Life in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World

A routine trip to the eye doctor inspires Rubin (Outer Order, Inner Calm) to spend a year mindfully exploring the five senses as part of her lifelong quest for self-knowledge and happiness. Realizing that she’s been paying little attention to the sensory experiences of her life, she plans a series of exercises and habits intended not only to engage the senses, but to sharpen them. Each chapter focuses on a different sense—seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching—and Rubin seamlessly blends her research on each sense with her experiences engaging that sense. An overarching thread throughout the book is Rubin’s daily visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she not only focuses on the visual components of the museum but on all five senses, each present in its own way. Her experiments force her to confront her preconceived notions about sensory experience, finding ways to be more mindful about the role the senses play in everyday life.