Health-Conscious Series #6: 10 Steps to Exercise our Five Senses

I delved about exercising our brain in one of my former hubs. This time, it's our senses that we should exercise. We should begin it while we're young because as we grow older, it will be difficult to repair whatever damage our senses acquired because of our daily work.

My high school best friend have an eyesight problem since elementary. So, during our copying session at the blackboard, he used to go near in order to clearly see the writings. His nearsightedness required him to wear a graded eyeglasses.

The same with my uncle and mother. They used to tease us as family of deaf because as we grow older, we're gradually losing our sense of hearing.

I asked my mother about it. he reasoned out that the defect is hereditary. I didn't believe her.

I've been health-conscious since then.

• Whenever my eyes get tired, I used to rest for awhile then focus on green colored leaves of trees to refresh my eyesight.
• I regularly clean my ears so that the accumulation of earwax will be controlled.
• As far as I can, I watch television with just a soft sound, enough to hear voices from it. I evade being submerge my hand in a very cold water or provision on board ship.
• I don't smell foul odor often; it can damage our sense of smell.
• I chew the food well to release its awesome taste.

Exercises of our senses go beyond our expectation that we can still improve each ability. So, from the advises of our medical experts and sharing from our family and friends, the following will be beneficial to you.

Sense of Sight - receives 90 percent of our sensory perception about the things around us. I've been cautioned by my ophthalmologist that If I work too much in front of the computer, I will experience blurred vision or astigmatism. True enough, that was his verdict and what I had felt. Right now I've been wearing corrective eyeglasses to combat such defects. So, to avoid this, he advises that I must look at the big-lettered headlines on the newspaper or cover of a paperback with bold letters. He further said that I should do it every after 15 minutes then back to my computer screen again.

1.Focus on the big letters for a quarter of an hour then resume working on the computer.
2. Shift your eyes from left to right for several seconds. This will help improve peripheral perception.
3. Scan the room for familiar objects. This will improve your eyesight once you immerse yourself on sport and driving.

Sense of Touch - The biggest sensory organ is our skin. If you have already a perrenial partner or already married, you can focus on your sense of touch.

4. Sex therapists will recommend sensate focusing by concentrating on the sensation of your partner's whole body against your body.
5.Don't get exposed in a too cold environment that can damage nerve endings on your fingertips. Wear gloves because intense cold exposure can result in long-lasting decrease in sensation.

Sense of Sound - We cannot improve our sense of hearing but we can improve the way we listen. How about a guessing game on what kind of sound you hear while closing your eyes. There are sounds that can be similar but the sources are different. Like the sound of fire and the crackling of crumpled plastic bags. How about rain and the sound of falling mongo beans on the roof? You cannot sense the difference. We used to do it while doing radio soap or drama recording for sound effects.

6. Close your eyes to listen attentively to the different sounds around you. More people rely on their sense of sound once they begin losing their eyesight.

Sense of Smell - Have you ever wonder why wine tasting also require the sense of smell. You cannot appreciate wine with long deep kind of smelling.

7. Take several small sniffs to better detect the aroma of the wine or the recently cooked dish. Keep your mouth open while doing this to give an extra dimension to your smell.

Sense of Taste - My Greek chief cook told me that he never taste his food. He just know that by smelling it, he can already conclude that it's already cooked. Frequent tasting of food with varied tastes, from sour, salty, sweet or bitter can alter your normal way of tasting.

8. Always clean your tongue after every meal. This will sharpen your sense of taste.
9. Don't wolf down your food. Chew it slowly as aid for good digestion and to unlock interesting flavor of the food.
10. Don't gulf down your wine. Sip it slowly. When tasting wine, hold it under your tongue for a moment to really appreciate.