Returning to our Senses

According to information scientists, nowadays the average human processes the equivalent of 174 newspapers every day – taking in 5 times the amount of information we would process in 1986!

Luckily our brains have the ability to filter this huge amount of information into a palatable portion to digest. Without this ability, we would become completely overwhelmed. Neurons are living cells, requiring oxygen and glucose, so when they have been working hard they become tired. Therefore, every notification on your phone, each decision, experience and focus competes for resources within your brain. As we know, our primary information providers have become very clever at catching our attention.

So how do we come back to our senses?

‘Paying’ with your Attention

Stephen Harrod Buhner (renowned herbalist, author and earth poet) refers to this filtration process as the sensory gating channels. What is most interesting about this entire process is our capacity to adjust and tune the channel – profoundly affecting the world we perceive!

Within the human mind a huge amount occurs below the threshold of our awareness, often referred to as our subconscious. This storehouse of memory largely affects how we feel, as well as our responses to life as it unfolds. In-turn creating many of the experiences in our outside reality. However, in order for something to become encoded as part of your experience, you need to have paid conscious attention to it. You need to pay attention!

Tuning your radio

These days it is very easy to sit back and consume the information that is being fed to us, whether it is on social media feeds, the news, television or the general consensus within our communities. The saying ‘you are what you eat’ may also be applied here.

** A huge Key to a rich and fulfilling life is to not only to pay attention, but to pay attention to what you are paying attention to. **

Overuse of smartphones, computers and television ‘programs’ can dramatically affect our reality in many ways. Harvard University researcher Trevor Haynes states, when you get a social media notification, your brain sends a chemical messenger called dopamine along a reward pathway, which makes you feel good, this can lead to a somewhat addictive relationship.

Studies have shown that too much social media can dramatically reduce our attention span, as well as desensitise and powerfully influence our minds.

How to tune our dial!

1. Meditation

Despite the immeasurable positive effects of meditation, more and more research is demonstrating just how much taking the time to sit can have upon our lives. From reducing anxiety and depression, to enhancing the very richness and depth of our lives.

Our focus here though is Attention; Sara Lazar a Professor at Harvard Medical School was the first to document that mindfulness meditation can change the brain’s gray matter and regions linked with memory, the sense of self, the regulation of emotions aaand Attention! All of these areas massively affect the way in which we perceive reality.

2. Interest

Having developed your capacity to pay attention, the next step is to quite simply to be interested. This is where you get to hold the paintbrush for the masterpiece of your life! It is so ridiculously exciting to be a human being on planet earth, there is so much to discover, to learn, to explore and to create.

The more consciously you choose what you are interested in and explore, the more you claim your sovereignty, your birthright and the very joy to be alive.

Whether it is life-drawing, baking, bird watching or dancing - the choice is yours, don’t allow others to make it for you, it is far too precious!

3. Unplug

One of the best simple shifts I have made is to not use my phone at least an hour before bed or an hour after waking up. This helps me to sleep far deeper and vastly improves lucid dream recollection, not to mention making room for more magic and intimacy.

Digital detoxes are a great way to reset and return to our senses, it feels wonderful to turn it all off for a while.

4. Nature

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the universe."

John Muir

One of the finest ways to return to your senses is to go for a walk in the wilderness. We understand ourselves in relation to our environment. Immersing ourselves in the wild reminds us of our wild, true nature.

As well as this, it can help us to sharpen our senses once more (to re-sensitise) and open ourselves to wonder. Children naturally experience nature as alive, aware and intelligent; this wisdom is always awaiting for us to simply notice. Trees and plants do not have agendas or complicated nuances, relating with them reminds us what is beneath all the human melodrama, and it feels rather lovely.

Listening

They say it takes at least 20 minutes of being very still in the woods before the sounds begin to return properly (where the songs are not just highlighting your presence). With a trained ear birds can tell you if there is danger, when the weather might change, lead you to your food, or even to your death.

As we quiet our minds and pay close attention to the forest, it speaks to us in a beautiful orchestra of mysterious languages. It was sitting beneath a tree that some of the greatest epiphanies have ever been made by humans, from Isaac Newton, to Shakyamuni Buddha.

You can identify trees not just by how they look, but by their susurration, the rustle of the wind in their leaves (listen here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000b6sm) Or like the Buddha, we can learn to listen to the deepest stirrings of our own heart beneath the branches of an old tree.

Looking deeper

Peripheral vision allows us to see what is around us, without directly looking at it. It also helps us with balance, which is why it is tricky to stand on one leg and close your eyes. Activating and training your peripheral vision can help you have far more fun in the forest. Many animals like dear have an advantage with this due to the placement of their eyes, but the good news is you can train it.

Modern life has made many of us lose our peripheral awareness with our attention solely focused on direct vision (screens etc). Dr Sherylle Calder was recently heralded as England rugby club’s secret weapon; she is a vision coach and has radically improved the players’ ability by training their peripheral vision.

If you soften your gaze and activate your peripheral vision in nature, you will notice far more than you could ever imagine. This vision is particularly good at spotting movement. Indigenous hunters in the amazon have exceptional peripheral vision, but you don’t have to be hunting to enjoy it.

If you have ever felt someone looking at you from behind and turned to see it was true, animals have this capacity to sense far greater than us, so when we look peripherally they are much less likely to be scared away. You can invite a butterfly to land on your hand by softening your gaze this way and resting in your heart.

To activate your periphery you can lift both forefingers in front of you, focussing on them, as you slowly draw them at arm's length either side of your head – you will notice the shift in focus. With practice, more than just drawing your sight into more subtle realms, this may also open your inner senses.

By developing our capacity to sense the more subtle realms of our perception, we move in a direction that opens up further awareness, our extra sensory and intuitive senses. The more we listen, see, feel and then (crucially) acknowledge and respond to these subtle senses, the more they will become apparent in our awareness.

A beautiful, personal and precious journey of discovery…

“The goal of life is make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.” Joseph Campbell