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Awaken Your Senses: Exercises for Exploring the Wonder of God
Perhaps you've been missing out. God has given us five senses and a brain with two sides. Yet we often approach God in one way only: through words that are analyzed and processed logically in our left brain. The right brain, however, is the creative, intuitive center--the place that connects most to our seeing, smelling, touching, tasting and hearing, and that roots experiences in our hearts in transforming ways. In Awaken Your Senses, longtime ministers Beth Booram and Brent Bill invite you to engage your right brain in your faith through sensory spiritual practices that position your heart for divine encounter. Readings and a variety of exercises that utilize your whole body lead you to experience God in new ways by Teaching you to pay attention in love to your surroundings, Booram and Bill will help you open your eyes and ears and nose to a sensuous faith--one in which God can be experienced each day as we live and move and have our being. So whether you're weary, stuck, struggling, growing or on information-overload, the exercises and reflections offered here can bring refreshment--a cold drink of water, a gentle breeze--to your soul. Come experience God with all of who you are, and discover more of who he is.
- GenresChristianSpirituality
208 pages, Paperback
First published December 12, 2011
16 people are currently reading
116 people want to read
About the author
J. Brent Bill
30 books88 followersBrent Bill is a Quaker minister, photographer, and author. He is the author of many books and magazine articles. He lives in rural Indiana on Ploughshares Farm -- a wildlife retreat with woods and native prairie.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 18, 2013
We are sensual creatures. We constantly encounter our world through our five senses. We taste the coffee, we smell the roses, we see the glorious vista, we hear the blending of vocal harmonies, we feel the touch of a loved one comforting us when we hurt. Yet often our relationship with God is lived in our head--conceptualizing and analyzing words alone.
This book is a wonderful collection of exercises co-authored by two spiritual directors, Brent Bill and Beth Booram, that help us explore the wonders of God that come to us through our senses. Each section focuses on one sense beginning with a photograph to engage us in reflection around a particular sense.
Around taste, one of the exercises proposed by Brent is that of "eating the hours", following the practice of fixed our prayer with meals or snacks at fixed time through which we taste God's goodness. A seeing exercise using a photographic metaphor talked about re-framing and focusing, zooming in on one aspect of the scenery of our lives to see what God may be saying to us. Touching included taking a pile of stones and building them into an altar. Hearing included practicing an audio lectio divina, where one listens to a favorite piece of music, and focuses in on a particular musical phrase that arrests our attention. And smell included (ah, yes!) a reflection on the smell of coffee as a reminder of our communion with people and God--something with which I am well acquainted!
Not every exercise may appeal to every reader, but the cumulative effect is to open us to new ways of attentiveness to God as He meets us through our sensory experiences.
This book is a wonderful collection of exercises co-authored by two spiritual directors, Brent Bill and Beth Booram, that help us explore the wonders of God that come to us through our senses. Each section focuses on one sense beginning with a photograph to engage us in reflection around a particular sense.
Around taste, one of the exercises proposed by Brent is that of "eating the hours", following the practice of fixed our prayer with meals or snacks at fixed time through which we taste God's goodness. A seeing exercise using a photographic metaphor talked about re-framing and focusing, zooming in on one aspect of the scenery of our lives to see what God may be saying to us. Touching included taking a pile of stones and building them into an altar. Hearing included practicing an audio lectio divina, where one listens to a favorite piece of music, and focuses in on a particular musical phrase that arrests our attention. And smell included (ah, yes!) a reflection on the smell of coffee as a reminder of our communion with people and God--something with which I am well acquainted!
Not every exercise may appeal to every reader, but the cumulative effect is to open us to new ways of attentiveness to God as He meets us through our sensory experiences.
August 5, 2012
This author had so much to share I suspect I'd benefit from picking this book up again somewhere down the road and giving it a reread. Focusing on the five senses the authors have a plethora of ways to tap into a closer connection with our spiritual lives.
January 26, 2012
J. Brent Bill is best known as a popular Quaker writer and I also highly recommend his earlier Sacred Compass: The Way of Spiritual Discernment. He has spent many years as a head of an Indianapolis nonprofit that helps congregations solve problems. Beth Booram may be better known in evangelical circles and for her years of work leading retreats in a wide range of Christian congregations. If you are drawn toward this basic idea, you may also want to check out Beth's earlier books, Picturing the Face of Jesus: Encountering Christ through Art and The Wide Open Spaces of God: A Journey With God Through the Landscapes of Life. Together, as a team, Brent and Beth draw from many Christian streams and shares the ideas with practical invitations to use them in daily life.
