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Gretchen RubinGretchen Rubin
Life in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World Hardcover – 18 April 2023
by Gretchen Rubin (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 375 ratings
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The author of The Happiness Project discovers a surprising path to a life of more energy, creativity, luck, and love: by tuning in to the five senses.
"Life in Five Senses invites us into the seismic shift toward a life grounded in sensation, vitality, and innate intelligence."--GLENNON DOYLE, author of Untamed
"An inspiring and practical guide to living in the moment."--SUSAN CAIN, author of Bittersweet and Quiet
For more than a decade, Gretchen Rubin had been studying happiness and human nature. Then, one day, a visit to her eye doctor made her realize that she'd been overlooking a key element of happiness: her five senses. She'd spent so much time stuck in her head that she'd allowed the vital sensations of life to slip away, unnoticed. This epiphany lifted her from a state of foggy preoccupation into a world invigorated by seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching.
In this journey of self-experimentation, Rubin explores the mysteries and joys of the five senses as a path to a happier, more mindful life. Drawing on cutting-edge science, philosophy, literature, and her own efforts to practice what she learns, she investigates the profound power of tuning in to the physical world.
From the simple pleasures of appreciating the magic of ketchup and adding favorite songs to a playlist, to more adventurous efforts like creating a daily ritual of visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art and attending a flavor university, Rubin shows us how to experience each day with depth, delight, and connection. In the rush of daily life, she finds, our five senses offer us immediate, sustainable ways to cheer up, calm down, and engage the world around us--as well as ways to glimpse the soul and touch the transcendent.
Life in Five Senses is an absorbing, layered story of discovery filled with profound insights and practical suggestions about how to heighten our senses and use our powers of perception to live fuller, richer lives--and, ultimately, how to move through the world with more vitality and love.
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My body—through my senses—was my essential connection to the world and to other people.
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I wanted to appreciate the moments of my life more fully; I wanted to get out of my head and into my life; I wanted to deepen my knowledge of the world, of other people—and of myself.
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One of my most important realizations was that we can build a happy life only on the foundation of self-knowledge. The more my life reflected my own temperament, values, and interests, the happier I became, so I spent a lot of time trying to know myself better.
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"Right now, what the world needs most is people who have come to their senses--who have reunited with the power and wisdom of their bodies. Gretchen Rubin's Life in Five Senses--woven with research, practice, and a compelling story--invites us into the seismic shift toward a life grounded in sensation, vitality, and innate intelligence."--Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed and founder of Together Rising
"Life in Five Senses is a great opportunity to spend time in Gretchen Rubin's inimitable company. But it's also an inspiring and practical guide to living in the moment. Many books have tried to teach us the power of the present. But Rubin creates her own tools and forges her own path--one that readers will surely want to follow."--Susan Cain, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Bittersweet and Quiet
"Gretchen Rubin always helps us notice the seemingly small but vitally important aspects of life that make us happier. In this fascinating exploration of our five senses, she shows us how paying closer attention to our daily experience of the exterior world can shift our interior worlds in remarkable ways. . . . A delightful treat, in every sense (pun intended)!"--Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
"What a wonderful wake-up call! Thanks to Gretchen Rubin, I've been noticing more, savoring more, tasting and smelling more--and it's made my life far more interesting. My only regret is that I read the ebook of Life in Five Senses instead of the hardcover. I missed the chance to feel the paper, hear the sound of the pages flipping."--A.J. Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically
"A charming journey through the science and experience of fully engaging your senses of smell, taste, touch, sight, and sound."--Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast Re: Thinking
"We see, but how often do we really see? We taste things, but how often do we really taste things? Life in Five Senses opens us up to the hidden beauty of the world by allowing us to see and feel in high definition. By using all our senses like we have used them before, we can feel a deeper connection with our own existence and resonate more deeply with the existence of others."--Scott Barry Kaufman, author of Transcend and host of The Psychology Podcast
About the Author
Gretchen Rubin is one of today's most influential observers of happiness and human nature. She's the author of many books, including the blockbuster New York Times bestsellers Outer Order, Inner Calm; The Four Tendencies; Better Than Before; and The Happiness Project. Her books have sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide, in more than thirty languages. She hosts the top-ranking, award-winning podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin, where she explores practical solutions for living a happier life. Raised in Kansas City, Rubin lives in New York City with her husband and two daughters.
