Ep 29 Sensory Infused Living

Today, instead of examining “what am I thinking,” we take a moment to ask, “What am I feeling, seeing, smelling, touching, tasting?” In other words, how does wonder open up our awareness – aka – our contemplative experience?

Our senses offer us so much – calm, delight, awe…May we all find ourselves going out and being invigorated by our sensory experiences! 

#Smell
#Touch
#Senses
#Nature 

Additional Resources:
Author, Teacher, Spiritual Companion: Lacy Finn Borgo
Book: Beauty, the Invisible Embrace by John O’Donohue

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Transcript

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

smell, sensory experience, contemplative, nature 

Dominic Kaiser  00:06

Welcome to The Contemplative Life: Three pastors, friends and spiritual companions help us explore spirituality through a contemplative life.

I'm Christina Roberts.
I'm Chris Roberts.
I'm Kristina Kaiser. We're glad you joined us.  

Kristina Kaiser  00:24

Well, hello, everybody, it is good to be with you today! Today we are chatting a little bit about the sensory experience and how it can ignite our sense of wonder and awe and how that leads us to the contemplative. And so I thought that I might start with a little bit of conversation that went on in a workshop that I recently attended with a woman named Lacy Finn Borgo. And so you can look her up, she has a ton of amazing books out there. And she does a lot of work with children in the contemplative in particular, which is super exciting. 

But as I attended her workshop, I found that so much of it relates just as much to adults as it does to children, to the point that you can just roll it right into your adult world. We're not so different from children. So among the things that she talked about, she was often talking about how the senses really matter. So we tend to be a brain based people, right? We tend to think in terms of logic, and "what am I thinking?" And she was pulling in sensory-based experience all the time, kind of, referring to all the dimensions of a person and having that help us experience God and what's going on in the world around us and opening us up. 

And she spends a lot of time talking about wonder and saying: "Through wonder, we gladly give mental space to the unfolding of the human awareness," which I found so fascinating. I was just typing as fast as I could, as she was talking, this notion of the "awe experience" being a full body one. 

And so as I've thought about that in my adult life, I can think of...and I used to laugh about this, but, how many times people would say that they had experienced God in the shower. And it became this kind of running joke that people experience God in the shower. But as time has gone on, it is funny, but it's also like: Of course, you experience God in the shower! Because similar to all those breathing exercises that people do in order to slow down and become more aware, water has that ability to do that, to slow us down. And so I don't know, as we're getting going, how do you guys experience awe and wonder in terms of the contemplative?

Chris Roberts  02:40

I think I found my way into this idea of wonder and beauty and sensory through the the poet John O'Donohue. And he has a fantastic book called "Beauty, the Invisible Embrace." And there's a quote in there that I really like that sort of sent me on this trajectory. But the quote is, "When our eyes are graced with wonder, the world reveals its wonders to us, there are people who see only dullness in the world. And that is because their eyes have already been dulled. So much depends on how we look at things, the quality of our looking determines what we come to see." 

And so I really thought about that a lot. And: How do I want to move forward in life with wonder and looking. And so Christina and I have gone on a lot of walks. It's sort of a daily spiritual practice for us. And I remember in the winter, we would go on walks, the winter into the spring, and we would walk every day down to the lake. Lake Mendota is not too far from our house, a half a mile from us. And we would walk through the woods, and you get to see some beautiful trees. And we would walk down to the lake every day. And I don't know why our path took us that way. But we would just sit there. We would get to the lake and we would sit there and we'd stare out over the water. And I think you're right, it had this calming effect on us. And we would just talk about: Look at the light and how it hits the water. Look at look at how the waves are moving in this direction. And you know, I would take a photo almost every day and send it to my family that lives in boring Texas and their scenery there as a way of "you should move up here to the wonder of Wisconsin." 

But yeah, I really think there's something about experiencing life in our senses and taking the time to look at the world with wonder. And I think so much of our life is - we're moving through the world at such a pace that it's virtually impossible to do that. But I really liked the conversation that we're having today.