Primarily, this is a Christian book, drawing from the Bible and a long tradition of inspirational writers including both Catholic and Protestant voices. But the basic ideas and spiritual principles here can be broadly applied. The authors point out specifically that "if you say you're spiritual, but not religious," you'll still find lots of rewarding ideas between these covers. Even clergy and group leaders in other faiths may pick up ideas they will want to adapt.
The book is designed for an individual reader to enjoy the five sections on five sense and perhaps to try out some of the ideas--and there are many, not just a single track to follow. Or, it's great for small-group discussion. And, congregational leaders are sure to find a number of great ideas to use in preaching, teaching and planning worship.
Want to check out their other books?
Sacred Compass: The Way of Spiritual Discernment
Picturing the Face of Jesus: Encountering Christ through Art
The Wide Open Spaces of God: A Journey With God Through the Landscapes of Life
Primarily, this is a Christian book, drawing from the Bible and a long tradition of inspirational writers including both Catholic and Protestant voices. But the basic ideas and spiritual principles here can be broadly applied. The authors point out specifically that "if you say you're spiritual, but not religious," you'll still find lots of rewarding ideas between these covers. Even clergy and group leaders in other faiths may pick up ideas they will want to adapt.
The book is designed for an individual reader to enjoy the five sections on five sense and perhaps to try out some of the ideas--and there are many, not just a single track to follow. Or, it's great for small-group discussion. And, congregational leaders are sure to find a number of great ideas to use in preaching, teaching and planning worship.
Want to check out their other books?
Sacred Compass: The Way of Spiritual Discernment
Picturing the Face of Jesus: Encountering Christ through Art
The Wide Open Spaces of God: A Journey With God Through the Landscapes of Life
May 15, 2012
As the title suggests, the content is organized by our five senses. Brent Bill (Quaker) and co-writer Beth Booram have both a friendly and thoughtful way of writing. You can read this like a devotional or you can try some of the many suggestions related to art, food, nature, and much more. This is a contemplative book to come back to time and again.
March 5, 2012
This book is designed into five subparts of the five senses. Reminds the reader to slow down in life and use all five senses of the wonder of God around us. There is a lot to think about from this book.
February 26, 2013
Descent book with pretty cool exercises.
October 15, 2021
God is multi-dimensional. We were created in His image with a body, soul, and spirit. He gave us our senses to connect to all of His creation. If we choose, we can experience Him in fresh new ways through our 5 senses if we are mindful of His presence. This book facilitates experiencing God in fresh ways and helps us respond as the Spirit leads. If your spiritual diet tastes a bit bland, I want to encourage you to use your physical senses through contemplative living and “do” this book. I suggest you read it like a devotional and not rush through it. Be prayerful! Enjoy God! I wish I had come across this book 20 years ago! It’s a timeless classic that should be in every growing Christian’s library!
June 2, 2019
This is the third time I have used this book as a preaching/teaching resource. I am grateful for the good theological work and wonderful invitations of this book and commend to others the use of this material in teaching the faith! Booram and Bill offer five beautiful ways to engage God and the scriptures, opening up embodied practices that encourage the reader to "see" the presence of God in their everyday life.
March 28, 2013
Ways to reconnect, or maybe truly connect for the first time--with God, nature and self...a workshop and a book!
To help more of us experience more of the Divine, to be more present to everything in our surroundings and to ourselves throughout each entire day, Beth Booram and Brent Bill offer a handbook of their own stories, reflections, and exercises for activating more of the creative, intuitive right side of the brain and living more fully through tasting, seeing, touching, hearing and smelling. Since God engages us as whole people with bodies, spirits, senses, intellects and histories, to move closer to a "self-disclosing God," we need to engage that wholeness. We cannot do without the more familiar (to most of us), intellectual aspects of faith, but scripture study, prayer, activism and worship are only part of a multi-dimensional experience. A quote from Marcel Proust, "Not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes [noses, ears, skin, tastebuds]" describes a goal of praying, playing, feeling, and working through this book.
