Summertime

I just finished reading “Life in the Five Sense” by Gretchen Rubin who is one of my favorite podcasters. It talks about experiencing life fully through all 5 senses. Did you know that we tend to favor one sense over the other and neglect other senses? That’s not really too surprising given I literally have music in my ears at any given moment. I suppose that makes me a heavy sound sense person. The premise of the book is that as we purposefully enjoy the 5 senses even in the ordinary aspects of our day we open up a whole new dimension of enjoyment. She hypothesizes that most of us just go through life either ignoring the impact of our neglected sense or worse, too busy to fully stop and perceive what is in front of us by using all 5 senses.

I use the 5 sense grounding technique to help my patients who are experiencing panic attacks. It really works. Mostly because it’s difficult to panic when you concentrating on doing the dang exercise.

But Gretchen has me thinking this morning, this unofficial first day of summer, about how I enjoy summer. If you could only list one thing for each sense what makes summer seem like summer to you?

I’ll go first:

Smell: fresh cut grass. (Honestly that’s a tie with Coppertone sunscreen)

Sound: Braves on the radio on the drive home from work (Honestly I don’t know much about baseball and don’t follow it but when I hear it on the radio ..it’s summer)

Taste: chargrilled hamburgers (Honestly we have hamburgers at least once a week because it’s The Mister’s favorite food. I swear if he was on death row he’d ask for a bacon double cheeseburger as his last meal. But something about watching the coals ash over and then eating it outside on the back porch while you swat mosquitoes on a humid Friday night make it like summer.

Feel: the warm feeling of sunburn on your shoulders and nose after you’ve showered off a day at the beach. (Honestly we don’t go to the beach every year because we are mountain people but it’s the same feeling, the day’s sun mixed with evening coolness is a wonderful feeling of contentment)

Sight: the haze of a hot Georgia sunrise that looks heavy even at 7 am.( Honestly I wanted to say waves on the beach, but the truth is that when I see that haze and hear The Mister say “It’s summertime in a Georgia, it’s gonna be a hot one ”….it’s summertime.

How do you know it’s summer?