Episode 41 - How I discovered what a sensorium is and how it changed my life
🐚 Have you ever experienced a moment so immersive that all your senses engaged in perfect harmony, making you feel deeply present and connected? That is the essence of a sensorium—a profound multisensory experience that brings awareness to the body and mind. In this episode of the Inner Rhythms Podcast, we explore the concept of a sensorium, its historical and modern interpretations, and how it can be a transformative practice for deepening embodiment, safety, and intimacy.
Why This Matters
Our sensory experiences shape our perception of the world, influence our nervous system, and impact our ability to connect with ourselves and others. In this episode, I share my personal experiences with sensoria, how they shifted my relationship with my body, and why I am integrating this sacred practice into my upcoming Wombs & Waters Pilgrimage in Malta.
What You'll Learn
- The meaning and origins of a sensorium
- How sensoria impact nervous system regulation and embodiment
- The role of safety and consent in sensory experiences
- Why experiencing a sensorium in a non-sexual space can be liberating
- How I’ll be facilitating this practice in my upcoming retreat
Episode Summary
A sensorium is the totality of sensory experiences at any given moment. It includes external senses like sight, touch, sound, taste, and smell, as well as internal sensations such as proprioception and interoception. Historically, the term was rooted in neurology and psychology, describing the brain's collective processing of sensory input. Today, it is used in art, wellness, and therapeutic experiences to craft deeply immersive environments.
Through my personal journey, I discovered the power of experiencing a sensorium in a safe, non-sexualized space. In many of these experiences, I found myself among women and menstruating bodies, creating a unique sense of trust and openness. Without the underlying expectation of giving something in return, my body was able to fully receive without resistance.
By engaging all senses simultaneously in a sacred container—through sound, touch, taste, and smell—the nervous system enters a profound state of relaxation. This shift expands one's window of tolerance, reducing hypervigilance and allowing deeper connection to the present moment. Sensoria are not just about pleasure but also about releasing stored tension, creating space, and fostering trust within the body.
Listen to the Episode
Key Discussion Points
- [00:00] - Introduction to the episode and topic
- [01:00] - Definition and origins of a sensorium
- [02:34] - Sensory immersion in art, wellness, and therapy
- [04:52] - My first experience of a sensorium and its impact
- [07:25] - How safety and trust shape sensory experiences
- [10:56] - Exploring sensoria in relationships and personal practice
- [15:25] - Offering sensorium in my upcoming retreat
The Power of Sensory Immersion
The experience of a sensorium provides a gateway to embodiment, trust, and connection. When we intentionally engage with our senses in a supportive environment, we can experience:
- A more regulated nervous system: Expanding the body's ability to tolerate different stimuli without stress.
- Deeper presence and relaxation: Anchoring into the moment through sensory awareness.
- A shift in how we receive: Letting go of transactional expectations and simply being with the experience.
"A sensorium is a full-body experience of presence. When we engage all senses at once, we create a deep state of safety and connection." — Iris Josephina
"Experiencing a sensorium in a non-sexualized space shifted my ability to receive. It was pure, safe, and deeply liberating." — Iris Josephina
Creating Sacred Sensory Experiences
At its core, a sensorium is about deep listening—to our bodies, to each other, and to the space we hold. In my retreats, we cultivate this experience with:
- Guided sensorial immersions
- Soundscapes and touch-based rituals
- Sacred food ceremonies
- Deep presence practices
"When you take away expectation, you open up to true presence. A sensorium invites us to receive without resistance." — Iris Josephina
Key Takeaways
- A sensorium is a multisensory experience that expands presence and embodiment.
- Safety and trust are essential in shaping how we receive sensory experiences.
- Practicing a sensorium in non-sexualized spaces creates profound shifts in nervous system regulation.
- This practice can deepen connection in personal relationships and group settings.
- I will be offering a sensorium immersion in my Wombs & Waters Pilgrimage in March 2025.
Resources Mentioned
Full Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to the podcast of Iris Josephina. If you're passionate about exploring the menstrual cycle, cyclical living, body wisdom, personal growth, spirituality, and running a business in alignment with your natural cycles, you're in the right place. I'm Iris. I'm an entrepreneur, functional hormone specialist, trainer, and coach, and I'm on a mission to share insights.
[00:00:30] Fun facts and inspiration I discover along the way as I run my business and walk my own path on earth. Here, you'll hear my personal stories, guest interviews, and vulnerable shares from clients and students. Most people know me from Instagram, where you can find me under at cycle seeds, or they have been a coaching client or student in one of my courses.
[00:00:52] I'm so grateful you're here. Let's dive into today's episode.
