The Four-Part Sensory Strategy to Manage Overwhelm

Discover how sense foraging, a four-part practice of engaging with the sensory environment, effectively manages feelings of overwhelm by shifting focus from stress-inducing thoughts to broader sensory experiences, promoting a balanced mental state.

Overwhelm is often thought of as the judgment that life's demands are too much to bear, making us feel threatened by these challenges. However, recent insights from neuroscience show that being overwhelmed might actually result from sensing too little, not too much. 

Managing overwhelm requires a mindful approach that shifts our focus from narrow, stress-inducing thoughts to broader sensory experiences. Sense foraging, as taught by Dr. Norman Farb and Dr. Zindel Segal in their recent book Better in Every Sense: How the New Science of Sensation Can Help You Reclaim Your Life, offers a valuable strategy for enhancing sensory awareness and creating a balanced mental state. By exploring our senses, we can manage overwhelm more effectively. This understanding motivates different, healthier ways of handling the experience.

This article outlines what overwhelm is and a structured four-part approach to sense foraging.

Contents:

1. Understanding Overwhelm
2. What is Sense Foraging?
3. Framing the Sense Foraging Practice for Clients
4. Guiding the Sense Foraging Practice: Four-Part Approach
5. Practical Application & Integration: Mindful Inquiry

What is Overwhelm

Overwhelm is often perceived as an intense, visceral emotional response driven by an overflow of sensory input. People commonly think that feeling overwhelmed means having too many sensations to handle at once. Neuroscience research shows that overwhelm is actually linked to a reduction in sensory processing rather than an overload. When overwhelmed, our brain tends to inhibit sensory input, shutting down sensory regions and focusing on threat management. This inhibition of sensory input leads to a heightened focus on negative thoughts and judgments, perpetuating the feeling of being overwhelmed. 

The chronic stress response, originating from evolutionary mechanisms to avoid physical threats, is triggered by modern symbolic threats, such as emails and social interactions, which do not require physical action. Many of us experience these pressures daily, leading to feelings of being overwhelmed. Understanding overwhelm involves recognizing how these perceived threats accumulate and affect us.

Addressing overwhelm involves re-engaging with sensory experiences to break the cycle of negative focus. Prolonged resistance to stress without physical release can lead to mental and physical upset, such as depression, hypertension, and burnout. Practices like sense foraging, which encourage noticing and engaging with sensory details, can help restore balance and reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed. Mindfulness and sensory-based therapies can help by reactivating sensory processing regions in the brain, providing new experiences that challenge the negative narrative.

What is Sense Foraging?

In their recent book, Dr. Norman Farb and Dr. Zindel Segal define “Sense Foraging” as purposefully shifting our attention to the sensory world. This practice encourages us to explore our sensory experiences, helping us manage and reduce the feeling of overwhelm. 

Sense foraging involves noticing often overlooked details in our environment, helping to relax our fixation on one thing. It aims to expand awareness, revealing the vast potential of our sensory field. 

The core of sense foraging is intentionally shifting attention from thinking and judging to sensing, which allows us to rewire our brains and open up to new experiences.

Recognizing feelings of overwhelm is key to managing them, as ignoring sensations and trying to escape these feelings only perpetuates the state of overwhelm. This practice encourages a broader, more inclusive awareness to deal with overwhelm effectively.

Framing the Sense Foraging Practice for Clients

The goal is to help clients recognize the feeling of being overwhelmed and understand that it can be managed. There are misconceptions about being overwhelmed; for example, when we feel overwhelmed, it’s because we’re sensing too much, when in reality, when we are overwhelmed we may be sensing too little. 

When introducing sense foraging to clients, it can be helpful to illustrate that being overwhelmed is characterized by a narrow focus on a perceived threat and that sense foraging involves deliberately shifting attention from thinking to sensing, being open to sensory experiences, and embracing surprises. 

The practice of sense foraging emphasizes enhancing sensory experiences rather than solving problems. It focuses on adding new sensory elements rather than trying to escape or dismantle the feeling of overwhelm.