Brent and Beth alternate writing each of the short chapters within each larger section titled after one of the five human senses; each chapter begins with a thematic superscription, most often scripture verses, occasionally from a well-known author. The authors' own stories easily relate to regular everyday lives and for the most part, you can do the exercises for each emphasis in the context of your ongoing journey, or you can set aside a time and place to concentrate on one or more that especially appeals to you. I'm not sure I'd have used the word exercise, but it may be an apt one for the kind of practice that gradually leads to near-mastery and I can't think of a better one right now. Some might enjoy taking 30 consecutive days or more (I'm thinking the liturgical seasons of approximately month-long Advent or the 6 weeks of Lent) and making Awaken Your Senses a life- and world-improvement project. Each activity helps ground us in our bodily sensuousness and in the gifts of creation.
It's very true that a tremendous amount of what we plan to do and then do in the course of any day necessarily is future-oriented; for a multitude of reasons, considerations of the past also are essential, but I love the observation that our senses bring us straightaway into real time. There's a sense of Sabbath, of simply being, drinking in and savoring who you've become thus far in living more fully with - and trusting - your senses! You find yourself smack dab in this very moment, ceasing any thoughts of any of the past, quieting worries or even plans for the future, releasing anxieties about the here and now when you "relax into observing details."
Additional resources for sensory awakening, acknowledgments, contact information and endnotes conclude the book.
To help more of us experience more of the Divine, to be more present to everything in our surroundings and to ourselves throughout each entire day, Beth Booram and Brent Bill offer a handbook of their own stories, reflections, and exercises for activating more of the creative, intuitive right side of the brain and living more fully through tasting, seeing, touching, hearing and smelling. Since God engages us as whole people with bodies, spirits, senses, intellects and histories, to move closer to a "self-disclosing God," we need to engage that wholeness. We cannot do without the more familiar (to most of us), intellectual aspects of faith, but scripture study, prayer, activism and worship are only part of a multi-dimensional experience. A quote from Marcel Proust, "Not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes [noses, ears, skin, tastebuds]" describes a goal of praying, playing, feeling, and working through this book.
Brent and Beth alternate writing each of the short chapters within each larger section titled after one of the five human senses; each chapter begins with a thematic superscription, most often scripture verses, occasionally from a well-known author. The authors' own stories easily relate to regular everyday lives and for the most part, you can do the exercises for each emphasis in the context of your ongoing journey, or you can set aside a time and place to concentrate on one or more that especially appeals to you. I'm not sure I'd have used the word exercise, but it may be an apt one for the kind of practice that gradually leads to near-mastery and I can't think of a better one right now. Some might enjoy taking 30 consecutive days or more (I'm thinking the liturgical seasons of approximately month-long Advent or the 6 weeks of Lent) and making Awaken Your Senses a life- and world-improvement project. Each activity helps ground us in our bodily sensuousness and in the gifts of creation.
It's very true that a tremendous amount of what we plan to do and then do in the course of any day necessarily is future-oriented; for a multitude of reasons, considerations of the past also are essential, but I love the observation that our senses bring us straightaway into real time. There's a sense of Sabbath, of simply being, drinking in and savoring who you've become thus far in living more fully with - and trusting - your senses! You find yourself smack dab in this very moment, ceasing any thoughts of any of the past, quieting worries or even plans for the future, releasing anxieties about the here and now when you "relax into observing details."
Additional resources for sensory awakening, acknowledgments, contact information and endnotes conclude the book.
July 14, 2012
Read in preparation for a youth retreat I'm helping lead.
Some nice sacred space exercises, and one of the the only books I have seen think about God in a kinaesthetic way.
Takes a while to read because of the slow nature of the contemplative exercises.
Like with any personal exercise book, it's all very naval gazing-y (real term) and self reflective. Almost makes you take yourself so seriously you could begin to believe you have a direct line to God. But these are my issues, and for the most part this book encourages you to see the beauty in your every day, to push your focus away from your small perception of something and think about them in different ways.
Some nice sacred space exercises, and one of the the only books I have seen think about God in a kinaesthetic way.
Takes a while to read because of the slow nature of the contemplative exercises.
Like with any personal exercise book, it's all very naval gazing-y (real term) and self reflective. Almost makes you take yourself so seriously you could begin to believe you have a direct line to God. But these are my issues, and for the most part this book encourages you to see the beauty in your every day, to push your focus away from your small perception of something and think about them in different ways.
July 31, 2015
This book has been my ongoing spiritual retreat all year. As a contemplative, I live most naturally in my head and heart; this book grounds the spiritual experience in the five physical senses. With short essays and exercises to practice, I have looked forward to reading it when I have pockets of time to engage with God on a deeper level. I anticipate coming back to it again and again.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews