My last blog post

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This course provided a different lens to my psychology major and helped me reconsider what I have been taught. Abram summarizes this shift in my perspective: “This breathing body, as it experiences and inhabits the world, is very different from that objectified body diagrammed in physiology textbooks, with its separable “systems” (the circulatory system, the digestive system, the respiratory system, etc.) laid bare on each page. The body I here speak of is very different from the body we have been taught to see and even to feel, very different, finally, from that complex machine whose broken parts or stuck systems are diagnosed by our medical doctors and “repaired” by our medical technologies. Underneath the anatomized and mechanical body that we have learned to conceive, prior indeed to all our conceptions, dwells the body as it actually experiences things, this poised and animate power that initiates all our projects and suffers all our passions” (37). 

One of my largest takeaways from this course was discovered when we were discussing touch. I realized that, despite the research, touch is not considered a “basic need” in the field of psychology, even though sex, comfort, and warmth are seen as basic physiological needs. It is a massive oversight not to specifically name touch because adults and children require human touch to survive and thrive. It is essential for babies' development for their physical, emotional, and eventually social health, and research suggests that touch is truly fundamental and beneficial to human communication and bonding. In fact, touch is the first of the five senses to develop. Touch deprivation is correlated with negative health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, and immune system disorders because it signals safety and trust, and it soothes. The need for positive human touch and the connection and reassurance it can bring is literally in our DNA, so therefore it is one of our most basic, primal needs. 

Abram also writes that “Most of us are accustomed to consider the self, our innermost essence, as something incorporeal. Yet consider: Without this body, without this tongue or these ears, you could neither speak nor hear another’s voice. Nor could you have anything to speak about, or even to reflect on, or to think, since without any contact, any encounter, without any glimmer of sensory experience, there could be nothing to question or to know. The living body is thus the very possibility of contact, not just with others but with oneself—the very possibility of reflection, of thought, of knowledge. The common notion of the experiencing self, or mind, as an immaterial phantom ultimately independent of the body can only be a mirage: Merleau-Ponty invites us to recognize, at the heart of even our most abstract cogitations, the sensuous and sentient life of the body itself” (37). 

Building on this, it is essential to nurture and reflect on our senses, and during these most-stressful final days of the semester, it is only right to extend what we have learned about the senses to self-care. The senses can be used in coping techniques, and one simple example is the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding exercise for anxiety and stress management. You can help distract yourself from your worries with something like this because fully engaging your five senses directs your attention to the present moment and away from stressful thoughts. This is a tool that I want to share with you all because you can use it in various settings, too (see directions below). Thank you for a great semester! 

Take a deep, slow breath.

5: What are five things you can see? Direct your vision to five things in your surroundings. (Ex: You see the computer screen. You see the clock. You see a window and a bird outside.) 

4: What are four things you can touch? Acknowledge any four things that engage your sense of touch. (Ex: The chair you’re sitting on. The keyboard in front of you. Your shoelaces. Feel hand sanitizer cooling your skin.)

3: What are three things you can hear? Listen carefully. Take a moment to hear all the noises that you typically filter out. (Ex: Can you hear the clock ticking? Birds singing? The soft whirring of your computer fan?) 

2: What are two things you can smell? Smell is a powerful sense for commanding your full attention. (Ex: Bacon cooking? Perhaps you can go smell the soaps or hair products you have in the bathroom.) 

1: What is one thing you can taste? Try to detect the subtle flavor notes. (Ex: Does the inside of your mouth still taste like toothpaste? Coffee? Tea? Gum? If you have a drink or snack handy, take a sip or bite!)