Heightening the awareness of the senses through mindfulness is a wonderful way to become fully present, anchored in the moment.
Begin in a comfortable seated position, either sitting in a chair with legs and arms uncrossed or seated cross-legged on the floor. You can sit on a pillow if that helps keep your spine easily aligned in an upright position. You may keep your eyes open, especially if you are reading this and practicing for the first time. Later on as you become accustomed to the practice you may want to close your eyes. Bring your attention to your breath. You may notice that by focusing on your breath you naturally begin to take slower, deeper breaths. Don’t force your breath into a certain pattern, just let it be.
Bring your awareness to what you are feeling. How does it feel to fill your body with your breath? Notice how you feel at the end of exhalations. Can you feel your heartbeat? Do you feel any areas of discomfort in your body? If so, make any needed adjustments or breathe into that area of the body to loosen any tightness. How does the floor or chair feel beneath you? How do your clothes feel against your skin? How does the air temperature feel? What else do you feel?
While maintaining this heightened sense of feeling, bring your attention as well to your sense of taste. What flavors linger in your mouth from your last meal? If you’ve recently brushed your teeth or chewed gum, how does that affect what you taste? What do you taste?
Now bring your attention to your sense of smell. What does your body smell like? Are there scents from any personal products you’ve recently used, like soap, shampoo, or deodorant that you pick up? What other household scents do you detect? Are there smells from a previous dinner or fire that linger? Or smells from candles or furniture polish? If your windows are open, what smells waft in from outside? Perhaps you can smell rain on hot pavement, the earthly smell of damp soil, or the scent of flowering trees or plants. What do you smell?
Now widen your focus to include what you hear. Listen to your breath. What other bodily sounds, like stomach gurgling, do you hear? Become aware of any sounds immediately around you, like the ticking of a clock, the hum of a refrigerator or computer, or noises from a furnace. What noises do you hear from outside? Do you hear any passing cars, buzzing insects, chirping birds, or playing children? What do you hear?
If your eyes are closed, open them to activate your sense of sight. Slowly begin to take in your surroundings. Let your eyes rest on one thing at a time, beginning with small objects that are close to you like a vase of flowers, a lamp, or framed picture and moving in ever-widening circles to include larger things like walls and rugs and things that are further away from you. Finally, take everything into your field of vision, as if you were looking through the lens of a wide-angle camera.
Stay in this mindful, heightened state of awareness for as long as you like. You needn’t leave the mindfulness state when you leave your seated position to return to other activities. Once you learn how to practice mindfulness, you can practice mindfulness meditation anywhere, anytime.