Resilient Living Sensory Self-Care Series

Sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. These five senses bring so much to our lives. Being aware of our senses can help us build a practice of self-care which can be easily become a part of our existing daily routine and habits

The series has ended but you can watch the recordings at the links below.

Self-care is an important part of our lives, whether it be some ‘me time’, reading a new book or listening to some relaxing music. For me, I have really benefited from self care not only to support FOP stressors but also to help improve my mental health. I’ve suffered with anxiety over the recent years and self-care has definitely been a way that helped to manage this. Anxiety, stress and worry I’ve found triggers my flare ups so finding some self-care activities, de-stress me and help me to divert my negative thoughts into positive ones. 

Luciana Wulkan, Young adult living with FOP, United Kingdom

Each weekly meeting will include:

• Group chat time: We'll start with introductions and an ice breaker question to help get the conversation going. This question will help us all build an awareness of how that week's sense impacts us.
• Learning Lessons: 30-minute mini-presentations by “topic teachers” who come to share what they know about a specific aspect of support related to that week's sense 
• Reflection Time: We'll wrap up the session by making a plan to incorporate new learnings, hearing feedback and answering questions from one another and troubleshooting barriers we might have in mind that would prevent us from succeeding at self-care. 

Weekly Topics and Sense-Based Support Examples:

• Week 1: Sight: Feng Shui (click here to watch a recording of our feng shui educational session.)
  • Learn how incorporating light and life into your environment can impact your mental wellbeing. We hear from guest speaker Robyn Stevens, Feng Shui Practioner about credits and debits in your environment and how to balance them. Access Robyn's slides here.

• Week 2: Sound: Sound Healing (click here to watch a recording of our sound healing educational session) 
  • We’ll explore music-making, sounds for emotional wellbeing and other musical experiences designed to support you.

• Week 3: Smell: Aromatherapy (click here to watch a recording of our aromatherapy educational session)
  • We’ll discuss different aroma’s and their effects, methods to introduce aroma’s to a room and information about selecting safe and quality oils for your home. Access Isabelle's PDF handout here.

• Week 4: Taste: Nutrition (click here to watch a recording of our nutrition educational session) 
  • The food you eat has a tremendous impact on how you feel. Understand how food affects you and learn strategies for getting more energy. Learn how eating an anti-inflammatory diet can effectively reduce stress and raise energy.

• Week 5: Touch: Energy Medicine (click here to watch a recording of our energy medicine educational session 1 and session 2)
  • Enjoy an introduction to the power of touch and how we can include small moments of intentional touch into our daily routine to improve our emotional and physical wellbeing.