Heightening The Senses – Getting in touch with a more
juicy experience of life
So here we are in paradise, usually to the envy of our family
and friends back home (however much we might protest!).
Surrounded by the amazing curling leaves of tropical foliage,
beautiful white sandy beaches, fronded palm trees, exotic
fruit, huge succulent papayas almost absurd in their fecundity.
Beautiful people. All manner of strange customs, sights,
and sounds to fascinate the mind and enrapture the senses.
So why is it then, that many of us seem to be rushing around,
working hard, sending frantic emails, or trailing exhaustedly
round Denpasar? I am wondering whether we can introduce
a little bit more... yumminess into our often stressful, busy
and almost Western-style lives?
So. Where to begin? ‘I don’t have
time for yumminess!’ you may wail. Well don’t
worry, the good news is you do, because getting in touch with
the senses and sensuality is about the way in which you do
things. So you can still send your emails and be busy
if you must, but you are going to have much more fun doing
it! I’d like you to drop into the
fresh, surprised feeling of being a child, experiencing and
exploring things for the first time. What does it feel
like when you brush your lip over the froth on a latte?
How does it smell? What does it taste like? Play
with it! Notice. Try and see if you can keep this
up for a whole morning. You could try with one sense
at a time – say, spend one morning paying special attention
to sound, an afternoon noticing taste, an evening noticing
touch. If you a need a booster on this, I hear that
Casa Luna in Ubud has an ‘iced cappuccino with ice cream’
that has been described as ‘orgasmic’. Might
be one to get the senses going!
The Sixth Sense
The sixth sense, or intuition, for me, is where our feelings
and heart come in. Where we access our connection to
ourselves and to the nebulous world of indescribable knowing;
that which is known or sensed without knowing how you know.
What point is there in sensing the external world physically,
if we can’t feel it emotionally, experience it on a
personal human level, make sense of it, respond to it from
the heart? The meditation below includes something
great on awakening the sixth sense, the feminine, intuitive,
magical side of ourselves.
In the meantime, back to your emails. I’d like
to invite you to include the playful within your communication.
Can you find a way of connecting with the heart of the person
you are talking to? Engaging them? Can you share
a little taste of what your day in Bali is like today?
What you are feeling today? Or share a joke? Just
a little snippet to bring the personal into what can be so
impersonal (and therefore, rather dry). So here’s
permission to go play! Be a bit naughty, I trust you
not to go overboard, just add a little juice and fun and enjoyment
in everything you do!
Once you get into it (and it’s only a habit, easy to
grasp) you may catch yourself going ‘phwoooah!’
at the amazing shape and feel of a ginger root, the scent
of it. Or stopping in amazement in the street, arrested
by the incredible beauty of a flower or butterfly. Delighting
in the feel of water on your skin. It’s everywhere,
it’s everything, it’s free, and we can all connect
with it and enjoy it anytime!
Awakening The Senses - Meditation: This is a beautiful
and surprising meditation that usually reveals interesting
things about your senses. It refreshes and awakens them.
Ask a friend to read it to you, or record it on tape and then
listen.
Sit comfortably with a straight spine, yet relax the body.
Feel yourself connected to the ground as you breathe deeply
through the nose. Close your eyes, inhale deeply and travel
in your imagination through a little boat in your bloodstream
to your 3rd eye (a point about 2.5 cm above the bridge of
the nose). Here you see a ‘House Of The Senses’.
Allow it to be as it is. Open the door with a golden
key and enter. Have a look around. What can you
see, hear, smell? What is beneath your feet? Enter
a room on the right and explore. This is the Room of
Sight. If any improvements, cleaning etc. are needed
here, ask your angels or guides to appear and do the work.
Make it sparkle, and set it up just the way you want it.
Then progress through each room in turn – they lead
off each other, in a circle going around the house, as follows:
Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch. Visit each room
in turn, notice how it is, clean and clear it, improve as
necessary, let your guides help.
Now, you return to the centre of the house. Ascend the
stairs to the room above. This is the room of the Sixth
Sense. Again, notice how it is, clean and clear it,
ask your guides to make any needed improvements. Now,
breathe deeply in the clean fresh air, and then blow, blowing
through all the doors and windows, the rooms of your senses,
several times. Then leave the house through a new door,
knowing you can return any time. Come back to the conscious
world now, and notice how your senses may have changed.
Bite a crisp apple, notice the scents in the air, hear the
sounds... (This meditation is adapted from ‘The Possible
Human’ by Jean Houston.)
Sensuality is all about connecting – connecting with
our physical sensations and our responses to the world around
us, connecting with our feelings, and connecting with the
hearts and feelings of others. Really enjoying, really
tasting all of it. Have fun playing in the heavenly
sensual playground that life is! Mmmm!
NEXT ISSUE: Love, again. How to put love in everything
we do.
Jeli Lala’s Ashram of Jewellery and Art’ –
Gifts, Crystals, Tarot, Art, Healing, Café –
is at no. 1, Sukma St., Tebesaya, Ubud (Near Bali Buddha,
facing Jazz Café. She has studied yoga and other
spiritual practices for over ten years. She writes “In
this column, I share some of my personal experiences and spiritual
methods – hopefully, you’ll find this interesting,
and maybe it will give some ideas for your own journey.
Come visit!”
Jeli welcomes comments and may be contacted on:
Email: jelila@jelila.com
Website: www.jelila.com or www.imagine-retreats.com
