True spirituality, true aliveness…is deeply rooted in our bodies.

Br. David Steindl-Rast

Welcome to Day Two of Enliven Your Spirit

Many people today live in a state of sensory overload — from background music, television screens, billboards, or our own phones set to ensure that we don’t miss a message, news alert, or appointment. One might think that such continual sensory input might improve our senses and even help us perceive the world more fully. But for most of us, the opposite is true. Instead of deepening our capacity to be awake to the world around us, sensory overload diminishes our ability to experience life’s extraordinary offerings — the subtle aroma of our morning tea, the sound or smell of rain, the taste of a peach, or simply the warmth of own hands clasped together. 

The complexities of life, of course, can sometimes make it hard to notice the sensory gifts of the world, but the practice of living gratefully invites us to slow down enough to fully experience what we touch, see, hear, smell, and taste — in whatever combination of sensory capacities we each have. “Until I attune my senses,” Br. David reminds us, “my heart remains dull, sleepy, half dead.” Attuning to the sensuousness of the world wakes us up. Through practice, we  move from sensory overload to sensory awareness and appreciation. We no longer take our senses for granted, and we swing the door wide open for beauty, wonder, and delight. Buddhist scholar and peace activist Joanna Macy describes it this way: “To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe — to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it — is a wonder beyond words.”

Today’s Practice: Root Your Spirituality in Your Senses

Begin today’s practice by reading Li-Young Lee’s beautiful poem, From Blossoms. The poet reminds us of the rich sensory experience of something as simple as buying and eating fresh peaches — and how the senses of smell, touch, and taste offer a portal to the feeling of being fully alive.

From Blossoms

by Li-Young Lee

From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

After reading the poem, move through the following steps to awaken and appreciate the gifts of your physical senses.

Step One: Pause and Breathe

Begin by finding a comfortable standing or sitting position and taking a few centering breaths. Bring to mind a sensory experience you’ve had that, like the poet’s, was a simple moment but one that gave you a feeling of joy or even a kind of momentary transcendence — planting something, petting your cat or dog, sitting in the warm sun, smelling the rain, holding someone’s hand. Spend as long here as desired.

Step Two: Attune and Give Thanks

When you’re ready, choose one of your five physical senses as your focus for this step of the practice. Allow yourself plenty of time here. Choose one; repeat later with a different focus. With all sensory practices, modify as necessary so that they work for your physical abilities.

  • Hearing. Put a favorite piece of music on, close your eyes, and just listen without doing any other activity. So often, music is background to something else. This time, just listen, making note of how extraordinary it is that there is such a thing as music! And that you can hear it! Savor this.
  • Sight. Spend a full minute looking around at the room you’re in with appreciation and a sense of wonder. Pay attention to the light, shadows, and colors; a piece of art on the wall; an object or photo you cherish. Consider what you’ve never noticed before and what you want to remember. Appreciate all that is happening to allow you to see.
  • Taste. Take an entire minute to eat a small piece of chocolate, fruit, or some other food you like. Close your eyes and notice all the flavors and sensations that we often miss when eating without noticing our senses or without intentional appreciation. Give thanks for all who made it possible for you to have this food and for the gift of taste.
  • Smell. Choose something you have on hand that has a scent you love — perhaps an orange, coffee beans, a flower or plant. Close your eyes and simply breathe in this delicious smell, taking note of how it makes you feel. Savor this amazing capacity you have.
  • Touch. Select an object nearby and hold it in your hands — a cup, a pen, a book. Close your eyes and attune to all the details your fingers can sense — texture, softness, edges, angles, temperature. Imagine for a moment a world without touch, and cherish this gift.

Step Three: Reflect

  • What feelings, welcome or challenging, arose when you focused on the gifts of a specific physical sense?
  • In what ways does greater awareness and appreciation of your senses awaken a feeling of connection to others or to all of life? 
  • How would you define the relationship between your bodily experience and your spirituality?

As you continue through your day, be on the lookout for the gifts that your physical senses provide. Slow down enough to appreciate what is offered to you, and take note any ways that you feel more alive as a result.

Scroll to the bottom of the page (or click here) to find the Community Conversation space where we invite you to share your reflections about today’s practice.

Deepening Resource

In this 10-minute film by Reflections of Life, four individuals share what opens up for them when they pay attention to the natural world through their senses and don’t take any of it for granted. Toward the end of the film, Jenny Cullinan shares this insightful reminder: “It’s a magical planet, it’s a place of incredible diversity. And if we tap into that, we are filled with it. And from that place you are strengthened. And from that place you are kinder. And from that place you are a better person for yourself and for others.”

Inspired by Nature video cover

Inspired by Nature by Reflections of Life

Research Highlight

In research that seeks to understand the vital role our senses play in feeling fully alive, Professor Jonathan Berger of Stanford University explores the ways that sound, sight, and spatial perception work in combination to elicit powerful emotions, including transcendent experiences of wonder, beauty, and awe. In other words, how do music and sacred spaces, both natural and human-created, work together to create distinct conditions that “unlock the spiritual experience of sound”? 

Photo by Julian Hochgesang
Poem from Rose: Poems. Posted with permission of BOA Editions, Ltd.


Pathways