Guiding the Sense Foraging Four-Part Practice

Part 1: Notice the Feeling of Being Overwhelmed

Awareness of feeling overwhelmed is crucial for managing it effectively. Without this initial awareness, sense foraging won't be effective, as recognizing the overwhelm is essential for properly engaging with the technique.

• Become aware of the sensation of being overwhelmed.
• Verbalize, "I'm feeling overwhelmed right now," to acknowledge the state and prepare you for sense foraging.
• Establish simple rituals, such as switching an elastic band from one wrist to another when feeling overwhelmed, to help bring awareness to these feelings.

Part 2: Check-in on Motivation

After acknowledging the feeling of overwhelm, assess the level of interest in sensory experiences. This self-inquiry enhances curiosity and offers the choice to shift the lens of attention from thinking to sense.

• Ask, “Does it seem worthwhile to focus on non-stressful stimuli?” to spark curiosity about a different relationship to the experience.
• Notice, the level of interest or disinterest in sensory experiences.
• Recognize, if the motivation to sense may be low, and set an intention to increase it. Take 10 seconds to affirm this intention, committing to explore the senses more actively.

Part 3: Explore the Sensory Field

Observing sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations can broaden one’s awareness and may counter the narrow focus perpetuating overwhelm and stress. 

• Sight: Observe visual features and the arrangement of surroundings, noting things that would usually be ignored.
• Sound: Listen to environmental sounds, noting fluctuations and differences between thinking and non-thinking moments.
• Smell: Detect subtle scents in the air.
• Taste: Notice the taste residue in the mouth, whether pleasant or not.
• Sensation: Engage in tactile exploration, focusing on parts of the body that usually escape notice. Explore sensations like temperature, pressure, tension, and breath.

Part 4: Check-in on Feelings Again

During sense foraging, a variety of things may be noticed, from trivial to potentially useful observations, without feeling emotionally charged or compelled to act immediately. This practice highlights the vast array of things that can be noticed, helping to realize that we don't have to be fixated on the challenging experience.

• Reassess, the motivation to explore sensory experiences.
• Evaluate, changes in the intensity of the stressor and our perspective on it.
• Ask, “What is my emotional state?” and notice any shifts in feelings. 

Practical Application & Integration: Mindful Inquiry

Regular practice helps one recognize and manage feelings of overwhelm more effectively. Reflecting on how these skills can be used personally and with others reinforces the practical application of sense foraging in various contexts.

Sense foraging can be integrated into various activities such as exercise, spending time in nature, exposure to art, and even therapy. These activities help us engage with our sensory experiences, leading to greater resilience and well-being. Over time, sense foraging can become a daily habit, helping us manage feelings of overwhelm and discover new meanings and purposes in life.

Mindful Reflection to Inspire Application & Integration:

• Reflect on the practice. What did you notice?
• How is this way of managing overwhelm different from how we would normally go about managing overwhelm?
• What is the value (if any) of doing this practice? 

By integrating these diverse sense foraging strategies, practitioners can gain a practical and effective approach to managing overwhelm tailored to individual client needs. This ultimately fosters a more supportive and effective therapeutic environment.

Feel free to share this post with friends, family, or colleagues. Thanks for your ongoing interest and support!

 Michael Apollo MHSc RP is the founder of the Mindful Society Global Institute. Prior to founding MSGI in 2014, he was the Program Director of Mindfulness at the University of Toronto. He is an educator, licensed mental health clinician and certified facilitator in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy.

References:

Segal, Z., & Farb, N. (2024). Better in Every Sense. Little, Brown Spark.

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Farb, N. A. S., Segal, Z. V., Mayberg, H., Bean, J., McKeon, D., Fatima, Z., & Anderson, A. K. (2010). Attending to the present: Mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference. Emotion, 10(1), 93-105. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018336 

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Farb, N. A. S., Irving, J. A., Anderson, A. K., & Segal, Z. V. (2022). Neural mechanisms associated with mindfulness-based interventions in clinical populations: Insights from neuroimaging. NeuroImage: Clinical, 35, 103085. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103085

Disclaimer

The content in our blogs is not intended to substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your health provider with any questions you may have regarding your mental health.