The role sensory input plays, is vitally important in building and supporting the structure and function of both your personal (mind/body) and extended (relationships/communities/society) environments. Let us explore some ways to nourish yourself through your senses to create balance and harmony at the levels of mind, body, spirit, and environment.
Sound
Sound is a powerful tool for healing since sounds and vibration underlie all physical reality. Nourishing sounds have the ability to trigger the release of healing chemicals throughout the body and send signals of harmony and coherence to the deepest levels of your mind/body system. Our music we play within our center was selected for this very reason. Vibration within music achieves a level of sound that creates internal healing. Examples of healing sounds include:
Nature sounds: Rainfall, waves on the shore, and wind through the trees.
Chanting: The primal sounds of ancient cultures have a soothing effect on your mind-body system.
Drumming: Tribal and modern drumming rhythms can create an entraining effect and help align your body with the rhythms of nature.
Primordial sounds: The fundamental sounds of nature can have a profoundly healing effect on all levels of your being.
Mantras: The vibrations of silent or audible mantras can serve as a conduit to deeper levels of awareness and healing.
Music: Countless styles of music can uplift or soothe your mind-body system as well as form powerful emotional and healing associations.
Touch
The skin contains a pharmacy of healing chemicals that, when stimulated through touch, promote a healing effect on the physiology. In addition, healing touch helps to stimulate circulation, enhance immune function, flush out waste byproducts, and calm the mind. Methods to practice healing touch are:
Abhyanga: Daily Ayurvedic self-massage. Abhyanga means the dance of loving hands. When BodiScience has two therapist massage you in a mirror image of one another we create an rhythmic symphony with our hands that increase circulation, encourages lymphatic flow, supports detoxification, promotes sound sleep, reduces stress and strengthens immunity.
Marma therapy: Junction points where consciousness and matter meet. Marmas may be stimulated through light massage such as our PediKarma Kur or other Ayurvedic Treatments.
Become conscious of the substances you place on your body: Chemicals contained in skin and hair care products are absorbed into your body through your skin.
Sight
The eyes are yet another gateway through which powerful sensory information enters your awareness. Anything you gaze upon can have far-reaching effects on your mind, body, emotions, and spirit. Imagine how the sight of a magnificent mountain range or ocean sunset makes you feel. By contrast, visualize the mind-body sensations associated with watching a violent news broadcast or video game. Every image you behold triggers the release of chemicals that are felt by every cell in your body. To harness this sensory gateway, try the following:
Take in natural beauty: Look for the beauty in nature—landscapes, a forest, the ocean, or the starry night sky. As often as possible, spend time absorbing the visual splendor of nature.
Keep your home and personal space visually appealing: Try to eliminate clutter, messiness, or disorder at home or at work. A turbulent and chaotic visual field creates a turbulent mind space.
Practice a visual meditation: Gazing at visual patterns can have a profound effect on your consciousness. Explore candle flame meditation or let yourself become immersed in the shapes of a mandala.
Take a mediation course: Learning your own individualize mantra based on your month, day and year of birth is the gateway to deeply uncovering the vibration of a mantra. The word mantra has two parts: man, which is the root of the Sanskrit word for mind; and tra, which is the root of the word instrument. A mantra is therefore an instrument of the mind, a powerful sound or vibration that you can use to enter a deep state of meditation.
Use color creatively to influence the quality of your well-being: Different colors affect us in unique ways.
Taste
The Ayurvedic word for taste is Rasa, which can also mean emotion or mood. Your experiences and feelings, just like food, come in a wide spectrum of flavors. Ayurveda identifies six tastes—sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent. When eating, it is only after you have experienced all six tastes do you feel completely satisfied. In a similar way, if your relationships or experiences favor one flavor over all others, you will not be in balance. Consider the emotional “menu” below to understand how best to embrace all tastes.
Sweet: In balance is nourishing; out of balance can be overly sentimental
Sour: In balance is stimulating; out of balance can be caustic
Salty: In balance is earthy; out of balance can be hedonistic
Pungent: In balance is passionate; out of balance can be hostile
Bitter: In balance is disciplined; out of balance can be resentful
Astringent: In balance is witty; out of balance is cynical
Smell
Your emotions and memories are deeply connected to your sense of smell. Recall how a whiff of a familiar scent can instantly transport you back to a childhood memory or a profoundly powerful emotional state. Unlike other senses, aromas go directly to the hypothalamus, a part of the brain that, along with multiple other functions, coordinates both the autonomic nervous system and regulates emotional activity. This means that your sense of smell has an immediate and powerful effect on how you perceive the world. Try the following to consciously tap into your sense of smell:
Cultivate and deepen your sense of smell: While there are only six tastes, your nose is capable of detecting approximately 10,000 different odors. Make a conscious effort to notice the aromas in your personal space and try to become aware of their individual characteristics and how they may affect your mood or state of mind.
Tap into the healing power of aromatherapy: Specific aromas can have a powerful influence on mind-body states, triggering healing, restoration, and balance. Utilizing our 5 Quantum Certified Phyt’ethers during times of stress or seasonal changes will assist with balancing emotions and our physical body rhythms.
Harness the power of neuroassociative conditioning through smell: Choose an aroma that you enjoy and inhale its essence deeply whenever you are experiencing a pleasant mental or emotional state such as happiness or calm. Eventually your mind-body system will begin to associate the odor with that emotion or feeling and the scent will become an anchor for that enhanced state of well-being.
Partake in the experience of our Aromatherapy Body Treatment: After receiving an Aromatherapy Body Treatment, take home the scent we have intentionally applied to your body to experience the same mental and emotional response associated with your spa visit.
Your senses are the entry point through which the external world enters your internal world. Therefore, it’s vitally important to be consciously aware and selective about the information you allow into your sense organs. For as you perceive, so you become.
Namaste,
Dawn
