We had a particularly warm couple of days in New York City recently and, one morning walking across the park, I found myself surrounded by birdsong at every turn. No matter where I was in the park, birds were singing loudly – lots of birds. Often, during Spring and Summer, there are birds in certain pockets of the park, but on this morning they were everywhere – a riot of birds and birdsong. As I walked along and listened, I noticed how different it is for me when I bring sound into the foreground of my awareness – the difference between just beginning to notice and pay attention to the sound, and then becoming engulfed it in once I let it all the way into my consciousness.

The experience got me to thinking about how we do or don’t let awareness dawn on us. The thing about this is that we don’t know what we’re not letting in until we notice it and begin to let it in, so we don’t even know what we may be missing. As I pondered this further, I got to thinking about the kind of practice where we make it a point to pay attention to what’s going on around us – a mindfulness practice of noticing what’s happening. For this week’s experiment, I invite you to choose one of the five senses as your focus of awareness and then to pay attention to what you experience within that sense during the day.

For example, if you choose the sense of taste, for this week’s experiment, you would take time with each thing that came into your mouth to really notice its flavor and texture, the way it feels in your mouth, bringing the experience fully into the foreground of your awareness. If you were to choose the sense of touch, you would bring into the foreground your experience of textures you encounter throughout the day. For hearing, you’d focus on the sounds around you, making them the center of your attention and awareness. If you were to choose the sense of smell, you’d pay attention to the odors and fragrances around you, bringing them into the foreground of awareness. If you focused on sight, you’d pay particular attention to what comes into your visual field and how you experience bringing these experiences into the foreground.

Another way to play with this experiment would be to choose a different sense each day and notice which one speaks most loudly and clearly to you after you have moved through them all. Then, if there’s one that brings you particular nourishment or satisfaction, you could spend an extra day on it. If you were to discover a sense that isn’t very developed in you, it might be interesting to focus on it and see what happens as you deepen your awareness of its presence in your experience.

As with all the experiments, there are no right or wrong answers or ways to do this. Instead, there’s the ongoing opportunity to explore your response to what’s in your world and how you move through your encounters with what comes your way.