My dear friends, we love you so very much,

We're going to give you a little fun challenge this week.  Come back to your senses... literally! Come back to your physical senses. 

Take a few minutes away from your thoughts and your devices and re-engage with life itself. Enjoy your human vehicle. Taste. Touch. See. Hear. Smell. And if one of your senses doesn't work, enjoy the others.

Give yourself a hug right now, or hold your own hands and enjoy the sensation of the hands sharing love and warmth with another. Gently caress your face. Feel the deliciousness of your nerves lighting up with delight as one part of creation shares love with another... even if both of those parts belong to you! 

If you can see, take a moment and look around slowly, simply observing everything in great detail. Appreciate the diversity all around you. There are colors, textures, shapes, and so much to inspire a sense of wonder.  Find just one thing to appreciate. That pen sitting on your desk, for example, was the product of so many human beings, from the ones who imagined how to make and product the ink, to those who envisioned its form, built the molds, created the production and assembly facilities, figured out how to package, design, and deliver, all for that tiny instrument on your desk. Maybe you can pick it up and write the word "Love" and know, through your own experience, how love journeyed from the intangible into this little beautiful form in your hands right now.

If you can hear, shut your eyes and listen to the symphony of sounds all around you. You may hear the subtle buzz of office equipment, the singing of birds, a distant radio, voices, or your own heartbeat. Take it all in for a moment. And if you can't hear, notice the feeling of the sounds around you.

Next, inhale deeply. Let the air travel to the back of your throat and ask yourself, "What do I smell?" Perhaps nothing. Many of your necks have become very tight from leaning over your devices and the sense of smell is a little pinched off. Look gently from side to side to loosen up your neck, and try again.  If this doesn't work, pick up an object or a piece of food, or your coffee, or something else around you, and like a little child, give it a whiff.  Next time you are outdoors, inhale deeply and pay attention to smells around you. Many of you have normalized the scents in your own environment, so like "white noise," they go unrecognized, but when in a new environment, you will sense more deeply. You wanted the contrast.  If you like, find something whose fragrance you enjoy—an essential oil, a flower, a piece of chocolate, and allow yourself a moment of pure sensory indulgence as you take it in.

Allow yourself to come back to your senses next time you sit down to eat. Perhaps you can hold a piece of fruit, and take a moment to appreciate its miraculous beauty. Notice where the blossom fell away. Feel the unique "packaging" of the skin that protects the sweetness within. Enjoy the rich colors. Then, smell it to begin the sensation of taste. Take a slow bite and enjoy the burst of flavor. Chew and feel the texture.  

Slow down and truly allow your body to truly relate to what you put in and on it. Allow yourself to experience your environment. Find things to see, touch, taste, hear, and smell that you enjoy. And if you don't have one sense, engage more deeply with the others. As a baby, hungry for life experience, you wanted to touch and taste everything!  You wanted to see all there was to be seen.  You loved to listen to things that those around you had already learned ot tune out, and if you could recall it, your sense of smell was so refined you knew the fragrance of your mother's skin. Your world was alive with wonder and delight for the simplest of reasons... you were in love with your senses!

As you come back to your senses, engaging more deeply with life, you will find that you will more quickly sense what serves you and what does not. As you slow down and taste your food, you'll know quickly what resonates with your body and what does not. As you take in a big breath of air, you may notice that something in your environment needs attention, or you may enjoy that candle someone gave you and take in their love. As you slow down and look around more deeply, you'll see what pleases you still and what can be given away.

Love takes form in so many ways around you, dear ones! Don't deprive yourself of the physical experience while in the body. Find ways to enjoy it. If you are sick, find small ways to feel good in the body. Put soothing lotion on your hands or inhale an essential oil. Feel the warmth of a soothing tea sliding down your throat or the life-giving rays of sun on your face. As you focus more on what feels good and less on what does not, your healing will progress more quickly.

Come back to your senses this week, dear friends, literally. Enjoy your physical world, for in it, you find the delicious diversity of the Divine!  Enjoy all you can in your physical vehicles, for you inhabit the miraculous!  Enjoy the songs and sounds of the birds as they share beautiful frequencies with you—love traveling in a form that can transport you! Enjoy the patterns in the fabric of your furniture!  Enjoy the ever-changing colors of the sky.

Of course, you have challenges, and your world has plenty of things going on that are not so pleasurable, but as you return to your senses, you will be pulled back, easily and quickly into the present moment where you can find love in countless forms. Take delight in the senses you have, dear friends. This joy is one of the many reasons you came to earth.

God Bless You! We love you so very much.
-- The Angels

Message from Ann

Hi Everyone,

Being part Polish, I'm food-centric! And while I don't truly have a taste for a lot of the Polish main dishes, the pastries are off the charts. The week before Lent, Mom always made cinnamon sugar twisted doughnuts that had a name sounding like "poonch key." They were huge, but that never stopped me. I'd eat 6-8 of them in a sitting in preparation for giving up desserts during Lent. I have no idea how a 13-year-old fit that much in, but the memories of yeasty, sugary, cinnamon-y goodness remain with me to this day.  Thankfully, eh? If I ate that much today, it would kill me! But, Oh! What a joy it was at the time! 