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 375 ratings
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Gretchen Rubin
Gretchen Rubin is one of today’s most influential and thought-provoking observers of happiness and human nature.
Her previous books include the #1 New York Times bestseller THE HAPPINESS PROJECT, as well as the bestselling books BETTER THAN BEFORE, HAPPIER AT HOME, THE FOUR TENDENCIES, and OUTER ORDER, INNER CALM. Her latest book is LIFE IN FIVE SENSES.
She’s the host of the popular, award-winning podcast "Happier with Gretchen Rubin," where she and her co-host (and sister) Elizabeth Craft explore strategies and insights about how to make life happier. As the founder of The Happiness Project, she has helped create imaginative products for people to use in their own happiness projects.
She has been interviewed by Oprah, eaten dinner with Nobel Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman, walked arm-in-arm with the Dalai Lama, had her work reported on in a medical journal, been written up in the New Yorker, and been an answer on Jeopardy!
Gretchen Rubin started her career in law, and she realized she wanted to be a writer while she was clerking for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Raised in Kansas City, she lives in New York City with her family.
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a.fox.
5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating bookReviewed in the United States on 17 March 2024
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I thought this book was very intriguing and filled with interesting facts about the senses and the authors experiences she had exploring the different senses. Highly recommend if you are looking for a way to live a bit more mindfully and aware of the world around you.
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Juan Manuel Vasquez
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent readingReviewed in Mexico on 27 April 2023
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Like everything Gretchen writes , this book is thought provoking and just a delight to read. She writes in first person , from her own experience which makes it different from other books I’ve read about this topic . The book is full of insight and lessons about how to live a happier and more creative life through your five senses . I’m sure I will reread it soon , like all her previous titles.
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Flick
5.0 out of 5 stars So interesting and insightfulReviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 March 2024
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I have all of Gretchen's books. It took me a while to buy this one as the subject matter didn't immediately appeal. However I actually found it so interesting. Gretchen writes in such a way that you can't help but find yourself interested in the subject matter. I savoured reading this book as it felt like an immersive experience.
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Cat
3.0 out of 5 stars Although thoughtful, very privileged and navel-gazing at timesReviewed in Germany on 5 June 2023
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I did enjoy largely the way she wrote and felt that she made good points about incorporating your senses more into everyday life. However she writes it from a very privileged and obviously wealthy perspective. I think she missed an opportunity to make the ideas more accessible to an everyday person. Questions that could have been considered: how to incorporate your five senses more in everyday life with: kids, chronic pain, little money, little time, when you don't live in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world?!
It felt like a long journal entry that, although written well, was a lot of praising herself for her ideas, "inspirations" and influencing of others. I felt like her happiness came largely from marveling at her ability to use her senses in what she deemed to be a creative and unique way. Her navel-gazing was distracting and I don't think in general the book was worth the buy.
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Mary O
4.0 out of 5 stars Good read if you’re feeling a bit detached from lifeReviewed in the United States on 3 June 2023
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This was more of a 3-1/2 star book for me so I rounded it up to 4.
Life in Five senses resonated as well as provided thoughtful insight in spots but felt a bit uneaven at times. I can’t decide if that is the writing or if it’s simply what senses interest me more (or need more attention). I imagine other readers having a similar experience depending on what’s going on in their life.
Without going into too much detail…a couple of summers ago, I experienced (without clear intention) some of the benefits of engaging the senses as I spent about 2 months spending time alone traveling. Without really being mindful of what I was doing…my senses were heightened and I noticed SO much more beauty in the smallest of things. It was incredibly healing. This book took me back to that experience and helped me understand just how much I needed to be more engaged with the physical
world and get out of my head in order to heal. While in a good place now, i intend to do it again this summer and will take some ideas from Ms Rubin with me to enhance the experience.
While reading this book, I found myself either nodding in agreement, feeling inspired to focus more on engaging senses, interested in learning more about how engaging our senses impact our lives, feeling ready for the chapter to end, or considering not finishing the book.
Perhaps the later is a signal I need to focus more on the now. In any event…I did get something out of this book and am going to focus more on engaging all
senses and getting out of my head. 3,5 stars because, in my case, I suspect this book will get lost among the other self-improvement books I’ve collected over time. .
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