Affirmation: “My senses are alive with pleasure and joy.”
One of the fastest ways to tap into your inner bliss is to get in touch with your senses. Your senses bring your world to life. They enliven you and make your life Technicolor. Our senses give us information all of the time, but they are an often untapped reservoir of joy and enjoyment we could have in our lives. One of the reasons we are here in human bodies is to enjoy the experience of duality and of having a body. The sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and sensations of being human are a rich, satisfying cacophony of potential pleasure and enjoyment.
Feeling good and experiencing pleasure are important ways to live a rich and satisfying life. Imagine how good you feel when you take the time to see a gorgeous art exhibit or to listen to beautiful music. These are easy ways to engage your senses and feel enlivened.
Exercise: Awaken Your Five Senses
In order to find the joy that comes from sensory pleasure in a healthy manner, we will create an exhaustive list of sense-enlivening activities. The idea is for you to do something to engage your senses every day to help you have a rich and full life. The novelty of engaging your senses will also trigger your brain to generate more feel-good chemicals, which help make you generally happier.
Grab your journal and a pen or colorful markers. You are going to make a list of at least twenty-five ways you can engage your five senses pleasurably. What will be pleasurable to see, hear, smell, touch, and taste?
Here are some ideas you can use for your list: make icy snow cones, swim in an ocean or lake and feel the water caress your skin, walk in a field and smell flowers and grass, fill your windowsills with glasses full of water with different blends of food coloring, walk barefoot in the grass or on the beach, spend time in the forest and touch the majestic rough bark of different types of trees, dance to your favorite songs with the windows open to let in the fresh air, have a lemonade- and sorbet-tasting party with friends, melt ice cubes on your lover’s body, look at the passing colors of nature as you drive down a country road, and try skinny dipping on a hot night.
Look at your list and pick one thing to do now. Go back to it each day and try to do another activity. Take ownership of your enjoyment of life and make a commitment to experience life’s pleasure on a daily basis. When you are enjoying life and are in touch with your body, you radiate more confidence and feel happier.
Our senses are the lavish gift of being human.
#joyfulliving101