For a minute we would simply listen and remember everything that we heard. We would then take turns telling our class mates what our ears had picked up on. It was a mindful exercise I learned when I was only six utilizing only one of my senses. I still use it today, but I've expanded it to include all of them. Here's my senses experience from today.
I woke up in the early hours of the morning. Everyone and everything was soundly asleep. Not needing to switch on lights, I slowly made my way to the front door, it was all so dark but I knew my way around by feel and my spatial awareness is pretty good.
The door opened with a click and a slight squeal.
I looked outside at the fog that had gathered and sat clinging to everything. It all looked hazy and soft, like a cloud. The air tasted damp and I listened but all I could hear was the eerie silence of the middle of the night. There were no cars, no road noises. There were no animals around, not even the plovers that we sometimes hear, even the trees seemed to sleep.
It felt so calm, so content. Perhaps it was just me projecting what I felt outwards? Maybe. I waved my hand through the air and delighted in the cool mist that settled on it. The air currents from the gesture seemed to remain in the air for a while, swirling around as if dancing to my touch. I felt that even with the stillness, it didn’t feel like a vast expanse of open air, it felt cozy, almost claustrophobic with the fog. It wasn’t too cool and I didn’t feel any of the cold through my clothing, it was a pleasant temperature and there wasn’t even a breeze to sway me or the mist.
Little rustle over there in the underbrush, a cat popped out it’s head and then sauntered away when it saw me – it didn’t seem overly perturbed by my presence. There were no owls, no nightjars, no frogs, I imagined it would feel like this as if I were the only person in the vicinity for miles. Nobody talking on the phone and nobody working on their lawn. No engines humming or lawnmowers mowing. No leaves falling to the ground with the whoosh of the wind. It was just me and the stillness.
My hands felt relaxed and my muscles didn’t ache, I was over the worst of my flu. My body felt good, healthy again. My breathing was regular and even. My pulse slow and steady.
A faint sound wafted in... it sounded like a long range truck many many miles off in the distance, possibly on a mountain pass somewhere yonder for the sound to travel this far. Then as slowly as the sound had crept in, it started to dissipate and was gone.
There were no lights on in the houses, only the faint glow here and there of street lamps and even that looked so blurry through the fog. My mouth was dry and I needed some water, it felt like I could just scoop up a glass of fog and drink it, so thick it was hanging everywhere.
YAWN. I could feel the heaviness sitting on my eyelids again, they wanted to close. My mind was as blank as the area was empty. My body wanted to get warm, cuddly and sleepy again. I smiled at the slumbering world, ready to join in on the fun. Closing the door, I knew that it was a perfect moment of Senses on Saturday. Sometimes the absence of stimuli is in itself stimulating.
Mindfulness is important these days, especially with how busy our lives have become. We need to sometimes remind ourselves that it's okay to take a few minutes to ourselves and become immersed in our senses and reset our minds.