same kind of experimental journey if you live that way. My visit was such a reminder of the fact that we’re better off when we maximize the time we spend in nature even if the maximum is different depending on where you live. Spending time in nature is good for both our physical and mental wellbeing. We can deploy our senses as joy receptors anywhere but they seem most sharp outdoors in natural sunlight and we owe it to ourselves to be as joyful as possible. Still, the beauty of our senses is they are part of us, wherever we are. We can be as aware and focused as we choose to be, anywhere. Our senses are always ready to be deployed and engaged to make our lives richer.

Musical Playlist While You Ponder This Post

You Fill Up My Senses by John Denver, That Smell by Lynyrd Skynyrd, I Can See For Miles by The Who, Touch Me by The Doors, I Can See Clearly Now, Touch Me in the Morning, Another One Bites The Dust, The Sounds of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel, Taste by Sabrina Carpenter

Thinking and Trying

Something to think about: “The problem with people who are afraid of imagination, of fantasy, is that their world becomes so narrow that I don’t see how they can imagine beyond what their senses can verify. We know from science that there are entire worlds that our senses can’t verify.” – Katherine Paterson

Something to try: Take Gretchen Rubin’s quiz and determine which is your most neglected sense, the sense you least often turn to for pleasure or comfort. She’ll suggest ways for you to awaken your appreciation for it. As she says, “once you recognize your neglected sense, you can use this self-knowledge as a shortcut to a richer life. You can find a new source of comfort, calm, and creativity; you can find fresh experiences that will delight you; perhaps most important, you can make opportunities to engage with other people.”

Join Our Tribe

I always feel smarter and stronger when I listen to and connect with wise people. My friends and fellow coaches Maria, Marguerite, and Lorin are among the wisest people I know. The four of us have joined together to bring you Four Wise Women, a podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. We use this space to share our thoughts, concerns, and joys relating to our journey through midlife. Whether you’re seeking guidance, validation, or simply the comfort of knowing you’re not alone, we hope you’ll tune in to be part of this community of wise women. We add new episodes on Thursdays.

Coaching Can Help

The first step when committing to live in all the senses is making a commitment to mindfulness and intentionality. If that sounds woo-woo to you or simply something you can’t fathom making work, consider working with a coach. Contact me here and let’s talk about what coaching can do for you. The first session is 15 minutes over Zoom and it’s free.