Food continues to be a joy, although my tastes have changed quite a bit. I like my veggies now. I like their textures, their smells, and their tastes. I like my coffee and tea. I like fruits and gluten-free treats. I like ethnic dishes and flavors and can easily raise my vibe with a single good dish! Nibbling on the herbs like the parsley in the garden works too(see photo!).

There is so much beauty to be seen, too.  I've had countless experiences of being awestruck by the majesty of nature. One year, I woke up very early in autumn to get on a trail before the crowds.  The sun had not yet risen, so the forest was quiet and dim. The leaves crunched under my feet with their autumn fragrance and there was a chill in the air that felt so alive!  I sensed sunrise, climbed up a steep hill in the forest, and was treated to a sunrise unlike anything I'd ever seen. Rays of light played over the trees, at first seeming to set their orange, red, and yellow tops on fire, then as the sun climbed higher, the rays swept lower, creating swaths of radiant color in their wake. I could barely breathe. It was surreal and beautiful.

There are also so many sounds to be savored! I love beautiful music. I love the birds. I can hear the voice of the two hummingbirds in my backyard that squawk at one another, the humming of the spring bees, the chatty doves, and the rustle of the palm leaves in the breeze. Inside the house, air purifier fans create a little hum, and various random devices beep and chime throughout the day.  I could go on.

Life is a sensory symphony.

This is one of the many reasons that I can stay happy despite the world's challenges and the pains, problems, and upsets I witness on a daily basis. This is also how I bring myself back to the moment so I can be useful when a loved one is not doing well. It is how I heal after messing up my body. This sensory beauty even prepared me for the death of a beloved dog years ago. I had been guided to go to the nearby botanical garden in the morning, which at the time was blooming in every way possible with all the little cacti showing off their finest and most beautiful. The plants were insanely gorgeous. The garden smelled earthy and delightful. The temperature was perfect. 

I was so filled with goodness that by the time I got home and my dear aging dog gave me "the look," which told me it was time, I was able to take her to the vet with only love and gratitude and a full heart. She told me, telepathically, to take selfies of the two of us on the office floor before she shut her eyes, started snoring, and left her body right before the vet arrived. It was surreal. I look back on that day, remember the magic of it all, and know the universe is always trying to offer us more grace and goodness than we can imagine.

Here are a few ways to "come back to your senses," as the angels say:

1.  Go on a food "field trip"

We used to go on outings in school a few times a year called "field trips" to museums, parks, or various other out-of-the-box experiences. They were a lot of fun. You can easily take a food field trip! Go to a farmer's market, an ethnic or specialty grocer, or even wander down an aisle you never frequent in your local grocery store. Look at things you might not have ever seen. Ask your phone how to use them!

Indulge in a sensory experience with new sights, smells, and tastes.  This is so much fun. I found the best tapioca I've ever had at an Indian grocer, learned how to make Tom Ka Gai soup with galangal (like ginger) and tiny mushrooms from an Asian grocer, and loved the rosewater a client brought me from a Persian grocer.  The farmer's markets in the fall offer a huge variety of specialty items. 

In your own city, probably not too far, you have wonderful places to explore.

2. Find your Old Favorite songs online and Time Travel

These days you can locate nearly any song online. Find one of your old favorites, turn it on, and dream or dance!  I read about a study in one of Dr. Joe Dispensa's books where several elderly men were brought to a home for a week. It was decorated in the style of their younger days. There were magazines from that era, music from that era, and even the food was prepared as it would have been in that era.  Without any medical intervention, each one of them had physical and mental improvements that week.

Tuning into old favorites can have a wonderful effect on the body and mind. So make those 60's or 70's playlists and let them raise you into a happy space.

3. Sniff your way through a hike or an outing

My dog taught me the joy of sniffing. She'd go out to the backyard, sit and put her head back, and with every muscle in her body, inhale deeply. Her eyes would roll back, and anyone could see the total joy she was experiencing as she caught various fragrances on the wind—the barbecue two houses down, the birds, the neighbor's dog, the flowers, you name it. She taught me to inhale deeply and sift through nature's perfumed "notes."

Now, every time I visit a store with essential oils, natural soaps, or candles, I have to stop and sniff. When I pass buckets of flowers, I pause to bury my face in them and smell. When I'm at a restaurant, I take a minute to inhale it all.  And in nature, wow, the leaves, the streams, even the rocks smell so refreshing. Ponderosa pine sap smells like vanilla, and the juniper has its own pungent smell.

Nature nurtures even with her good scents!

So yes, the world is wacky and wild, but right here and now, in these miraculous bodies, there are all sorts of opportunities to experience love. Even when I've been sick or in pain, there were ways to find joy and tune out the trouble for a while until things got better.  It isn't trivial or insignificant to enjoy these simple, sensory pleasures. It is yet one more way to elevate our spirits beyond the challenges and into the realms where love abides.

Have a blessed week,
Love,
Ann

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