The Seven Senses | July 2023 #13

The Seven Senses
Written By Brittanny Taylor

Hello there. Welcome to the BT Lounge. I hope you're doing well. We're doing something a little different today. This is the Seven Senses for July 2023. What are the seven senses? What are you talking about? I'm glad you asked.

Back in my newsletter a year ago, exactly, I launched the series of the Seven Senses. It didn't last that long because of me being me, and sticking to something I say I am 1000% going to do is a death sentence. I wanted to bring it back this year and would do it in my newsletter, but then I remembered that the podcast is a perfect place.

Let me tell you about the Seven Senses roundup; we're all familiar with the five senses: sight, smell, taste, sound, and touch. But the sixth sense that has been added is proprioception, which is the body's ability to sense its own position and the world around it. So it plays a crucial role in maintaining balance, coordination, and overall body awareness. Super important, especially when you are around someone where you know they have no awareness of their body and position to others. This is a super important thing to have locked down.

And then there's the seventh sense. I was doing a bit of googling last year, and I came across this link that talked about the seventh sense- perception.

This roundup is about what makes me happy in relation to those seven senses. All right, you got it! Let's begin.

Sight

If I don't talk about Bluey, I don't know what I'm doing wrong with my life. I could give Bluey its own episode, but I will not do that now. All I will say is if you have Disney+ or could log into someone else's account, please watch the show. Yes, it's for kids, but really it is for all of us. Eight-minute episodes of the most wholesome, intelligent, enjoyable television I've seen in a very long time. The lessons that are there for the kids are also lessons for the adults. I need to hear the lessons as well.

Some storylines are for the adults watching, and I mean it when I tell you that this show is healing our inner child. I'd almost have to take breaks from watching it because I want to see her on this show. And there's so much lore that I know I could blast through every episode and start over from the beginning and still get even more out of the show, so please watch Bluey. You do not need to have a kid in your life. My husband and I do not have kids, and we still are obsessed with the show. Please, please, please watch it.

Smell

All we do is sweat now. I guess it feels like it. I have to shower before I go outside, even to walk the dogs, because I know too many people around these parts, and I do not want to be seen as a stinky, sweaty mess of a person. I would much rather be a freshly washed, sweaty mess of a person. So what's doing it for me right now is super clean, fresh scents. I just did a deep clean in the bathroom yesterday morning, and it smelled sooo clean. Freshly washed laundry is also doing it for me, especially since I hang dry a lot of our clothing; it gives a pleasant straight-out-of-the-wash scent as I walk by. 

I've been rolling on essential oils on top of my Bag Balm. If you haven't smelled it before, it smells of lanolin. A hack that TikTok taught me is to put bag balm on your pulse points or wherever you put perfume and then put it on top of that, which helps it last a lot longer. I've been putting some bag balm on my neck and wrist and then rolling sweet orange essential oil on top of it, and I've been loving that this summer.

Crispy Mushroom Tacos - click for the recipe!

Taste

My husband and I were at Dave's last week on his birthday, and as I wanted around the produce section, I saw this big hunk of oyster mushrooms. It was so big that I ended up ripping it in half, and in hindsight, I wish I had taken the whole thing because I made these fantastic fried oyster mushroom tacos that were life-changing. They definitely made my life so much better. I found the recipe on the New York Times cooking app while taking up space looking at my phone in the produce section. Listen, I'm never prepared when I go to the market. I love when I find new recipes that interest me, and they are a success once I make them. We've already had them again in the span of seven days, and I can absolutely see it being a staple in our cooking repertoire. Because I love you, I linked the recipe.

Sound

I've been obsessed with Doja Cat's Attention since I finally took the time to listen to it. Something about its super slow, subtle beats and her flow and energy are incredibly resonating with me right now. I am not Anthony Fantano by any means. I don't know anything about explaining or critiquing music, but I do know if the vibe is right, and the vibe is absolutely giving what I need right now. If you listen to a few episodes back when I talked about Spider-Man across the Spider-verse feeling like butter, this smooth, sumptuous experience. This is what your Attention feels like for me.

Touch

I want to talk about cuddling with friends. Society says that something considered a more romantic type of touch is for your partner and your partner alone, but I think we need to add more romance into our friendships and more friendship into our romances. Part of my queerness is this part of the asexuality spectrum, which is queerplatonic. I don't consider myself asexual, but it resounded when I first heard about queerplatonic relationships. I realize that I have had queerplatonic relationships with people who were my best friends, but it felt like more than that. We held hands, hugged, touched, and sometimes kissed, and we were just so close, and I missed that in my relationships since those friendships ended. We should feel comfortable to cuddle with our friends. Why would we be friends with someone with whom we wouldn't feel that close? If you have those super close relationships in your life or a friend you know would be down for a bit of a (consensual) cuddle, go for it. Of course, if more people hugged and touched each other, again consensually, this world would be much better off.

Proprioception

Proprioception refers to the body's ability to sense its position, movement, and spatial orientation. It plays a crucial role in maintaining balance, coordination, and overall body awareness. 

Throwing a ball in the air and catching it is an excellent proprioception exercise, as it engages multiple sensory systems and enhances body awareness. As you release the ball, your muscles and joints work together to generate force and propel the ball upwards. Meanwhile, your eyes track the ball's trajectory, providing visual feedback. When catching the ball, your body must make precise posture, arm position, and hand-eye coordination adjustments to successfully c it. This exercise challenges your proprioceptive system by requiring constant adjustments and movement coordination, ultimately improving your overall body control, balance, and spatial awareness.

Perception

What story have I told myself for so long that is no longer true? What are you going to do with that information?

I hope you enjoyed this episode of The BT Lounge. It was fun to share what's been cheering me up lately and bringing me a bit of contemplation. I would love to know your answers to the perception questions. So you can send me an email (linked in the show notes), or you can send me a DM on Instagram. I would love to hear what story is just not working for you anymore. I'm looking forward to next week's episode. It is a topic that I really, really want to talk about. And it will bring back a crowd favorite from a couple of years ago. So stay tuned for next week's episode. I hope you have a beautiful week. In the meantime, thank you so much for joining me here at The BT Lounge, and I'll see you here next week.

Brittanny Taylor
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