Self-Care In Small Spaces (Part 2)
Get ready for a dive into the sensory side of self-care in small spaces! Building on Part 1, we couldn’t resist talking about how each of our senses contributes to our stress or our well-being. Researchers have noted that the multi-sensory quality of nature matters precisely because monotony of stimulation can itself be a source of stress — in other words, our senses need nature in our lives. Let’s go.
Sight. Have you heard the saying “a sight for sore eyes”? It’s all about what relaxes your eyes. Most of us don’t think of our eyes needing rest unless we’ve been in front of a computer too long. But our faces, scalps, jaws, and necks hold a lot of tension, and all those tiny muscles push and tug on each other as one webbed unit. Try this: close your eyes, let your jaw relax enough to leave a little space between your teeth, let your tongue rest low instead of pressing against the roof of your mouth, and — here’s the part you’ve been waiting for — let the muscles behind your eyes relax. Even just becoming aware of those muscles makes an instant difference. Beyond closing your eyes for a while, you can ease into the day with dim light that brightens gradually, and dim the lights for the last hour or two before bed. Candlelight, anyone?
Hearing. Until I had a child with sensory sensitivities, I didn’t realize I have some of my own. For example, there’s a comfort for me in having the laundry running in the background — a warm, homey feeling. But there’s also a subtle tension that builds in my whole body throughout the day until the moment the dryer switches off and the house falls silent. My entire body relaxes and I usually sigh with some subconscious relief. I don’t know what it is about that mechanical hum, but I feel a release when it stops. Now think of all the sounds around us each day, subtle and not: air conditioners, computers, cars, music, television, voices, pets. This is where silence and time in nature come into play again — and if you play your cards well, going outside can soothe several senses at once. It’s a great case for forest bathing, which Time Magazine featured well.
Smell. You don’t think about smells in everyday life until you’re hit by one extreme end of the good-smell-vs.-bad-smell spectrum. Wet dog and spring flowers both make us aware of smells, obviously with very different reactions. The idea here is that the smells around us — particularly in boats or RVs — can start to hint that life’s been going on a while and it’s time to do laundry, wash the dogs, or deep-clean. Maybe you can’t do it all in one night and need to give your schnoz a break. Certain essential oils can help if you have them; a couple of our favorites are lavender and bergamot. Baking bread or cookies, brewing coffee, even burning sage can freshen a space. And opening the windows to the smell of rain, river, ocean, or just plain nature instantly lifts the scents and changes the whole tone.
Taste. You’ve heard the phrase “leave a different taste in your mouth.” That’s just it: sometimes we get desensitized and homogenized in our sense of taste, falling into a rut with the food we buy and eat. So start simple, with water — a palate cleanser and instant hydrator that tastes subtly different from every place it comes from. I can tell you the tap water in Phoenix tastes drastically different from water straight off a glacier in Montana. More than any specific taste, though, it’s about slowing down to study and savor the flavor and texture of easy-to-find things: an orange, chocolate, cheeses, coffee. Remember the scene in “Into the Wild” where he tells an apple how amazing it is? That’s zen-level food appreciation.
Touch. Check in with your body. Do your clothes feel tight or itchy? Have you been “touched out” for the day, parents and caregivers? Switch what you can: change clothes, declare a space bubble for a while, get comfortable in soft, satiny, or fuzzy materials — or just go bare, for Pete’s sake. (Skinny-dipping, admittedly, is more than the thrill of being naked outdoors; it’s a completely different sensory sensation.) When my dad passed away, there was a lot of pressure on my sister and me to wrap up his estate and funeral planning, on top of the grief and loss we were processing. I found myself craving a cold-water plunge — it was as though I’d gone so numb and shut off to feeling anything else that frigid water was what my body needed to reset and feel semi-normal again. When I found that perfect cold body of water, I did exactly that, and it gave me the kind of touch sensation I needed at the time. An instant shock, yes, but the zap of sensation snapped me awake again on every level.
Self-care might seem like a buzzword these days, a partner to the mindfulness movement. Whatever you call it, taking time to care for yourself in a comprehensive, whole-being way can make a big difference in your daily pleasure and your enjoyment of travel. Plus, when you fill your own pitcher, you have more to give the people traveling alongside you — and everyone benefits. Enjoy your adventures!