Christina Roberts  05:14

Yeah, and I think, you know, to your point, Kristina, children are such a gateway into wonder and having the privilege of being able to raise children in our household in those preschool/early childhood years where you're going on a walk, and it's not about how fast you can walk or getting to the destination. It is, "Look, there's a snail on the sidewalk," or, "There's a ladybug!" And you are stopping and taking in the ladybug. And so I remember with my first child, I was like, "Oh, wow! Walking is looking a lot different now with a three-year old," because it's not about the walking. It's about the experience and what they're finding and really recognizing that my pace has to slow down with that. 

And so as cliche as it sounds, the other day I was in our woods walking, and all of a sudden, it was just this field of purple flowers that emerged almost overnight! I mean, I walk there all the time. And it was just this blanket of purple! And it just struck me! And so whatever I was internally thinking in my mind at the time, I just stopped to take in the flowers. And they were kind of off the path a little bit. And then as I wound around, there were some right off the path that I just stopped and literally, like, I'm like, "I want to smell what these flowers smell like," and the woods are offering me this beautiful fragrance today that I want to stop and take in. And I think that is because of this practice of slowing down, feasting the eyes, engaging in wonder, much of which, honestly, I've learned through my children, that they've really helped with that.

Kristina Kaiser  06:39

Yeah, and so, so far, we're talking about seeing, feeling, and what was the other one? And smelling. So, oftentimes, people only get to tasting, right? So I am working with some friends, and the idea is to get "treats" in your day, like if you do something stressful, slow down and do something rewarding for yourself, because that makes the stressful easier to engage with. But I find that, a lot of times, we go straight to taste, whereas there's all of these sensory-based experiences that we can have. 

And so I even wrote out a whole list. What are five things that I enjoy seeing? What are five things that I enjoy or smelling? What are five things that I enjoy touching? In order to kind of have this...And I suppose with little ones, you would call it a sensory-based diet, but we need sensory-based experiences, too, and especially around this awe and wonder. Because what happens when we start doing that? Right, so...I'm touching the water. What do I think about? Do I think about where that water comes from? Do I think about how water nourishes my body? Do I think how I am connected to water because I'm...something happens, right? It leads us somewhere. So sometimes it's calmness and sometimes it's more connection to the ways in which everything is connected, like these amazing things can happen as we slow down and get those senses involved.

Chris Roberts  08:04

Yeah, and I like the way that we're talking about seeing, tasting and smelling. I think these things have the ability to stop us in our tracks. And I remember, just a few days ago, I was doing a bit of work, but my nose started to smell something. And it was a whole bunch of lilacs that were starting to bloom. And I started to smell it. But I was so busy working, that I didn't smell it at first. And so it just stopped me in my tracks. I wasn't concerned about getting the work done in that moment. I was concerned about my sensory experience. And I sort of became one with my environment. I became still and, you know, I was a little bit anxious in that moment. I was anxious about getting the work done on time. And all that anxiousness fell away. I became vulnerable to my environment. And I think I became right with the world in that embrace, in that experience. And so I like that these experiences can stop us and reorient us to maybe how we should be feeling rather than these anxieties about the future. But be present to where we are now. So that's what I like about these sensory experiences.

Christina Roberts  09:41

And we haven't really talked about hearing as much, but I think that, that is definitely, too, tuning into, listening to...I was in a meeting the other day, and we were outside and the birds were just, like, strong and loud. And again, paying attention to: There are birds communing with us in this moment and they're part of the conversation as well. And, you know, not to sound like...who is it...Cinderella or Snow White, I think, where the birds are singing around her, but there's that scene. And there's something about that of, you know, the communal-ness of all of life and creation, crying out to God, worshiping God together, not just human beings doing that, but all of nature and creation doing that, as even in the Bible, it talks about that. 

And so, even in my practice, I have been facilitating retreats for a number of years, and always, in the retreats, there's moments of silence that we hold together in the community. But recently, I have been coupling that with, kind of, beautiful, engaging instrumental musical pieces. And so I've been bringing a speaker and we will listen to some sort of an engaging classical song that's maybe not familiar to us. And then hold silence...and having that hearing along with the silence and then noticing: Wow! As my ears are tuned in more, to not just the music, I think we're used to that. But then when the music stops, we're tuned into nature. And I think we can hear crisper, the wind and the something that's rustling around in the grass or the birds. There tends to be a sharpness. So yeah, I think that that's also a piece, too, of the hearing as well.