[00:00:59] What is a sensorium? Wow. There are so many ways to answer this question, but I'm going to start with the general description of what a sensorium is. And then I'm going to dive into my personal experience of a sensorium and how it can help you live a more rooted embodied life. So, a sensorium is a concept that refers to the combined sensory experiences and perceptions of an individual at any given moment.
[00:01:46] It really encompasses the full range of sensory input we receive, like sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell, along with the body's internal sensations, such as Balance and gravity, temperature, bodily awareness, also known as proprioception. And in modern use of the word sensorium, it is often used to describe immersive environments that are designed to heighten and engage multiple senses at the same time, especially in environments like art, therapy, experiential design.
[00:02:34] For example, a sensorium installation might combine sounds and scents and lightning and texture to evoke a specific emotional or physical response, aiming to create an experience that feels fully immersive. Now, historically, this word has root in neurology and psychology, where it was used to describe the brain's collective processing of sensory input.
[00:03:02] And today it's more likely to be found in fields like art, wellness, even virtual reality, where the idea of a sensorium is used to craft a deeply engaging, multi sensory experience. Now, how does this relate to my work and why am I talking about this? Simply because sensoria have had a profound impact on my life and also my relationships.
[00:03:41] The first time that I experienced a sensorium in my life was in an environment with only women and I've gone through multiple of these experiences in different settings. But most of them were in environments with women and people with menstrual cycles, only people with bodies who look like mine and what was so profound about this experience that I, you know, didn't think of before I experienced this whole array of sensory input and output is that In a space with people I am not sexually related to, there are also no sexual expectations, and this opened up a whole field of possibility of landing in my body, of not responding to the things that I usually respond to, and I'm going to give you an example of that in a minute.
[00:04:52] So. The fact that I was in a space with people who had bodies who look like mine set a whole different safety for me, because in a space where I'm usually vulnerable like that, where I offer my body to be touched, where I'm offered smells, where I'm offered closeness, This was in a context with partners and usually the like underlying expectation is Okay, when we do this whole experience of touching smelling tasting hearing etc There needs to be an exchange at the end, and the exchange often looks like sex.
[00:05:45] Now, in these experiences with these women on these retreats that I went on, this expectation was not there at all. And what I noticed is that this took away A sense of unsafety or a sense of anticipation or expectation that, okay, I'm given things right now, but at the end I'm supposed to be giving my body to this person.
[00:06:12] And this was not the case at all. So the way the censoria that I have experienced went was that we set the space. We were divided in groups of two to three women and one woman lays down. And the other women gift her the experience of a sensorium, gift her the sense of sound, touch, taste, and smell in the form of flowers, massaging, eating honey, eating chocolate, uh, eating fruit, all at the same time.
[00:06:55] So, all of the senses are stimulated in a non sexual way, at the same time, in an environment where you feel extremely safe, extremely held, and where there is no expectation of you. This for me, was the very first time, my first sensorium was the very first time that I experienced this in this way, and I noticed that I could land so much deeper in my body, I could breathe deeper.
[00:07:25] And even things that would normally shock my body, like a sudden sound in the room, or a change of, like, energy, it didn't affect me as much. I remember the first time I experienced a sensorium, there was a metal bottle falling because someone hit it and it fell. My normal response would be that my body would jump over that sound.
[00:07:53] But because The setting was so safe, and I felt so held and so rooted in my own body. The range of my nervous system had all of a sudden changed dramatically in a very short period of time, where I would usually jump at that sound. My body didn't give a peep. I was calm. I was relaxed. And I noticed that my window of tolerance of my nervous system was all of a sudden so much wider.
[00:08:27] I wasn't hypervigilant. I wasn't, like, hyperfocused on changes in my environment. I was just in my body, and I could just leave my environment be. And I think this is the gift that so many people deserve, because so many of us are so hypervigilant, are constantly looking over our shoulders. Are constantly feeling unsafe in the body, are constantly having to reassure ourselves that we are safe and nobody is going to attack us, nobody is going to want anything from us.
[00:09:04] And if that is the case, if somebody does want something from us, we're constantly anticipating. We're constantly very aware of the boundary of where the receiving stops and where we will have to be giving. And I've spoken about this with many of my clients in, in many group settings that I've been in.
[00:09:27] And this is a real thing. This is a real thing that we experience in a phenotypic female body. And even with a beautiful experience like a sensorium, where you can open up all of your senses. When this happens in a context with a partner, the energy is always different because there is always this lingering expectation that we need to give sex at the end.
[00:09:53] And I want to illustrate that I have also experienced sensoria with my partner and it's different. It's different than in a space with women only or with people who are engaging with me in a very non sexual way. Of course, I love my partner, and this is something that we share as something sacred together, this sexual aspect of our relationship, so it is something that I naturally want to share with him.
