How to use your senses to support your mental wellbeing

With over 7 trillion nerves feeding information to your brain, your nervous system is responsible for how you experience the world and your own body. By tapping into your senses, you can use this system to actively relax, become more present and help calm your mind.

What are the senses?

Your senses are responsible for the way you experience the world. Everyone has different sensitivity levels, and some people won’t experience every sense because of illness, disability or medication.

Most people are familiar with the basic five senses of touch, sight, taste, smell and hearing, but did you know there are other sensory systems your body is constantly getting input from throughout the day?

Proprioception is the sense that gives you the ability to understand where your body is in relation to itself and how it is moving. It senses how your muscles are moving and what force they are using to move, push or pull.

Through special organs in your ears and using input from other sensory organs like your eyes, your vestibular system creates your sense of movement and balance.

Interoception is your sense of what is happening inside your body – including sensations like hunger or fullness, breathing and your heart beating – and how these sensations might relate to your emotional experience.

Use your senses to support your mental wellbeing

You get input from your senses constantly. In fact, you can even hear while asleep, though you won’t remember much of what you’ve heard.

Slowing down to focus on the input coming through your senses can be a great way to get mindful and taking some time to enjoy different feelings can create a sense of calm, relaxation and wellbeing. Here are some tips for how to use each sense to support your mental wellbeing.

Sight

• Name the rainbow: a quick way to get yourself into the moment is to actively look around you and spot different objects of different colours. You could look for five blue things, or try to find one item for every colour of the rainbow.
• Scavenger hunt: instead of zoning out while you go for a walk or commute, actively look for pleasing sights. Challenge yourself to spot a bird, look for someone smiling or notice how many different shapes of leaves you can see.
• Around kids? Play a game of ‘eye spy’ to help you home in on what you can see around you.
• Watch something pleasing, like a sunset or sunrise, dogs playing at the park or a campfire.

Smell

• Take a second to smell your morning tea or coffee before you drink it.
• Find a scented garden to walk through and learn about the plants in a new way.
• Bring to mind a nostalgic scent – your mother’s perfume, the deodorant you used in high school, a favourite flower or meal – and recall how it makes you feel.

Touch

• Wear your favourite piece of comfy clothing: a soft cardigan, warm socks or silky robe.
• Take a warm shower or bath.
• Pat an animal.
• Find something to fidget with if you like to keep your hands busy.

Taste

• Have a distraction-free meal, where you turn off all screens and devices.
• Taste each item on your plate individually.
• Try different textures and feelings: add a little crunch or cold to your meal.

Hearing

• Sit outside or by a window for five minutes and note how many different sounds you can hear.
• Play music – soft or loud depending on your preference – and try to pick out all the different instruments.
• Put on a soundscape and let your mind wander.

Proprioception

• Do ‘heavy’ work that stimulates this system, like mowing the lawn or mopping the floor.
• Lift weights.
• Do body-weight exercises, like yoga.

Vestibular

• Rock in a rocking chair, swing or hammock.
• Dance
• Bounce on a trampoline.
• Gently sway your head and shoulders side-to-side.

Interoception

• Do a body scan: lie or sit in a quiet space and check in with how your body is feeling from your head to your toes.
• Do a guided breathing exercise.
• When you feel a strong emotion, stop and pay attention to where and how you feel it in your body.

Everyone experiences sensations differently

Not everyone experiences sensations in the same way. Some people like the stimulation of a loud environment, while for others a busy space will be too much.

You might find you like checking in with different senses on different days, or in different ways. Do what feels good to you, find what helps you relax and know that you can always change it up if something makes you feel uncomfortable.