Kristina Kaiser  11:13

Yes, absolutely. And if I can't get it in my environment, I will sometimes pipe it in. I have found that...and I thought this was...as a teenager, I remember thinking those like naturescape cassette tapes, like we really have to go back a few pieces of technology. But I really thought they were for old people. And I realized the other day as I turned on my nature-scapy thing in the background that either I'm old, or I was wrong about this being for old people, like one or the other. But it is meaningful. And it was so natural. I had it on all through lunch. And my husband didn't recognize it until far, far...All of a sudden, he was like, "Where is that sound coming from?" It's very natural for us to experience these things. 

But yes, I love it! And, even like a "waves," sometimes I like to just pipe in waves because it makes me move to a space of being able to flow like water a little bit more like I can feel it almost in my body, even though I'm nowhere near the ocean. And technically speaking, you guys know my feeling on nature, right? You know that I like to experience it in, like, a screened in area. So it is great for me to be able to listen to the waves and be a part of it without the sea kelp coming around my legs, because that's not the part of sensory that I like.

Christina Roberts  12:39

Yeah, and I think, you know, just thinking, too, I have a yoga class that I haven't attended in a while. But she's my favorite yoga teacher in town. And at the end of class, she goes around and you hold out your palm, and she puts some essential oil, massage oil into everybody's palm and invites us to massage our feet because our feet take us everywhere. We need to, you know, our feet are under appreciated kind of thing. But it's this lovely smelling oil that she does, and everybody loves it. It's the highlight of her class to have that moment. And the smell lingers and, sort of, that wonder and re-engaging with the most basic part of our body. So again, that touch, that smell, and that sense of wonder that I think can reintroduce us and in some ways that otherwise we've been sort of passed by.

Kristina Kaiser  13:22

So I guess, right, the invitation is to go and be invigorated by all the sensory experiences that one can possibly have. So there is our invitation for the day. Thanks, everybody for having this conversation. I feel excited.

Well why don't we move into our moment where we talk about things that we're into. We'll just keep all of that excitement going.

Christina Roberts  13:48

So I am into Waterloo Sparkling Water, the grapefruit flavor. I love this brand. It's a really good...so...we've kind of become sparkling water snobs over the years because we've gotten into that and trying different brands. And this is just crisp and refreshing and lovely. So that is what I am into this week.

Chris Roberts  14:06

Nice. Well, I am into conditioning myself for the heat. We're about to go on vacation. And I am worried about going south and the warmer temperatures. So it's been hotter here in Wisconsin. And so we have not run our AC yet. I've been adamant about not running the AC and just doing the windows. And you know, it's gotten up to like 83/84 in the house. And, you know, I'm feeling really good about our, sort of, nature experience in southern Missouri. So I've been into heat conditioning, and I will say that I have fared better than other individuals in our family.

Christina Roberts  14:53

I will say I am hanging out a lot in the basement because it's 15 degrees cooler in the basement, so, you can condition it all you want! [laughing]

Kristina Kaiser  15:01

Yes, you have my full respect because I think I gave in. Well, it was really humid, and so I gave in on Sunday and took the humidity out of the air. 

I think for me, we discovered or maybe rediscovered, a delightful little thing called Weber's Farm in our area. So they have a little shop. You can drive through in your car in order ice cream, or milk, or there's cheese in there. But actually, I took a group of seventh-grade girls in and, we had not been. So they were introducing me. They were like, "These are juice bags!" And at first I thought it was just a giant bag of juice. But then I realized there are smaller bags of juice inside the giant bag. And they're like, "You have to get these! These are amazing!" And then I got my husband's and smoked cheddar cheese. And then they have these ice cream cones for $1. And the tiny one is basically a normal sized serving. So we ordered ice cream and sat out on this little picnic thing and we. Must. Go. Back. It's nothing but beautiful greenery all around you. We're going back. We are going back. So that is what I am into. 

Well, thank you everybody for being with us today. For more resources, I would invite you to check out thecontemplativelife.net. And if you are willing, we would love to have you rate our podcast so that others can find us on the worldwide web. Thanks so much for being with us. We'll see you soon.