Come To Your Senses (How To Practice Mindfulness Without Adding Anything to Your To-Do List)

I’m passionate about sharing PRACTICAL mindfulness. By which I mean mindfulness that we can actually PRACTICE - because that’s the whole point, right?!

And one of the best ways to practice mindfulness is to make your practice an easy and seamless part of your day (rather than another item on your to do list).

My top tip for making this happen?

Come to your Senses!

As we know, mindfulness is all about bringing our awareness to the present moment. And one of the simplest ways to do this is to bring your awareness to your five senses.   

The present moment is the only time we can see, hear, taste, touch and smell. You can’t smell yesterday and you won’t smell tomorrow - you can only smell now.

You can bring your awareness to your five senses at any time. But one of the best ways to make this a regular habit (meaning a practice!) is to choose one routine activity each day and turn your full awareness to it as you do it.

The activity you choose is not important.  The most important thing is you remember to do it. So choosing something you always do without fail can be really helpful. It can also be nice to start with an activity that you find pleasurable (maybe your morning hot drink?), but it can be just as beneficial (and sometimes even more powerful) to choose an otherwise mundane activity (like squeegee-ing your shower!).

Once you’ve chosen your activity, it’s as easy as 1, 2, 3: 

1. Turn your awareness to your five senses. Notice what you can see, smell, taste, touch, and hear.

2. Notice your mind wander away from your present moment activity, away from your 5 senses.

3. Bring your attention back to the activity and your five senses.

In my video below I’ve chosen making and drinking a hot drink. But often I choose activities like folding the washing, walking from the train station to my office, having a hot bath. I've practiced this so much that I now spontaneously bring my attention to my senses as I go about my day.

But in order to find this spontaneous presence, I first had to commit to a regular habit.

And even now, if I feel like I’m getting off balance or a bit stuck in my head at any stage - I’ll revert to a regular practice of the same activity every day. My most recent regular practice was while squeegee-ing our shower. But now my current fave is my nightly bath (we’ve just had an outdoor bath installed at our house and I’m very obsessed!).

So I’d love to hear - what regular activity will you commit to practicing mindfulness while doing? Let me know in the comments below as this will help to hold you accountable!

And if you’d like additional accountability or guidance in creating your mindfulness practice, I’d love to hear from you. Book in now for a free discovery session to learn more about what working with me would look like.

Emily x