2. Sensing

Touchy feely, smelly, yummy, noisy or pretty - all helpful absorbing experiences.

  • For a totally sensational work-out, and a handy way to add a few inches to your and others' waistlines, cook something quin-sensory. How about making chocolate pastry? You'll obviously get the joys of touch, sight and smell, plus sound (OK, a bit of a stretch this one, but imagine the sound of pastry ricocheting off the sides of the bowl) and of course taste.
  • Go into your food cupboard or fridge and smell lots of different foods. Things like vanilla, chocolate, coffee, herbs, and lemon are particularly fab.
  • Rummage through your clothes, or clothes in a shop, with your hands rather than your eyes, feeling the difference between cotton, wool, silk, leather....
  • Instead of window-shopping, go nasal shopping in these sorts of stores:
  • Asian, Greek, Chinese and other great-smelling food shops
  • body pampering stores (Body Shop etc)
  • pet stores (possibly a more mixed olfactory experience, especially if you get too close to some of the reptiles. Or hamsters.)
  • If it's hard to shake off the smell of iguana, try buying a delicious bunch of mimosa and (unlike Bill Clinton) inhale
  • Take a hot bath - and ratchet the sensory experience up to all 5 senses if you nibble while you soak
  • Really notice everything you can see around you, as if you were going to draw it. (Even better, whip out a pencil and paper and draw it!) Describe in your mind, or on paper, features like colour, the effect of light and dark, textures, shapes, contrast, people's interesting physical characteristics etc
  • A less taxing version of this is simply to count the colours you can see.

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