FIRST EXERCISES

Seeing, Listening, Smelling and Tasting

Going Broadband

– extract from Chapter Three

All the exercises are good to do for half a minute a day. Short regular periods of stimulation act as a catalyst: A half minute a day which is interesting or enjoyable is the best way to tell your subconscious "it's time to remember". Short periods reduce the concentrated work-load, make it easy, make it fun.

Generally speaking – go outside – then:

Seeing

– extract from Welcome to the Panorama, and Chapter Three.

If you put both your hands up infront of your eyes, you will get a feeling of how it is to see without any central focus point.

Then, and this is far easier to do outside where things are moving: Find a blank wall, or a monotonous area of sky, and focus on it – but look at all the interesting things happening all around it.

Listening

– extract from The Simple Sense of Now, and Chapter Three.

Because sounds are often quiet or quick, and especially nowadays with the constant noise of machines, it is necessary to listen out, to listen actively.

Listening out is full of surprises. Listen in all directions, near and far, high and low. Imagine how early man might listen out for distant wild boar, or herds of oxen or buffalo, and nearby tigers or snakes. I often listen out for dogs and children; at night, for hedgehogs and owls. I don't often hear them, that's irrelevant, listening out for them is the vital part.

Smelling

– extract from Chapter Four.

Tasting and smelling are intrinsically connected, and they are a far stranger and deeper world than seeing and listening.

Modern day humans are so unfamiliar with their senses of smell and taste, that we need time to relearn them and recognise their potential. Mindfulness exercises often encourage an awareness of the taste of food. In the same way, over the next few days and weeks, whenever you notice a good smell, take a moment to let it fill you.

With tasting, i'm referring to the taste of our own body, we are so familiar with it that we don't notice it anymore. Start to discover it by noticing the contrasts, all the different taste areas on the lips, under the tongue and above it, behind the teeth, the roof of mouth and throat.

The first smelling exercise is to notice that there is a difference in smell, between your 'in-breath' and your 'out-breath'. And at first it's important to develop the sense of smell by noticing this fine difference and contrast between the 'in-smell' and and 'out-smell'. This is also important for a very practical reason: If you only concentrate on the in-smell you will soon get dizzy, noticing the contrasting out-smell, regulates the speed of breathing.

This sensation is enhanced if you open your lips slightly, and then 'smell-in' and 'taste-out'.

Please continue with Chapter Two

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