The five senses scan helps enhance our awareness and presence of the current moment. This exercise is particularly beneficial for stress, anxiety, depression, hyper-vigilance and dissociation. Engaging the senses like this helps us shift focus away from intrusive thoughts and fosters mindfulness, thereby calming and grounding us.
I’m going to suggest some plants to help with the exercises. I included the Latin names so you can find them more easily online if you want to buy those plants. I chose (where possible) plants native to the UK so nature can benefit too, but feel free to experiment with others, especially those local to your region.
Touch
Run your fingers through the soil. Feel the texture (e.g. smooth, gritty or clumpy), weight and temperature. Notice how moist or dry the soil is.
Gently run your fingers over the leaves and petals of various plants. Notice how they feel against your skin.
Examine different twigs and stems of plants, noticing the different feels and textures.
Collect small stones or pebbles of different shapes and sizes. Close your eyes and feel the textures, noting smooth versus rough and warm versus cool surfaces.
Sit quietly and close your eyes while focusing on the breeze against your skin. Notice how it feels when it changes in intensity and direction.
Smell
Inhale the scents; wild garlic (allium ursinum), wood sage (teucrium scorodonia) and chamomile (chamaemelum nobile) are native to the UK and will give off a scent for as long as they have foliage.
Lavender and rosemary give off a scent all year round.
Some plants give off a beautiful nectar scent when they are in flower; good examples of UK natives are sweet violets (viola odorata), common honeysuckle (lonicera periclymenum) and meadow sweet (filipendula ulmaria).
Sight
Watch the wind blowing through long grasses, such as purple moor grass (molinia caerulea), common quaking grass (briza media) or wavy hair grass (deschampsia flexuosa).
Watch the light shining on leaves, or how the leaves sway in the wind or bounce under the weight of rain or snow.
Choose a specific colour and look for plants that match this hue. For example, find all the yellow flowers, such as cowslip (primula veris), bird’s-foot trefoil (lotus corniculatus) or meadow buttercup (ranunculus acris).
Observe how pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, interact with the plants and flowers.
Hearing
Listen to birds singing, bees buzzing or wind rustling through grasses, trees or shrubs. Focus on specific plants and animals, and their interactions with the elements (e.g., branches creaking or leaves rustling).
If there’s a water feature (like a pond or fountain), focus on the sounds of flowing or splashing water.
Move gradually around the garden, noting where each sound is coming from. This works nicely if you have a couple of sitting areas. Sit comfortably and choose a calming mantra or phrase (such as “I am here, I am present,” “With each breath, I draw in the beauty of nature,” or “I breathe in calm, I breathe out tension”). Think or say it softly while focusing on the natural sounds around you.
If you get distracted by unwanted sounds (such as power tools or cars), practice gently shifting your awareness back to the sounds you do want to hear.
Try the hearing exercises with your eyes open and then repeat with your eyes closed to see any differences between the experiences.
Taste
Try a small handful of wild oregano (origanum vulgar) or home grown fruit such as wild strawberries (fragaria vesca). Eat it slowly. Focus on each bite, analysing its texture, flavour and aroma.
Create a simple herbal tea using foraged leaves from plants like chamomile (chamaemelum nobile).
Tips: Do one sensory activity from each category daily, for a total of 5 activities a day. Mix and match different exercises each time. It’s better to spend 5 or 10 minutes a day on this than to do it once a week for an hour.