Savor Time - Use Your Senses

It's a cliche I suppose, but one that holds up. As you get older, time moves faster. Suddenly, the days are shorter, the years go by in double time and all that you wanted to be or do comes down to making the right choice for right now. It doesn't help at all that the modern world we are so heavily dependent on keeps a fast pace, one we're asked to stay in sync with. Survival mode wins out over slow living.

John Muir, the naturalist, once said "I'm losing precious days." He was speaking about his desire to escape back into nature, away from the busy-ness of city life and people. He was speaking also, I think, about getting back to a place where time is celebrated by noticing the rhythm of the earth, the animals, the plants. Its passage shouldn't be fleeting - time can have texture and tone, color and shape.

The truth is that the hunger in us to slow down and experience time alongside nature is not random, or aspirational. We are nature and our bodies, our nervous systems, are wired to seek out the same rhythms that nature so effortlessly follows. So the next time you crave silence, slowness, restfulness or being around green things - listen to that craving, follow that desire. It is you wanting to hold on to your 'precious days' and that is a good thing, a human thing.

While we may not be able to change our lives or move to the forest, we can do simple things to recalibrate, taking a few minutes to savor time, even slow it down. Mindfulness practices can do this for us, and it's only a matter of finding one that works for you, so it can become an effortless part of your daily routine. A small shift that can make a big difference.

Below is a mindfulness practice based on the five senses that will bring you to the exact spot you are, in the present moment. The point is to exist in time, not watch it slip away. See if this meditation resonates, try it a few times in different scenarios. If you're lucky enough to live close to nature, go for a walk or sit by a river. If you're in the city, find a quiet room or a bench in a park where you can be alone for a few minutes. Take what you can from the meditation and do your best - it may not be the right one for you in the end, but it will have something to teach. There will be something to savor.

The Five Senses Meditation

1. Find a quiet (er) space where you can sit comfortably. Close your eyes or at least soften your lids to let in less light. Let your hands rest comfortably in your lap, palms down.
   

2. Take five deep breaths - try to inflate your abdomen as you inhale, and deflate them as you exhale. Let the depth be comfortable, not taxing.
   

3. What do you hear? What sounds are close to you? What are far away? Is there ambient sound in the space you're in? Are there layers of sound?
   

4. What do you smell? What is around you, in the air? What do you smell like? Are you wearing a scent, a lotion, nothing at all?
   

5. What do you feel? Can your hands feel the fabric of your clothes? Is there a breeze that brushes your skin? Are you cold, warm?
   

6. What do you taste? Can you taste your breakfast? The last coffee or tea you had? Your toothpaste?
   

7. What do you see? Open your eyes and keep them focused straight ahead. What do you see directly in front of you? In your peripheral vision? Are there colors? Is it light, or dark?
   

8. Close your eyes again, and once more go through what your senses experienced, and perhaps go through the practice one more time or sit quietly for as long as you want.
   

9. When you're ready to end, take five deep breaths and open your eyes.