People don’t normally think too much about how they can take self care for your five senses. But your senses are incredibly important; they help you navigate the world, and without them you would live a much less complete life indeed.
If you are not really sure about whether or not you are helping to take care of your senses, then you might want to know what it is that you can do to do so. As it happens, there are a lot of ways you can keep your senses in good working order, and the more that you take the right steps here, the more likely it is that you will be able to keep your senses working in good order for as long as possible.
Read Next: Stress Changes How You See EVERYTHING
We are going to look in particular at how you can take proper care of your sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch senses.
Sight
Most people will find that their eyesight deteriorates over time, although the rate of that deterioration is something that can vary quite a lot from person to person. It can be a shocking and even upsetting things when you first notice that you’re starting to lose your eyesight a little, and there sooner that you get in there and do something about it, the less damage you will cause overall. Low vision, which is a health condition caused by eye disease refers to a range of sight loss, which includes blind spots, poor night vision, and an almost complete loss of eyesight. Dr Tint cataract surgery could help you to restore your vision, so it’s worth speaking to an expert about this.
Even before you notice any worsening, you should take care to look after your eyes. If you work at a job where you have to look at a computer screen all day, you can help to reduce the damage by making a point of looking away from the screen at regular intervals. These breaks really do make all the difference, so make sure that you are doing that as much as you can.
Hearing
Again, hearing may worsen over time, but there is plenty that you can do to make this less so, and you should absolutely make sure that you are doing that.
If you allow your hearing to get worse and worse without doing anything about it, then one day you will find that you need a hearing aid or cochlear implants. It’s best to avoid that happening at all, if you can, and the best way to make sure of that is to try and keep yourself away from too many loud sounds if you can help it.
That, plus ensuring that you keep your ear canal clean so as to avoid infection, will mean that you are much less likely to have any severe hearing trouble at all.
Read More: 7 Signs Something is Wrong
Taste and Smell
The olfactory sense refers to the joint sense of smell and taste, and clearly these are hugely important if you are keen to enjoy your life as fully as possible. The more that you are able to fully taste your food, the more you will get out of it, and you will also find that there is a safety element to this as well.
Being able to properly taste and smell ensures that you know when there is something bad on the plate, which can help you to keep yourself safe and alive. Take self care for your five senses by looking after your tongue and nose, and in particular ensuring that you don’t corrode either with any substances.
Touch
As we age, changes in our skin and nervous system may decrease our sensitivity with our sense of touch.
Changes in skin can occur due to
- Poor nutrition
- Circulatory issues
- Skin and nerve damage
- Brain disorders
- Medication side effects
- Vaping
- Smoking
- Sun damage
How can we help minimize these changes?
- Proper nutrition
- Proper skin care
- Exercise
- Proper sun exposure
Acts of Self-care for the Five Senses
Try some self care for your five senses from all of the categories and figure out which ones work best for you. Perhaps you’re more of a visual or auditory person, or maybe a combination of all the senses will do the trick for you. You won’t know until you experiment a bit, so have at it!
Hearing
- Pump up your favorite playlist
- Listen to rain or go to the ocean or a lake and listen to the waves
- Find something funny on Netflix and have a good laugh
- Turn on ambient noise or spa music when you go to sleep
- Listen to your breath when your breathe in and out through your nose and mouth
- Sing your favorite songs
- Submerge yourself underwater and listen to how it muffles and distorts sound
- Sit in silence and pay attention to what you hear
Sight
- Search for visible patterns, like symmetry, tessellations, and stripes, in your surroundings
- Create a photo album or scrapbook that you can look at when stress starts to mount
- Take a moment to observe something you regularly see on a closer level – discover new details you usually glance over
- Make eye contact with someone who matters to you
- Read a book
- Read inspirational quotes that matter to you
- Surround yourself at home and work with meaningful imagery
- Gaze at the flickering fire of a lit candle
- Walk in nature and observe
Smell
- Buy yourself a bouquet of fresh flowers and indulge in the scent
- Visit a coffee shop or make some coffee and enjoy the smells
- Find a candle that smells like your favorite place
- Use essential oils and find your favorite smells
- Put fresh sheets on your bed enjoy the fresh laundry smell as you fall asleep
- Smell your food before eating it
- Burn sage
Taste
- Cook your favorite meal just for you and thoroughly enjoy every bite
- Get your carbonation fix with seltzer or kombucha
- Experiment with spices in your cooking and dare to add new ones to your spice rack
- Try new healthy teas and coffees
- Chill your water and add some fruit to it to make drinking it more enjoyable
- Chew peppermint gum
- Seeking sour? Lemonade or grapefruit wedges.
- Seeking sweet? Orange slices. Apple slices. Frozen grapes
Touch
- Try a weighted blanket to calm you and help you sleep
- Do something to keep your hands busy – knit, build, knead, anything crafty
- Hold crystals in your palms while you meditate
- Hug somebody
- Go to a beach and feel the sand in your toes
- Pet an animal
- Take a bath and then moisturize your skin
- Get a massage or facial
- Take off your shoes and walk barefoot
Time for some Serious Self Care 
If you’ve quit taking care of yourself de-stress and recharge today with these ideas:
- Simple Self Care Ideas During Self Isolation
- 25 Simple Ways to Take Better Care of Yourself
- Self Care Tips for Coping with Grief and Loss
- The Most Important Gift a Woman Can Give Herself