The other day, I was out hiking. I wanted my hike to be more than a walk in the woods. I wanted exercise but I also wanted an experience. I began to concentrate on using my other senses and lessening my focus on the visual. The sounds were amazing. Woodpeckers, toads, and dragon flies, to name just a few, as I wandered along a babbling creek. Later, I passed the meadow to be enraptured by a beautiful floral, fruity scent. I smelled all sorts of flowers, but I could not locate the source. It either escaped my nose or it was a combination of various types of plants. My hike became a great outdoor experience.
Hearing, touching, smelling and tasting
My experience led me to ponder about other situations where I let sight drive the sensory bus, so to speak. Minimizing my visual stimuli to maximize other senses triggers new connections to be contemplated. Your brain is the central place to merge motor skills, cognitive thinking, and creative ideas. It takes all of these inputs and outputs and integrates them in order to function in a healthy manner. The more you can workout the brain in this manner, the better you will be able to maintain your brain’s fitness and slow down the effects of aging.
Tremendous amounts of research and focus have been placed on playing brain games, especially as you get older, to remain mentally sharp. Unfortunately, even though I am certain these games benefit some people, the research findings have held mixed results. At best, they focus on the cognitive part of your brain, also known as the left hemisphere. An interesting brain game study recently completed by Johns Hopkins found that introducing spatial (from your right hemisphere) and sensory elements into the games increased the gains of a study group by 30%.
Instead of looking for this type of brain game, you may create sensory experience anytime, whether indoors or out. We rely heavily on visual and cognitive inputs at the expense to our other senses. Our brain has plenty of room for growth from stimulation created by the other senses. It will surprise you to have old feelings brought back to life or to find a spark of creativity from a new combination.
A Different Spin on the Familiar
Sometime in the next week, go somewhere new or familiar, but, either way, make sure to experience this place in a different way. Close your eyes and let a different sense take over. For example, experience a sensory trip to one of the following places limiting your sense of sight:
- Stop by a bakery, order something, and find a table. Try eating the food with your non-dominant hand. Take in all of the smells. What can you detect besides the food? A perfume, outdoor smells, or maybe something hot?
- Swing into a fabric or a mattress store. Touch the different fabrics or experience how the mattresses are different and unique. Please, do not get kicked out! What kind of memories do these touches bring back?
- Go to the dog park and grab a bench. Before you close your eyes, check out the different dogs and their owners. Now, close your eyes and try to determine what the dogs are doing. What other sounds do you hear around the park.
- Find a store with a nicely sized, bulk food section. Now, put a sample of at least one sweet, salty, savory, bitter, and sour thing in different bags (because you are going to pay for them!). I am certain you will get some sort of face from the check-out person. Once you deal with that and get to a preferrable location, taste things separately and then make up various combinations. The more unique your combinations and choices, the better for the experiment.
All Together Now!
I have always thought of exercise in two, independent manners. The first manner is physical exercise. I walk, run, go to the gym, etc. to keep my body and my muscles toned and in shape (quit laughing). In the second manner, I study, read, do puzzles, etc. to keep my mind sharp. I am not sure they are so independent. In a future article, I will be exploring this relationship further. I was intrigued by a study I recently read found that the neurological health depends on interaction with the muscles and our world.
A great experience engages your brain and body. Your brain controls your motor skills and senses and it is looking for feedback. It wants to get that information and process it through, to play around with it, to contemplate it, and experiment with it. This interplay is a workout for your whole body and it may be a critical element in your overall good health.