Ten years ago, happiness researcher Gretchen Rubin set out to find a framework for a happier life. She investigated how to strengthen her relationships and increase her energy. Still, she felt disconnected from her friends and herself.
"Suddenly, I realized that I'd been treating my body like a car that my brain was driving around town," Rubin wrote for CNBC Make It. "But it was actually my body — through my five senses — that was my essential connection to the world."
In her book "Life in Five Senses," she discovered some surprising ways we can use smell, touch, hear, see and taste to spark happiness.
1. Need a burst of energy and cheer? Use your sense of smell
To get a quick lift, try taking a deep whiff of clean towels at home or fine wood at a hardware store. Scent ties you to the present moment and, at the same time, can transport you to your past.
2. Stressed out? Use your sense of touch
Items such as pop toys, fidget spinners and therapy dough can help you to feel calmer.
3. Feeling distracted and unproductive? Use your sense of hearing
Just as you do periodic sweeps of your home to clear clutter, you can clear clatter, too. Ask your partner to use earbuds on video calls if you both work at home. Or, to cut down on spam calls, register your phone number with the National Do Not Call Registry.
4. Need a creative spark? Use your sense of sight
Try to spot the small details. When you take a walk, give yourself a little assignment. For example, look for the color purple. The more you observe, the more inspired you'll feel.
5. Want to feel closer to other people? Use your sense of taste
Rubin threw a "Taste Party" where she and her friends rated varieties of apples, chocolate and chips. They tasted ketchup to detect the five basic tastes and reminisced about the candy they ate as kids.
"It was tremendously fun," Rubin says. "We weren't just socializing; we were sharing a sensory experience, and it got us all laughing."