[00:10:28] But also having a sensorium with a partner and having like clear communication around, okay, we're just going to focus on this sensorium. And now I'm going to give, and you're only going to receive, or I'm going to receive, and you're only going to give. The whole dynamic of who we are in a relationship can change in that moment.
[00:10:56] And it can be a very beautiful thing to create intimacy. In relationships, specifically with a partner, when that aspect of the relationship maybe seems a little bit far away, or you don't make time for it. So, a sensorium for me is a beautiful way to instigate connection, instant connection, and instant intimacy, regardless of what kind of relationship that you're in, whether it is a sister, whether it is a friend, whether it is a partner.
[00:11:33] Slowing down and making time, making the environment so sacred and slowing down together and coming back to this very primal human experiences of our senses can bring us back to the body in a way that many other practices cannot. Things like breath, the breath can be something very terrifying for people.
[00:12:05] I know people who really hate focusing on their breath and breathing deeply because it makes them, like, hyperventilate or it makes them feel extremely anxious. There are a lot of senses. You have sight, you have sound, you have touch, you have taste, you have smell. So, it is way easier for a person to connect to maybe one of these senses and start practicing with that.
[00:12:30] And, to me, this practice always opens doors for More compassion towards my own body, but also more intimacy with the person I am practicing a sensorium with. And so because this experience has been so profound for me, and I've witnessed other people in a sensorium as well, and really observed people having truly deep releases of things that were stored in their body for such a long time.
[00:13:03] And finally, feeling safe enough to let that go and create space in their bodies. And I have seen people burst into laughter like never before. And releasing in that way, and I believe that our bodies are so extremely smart. And sometimes they just need like a little nudge. A little nudge in one direction, a little nudge in another direction, a little invitation to access deeper layers of ourselves through our senses.
[00:13:35] And so, this part, this sensorium, is something that I have dreamt to do with people in a very sacred space. And it didn't feel right to me to just like, oh, let's do a workshop. Because this requires deeper layers of trust. Deeper layers of connection. deeper layers of safety. So to me, the most logical way to offer this to people was in a retreat environment.
[00:14:10] And so I've offered this during a retreat I hosted earlier, and I will also be offering this in my wombs and waters pilgrimage in March, 2025, which is a pilgrimage and I'll be offering With my dear friend, Elizabeth, it's been a long time coming that I've been wanting and desiring to offer this retreat in one of the most sacred places on the planet that I've ever lived, Malta and Gozo, we will be staying in a village where I lived in Gozo and we will be descending into a cave and we will experience this sensorium experience in Malta.
[00:14:54] What I call the womb of the great mother, like every cave is an invitation to go back to the safety of the womb. And so it felt so in alignment and so sacred to be offering this beautiful practice of a sensorium in a place that I hold so dearly and in a place where people will have such profound experiences at ancient temples in connection with each other.
[00:15:25] In prayer, in song, and so I am so honored that I will be able to do this with the women who feel called to join me and my friend Elizabeth on this pilgrimage. So, if you are thinking, oh my god, this is really something that I want to experience, that I want to, have in my life and hold dear in my life, you are so welcome to join me on this pilgrimage.
[00:15:56] And I do have to say for a sensorium, it's very important that you do it with people who've done it before and who are able to guide you through it in a way that creates the ultimate safety and the ultimate environment for the body to feel completely relaxed and completely rooted. And completely in alignment and okay to release whatever needs to be released and call in whatever needs to be called in.
[00:16:28] And I cannot wait to share this sacred sensorium ceremony with you. I really hope to see you during our pilgrimage. It's, yeah, this is one of the most profound experiences of my life, like hands down, and I cannot wait to share it again. I won't be sharing it before March 2025, like that will be the first time again that I'll be Organizing a sensorium, and I cannot wait, I cannot wait to go into this beautiful cave that will be our ceremony space and hold the space for you to guide you through this sensorium with other sisters and witness everyone have a profound, beautiful experience that they can hold dear for the rest of their lives.
[00:17:25] Like I said, if you feel Called. If you hear this and you're feeling like a full body, yes, from the depth of your being, hop on over to the show notes where you can see how you can apply. For this sacred pilgrimage that I am hosting and I hope to see you there.
[00:17:53] Okay, this wraps up today's episode. Thank you so much for listening. Want to know more about me? The best way to reach me is via at CycleSeeds on Instagram. And if you heard something today and you think, Oh my God, wow, I learned something new, feel free to share the podcast on your social media and tag me, or leave a review of rating in this way, you help me reach more people like you.
[00:18:16] Thank you so much.
About the Host
Iris Josephina is an entrepreneur, functional hormone specialist, trainer, and coach specializing in menstrual cycle awareness, cyclical living, and holistic embodiment. Through her work, she guides people into deeper alignment with their natural rhythms.
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