BIO-FEEDBACK
Maximizing the Potential of the Senses
We are told from the beginning that we have five senses. This is a lie. We are able to sense practically all phenomena but in varying degrees. The five senses historically referred to are simply the most powerful. They are powerful because we use them daily. Increased use equates to increased strength just like our bodies and just like our mind. With this thought, one can perceptively adapt all sensations and become better adept at their use, an example would be the practice of proprioception through compromising of balance. For the majority of humanity, the most used sense is sight, so much so that it tends to drown out all other signals received through our other senses. There is so much more to life than simply the visual spectrum therefore, to increase wellness, the other senses must be appreciated.
A Treatise on Understanding Pain
Pain is something that is sensed therefore we have sensors specifically for pain. We are built for an environment that contains the pain stimulus. The sensation is unique in its ability to control our body and cause is to act without permission from the conscious mind. Only fear can cause the same effect. Pain should not be thought of as an enemy, rather it should be considered a tutor, warding us away from paths that are damaging to us in the long or short term. Learning to tolerate pain is a worthless endeavour. The tutor attempts to teach us what to avoid, not how to endure. Learning to live with things that cause pain is assigning energy and resources to the thing that causes pain and not to yourself. Allow pain to teach, not to control.
We are told from the beginning that we have five senses. This is a lie. We are able to sense practically all phenomena but in varying degrees. The five senses historically referred to are simply the most powerful. They are powerful because we use them daily. Increased use equates to increased strength just like our bodies and just like our mind. With this thought, one can perceptively adapt all sensations and become better adept at their use, an example would be the practice of proprioception through compromising of balance. For the majority of humanity, the most used sense is sight, so much so that it tends to drown out all other signals received through our other senses. There is so much more to life than simply the visual spectrum therefore, to increase wellness, the other senses must be appreciated.
A Treatise on Understanding Pain
Pain is something that is sensed therefore we have sensors specifically for pain. We are built for an environment that contains the pain stimulus. The sensation is unique in its ability to control our body and cause is to act without permission from the conscious mind. Only fear can cause the same effect. Pain should not be thought of as an enemy, rather it should be considered a tutor, warding us away from paths that are damaging to us in the long or short term. Learning to tolerate pain is a worthless endeavour. The tutor attempts to teach us what to avoid, not how to endure. Learning to live with things that cause pain is assigning energy and resources to the thing that causes pain and not to yourself. Allow pain to teach, not to control.
Practicum
Information is received from the environment through all possible means whether we are fully aware of it or not. There is no method of turning off signals if the signal has been sent. Light continues to radiate, sounds continues to vibrate, odours proliferate until either we remove ourselves from the signal or the signal reaches the intended target (the receptor). Imagine yourself in the brightest, loudest, smelliest closet in the world and you will immediately begin to imagine a way out. Sensing the environment is both a blessing and a curse. It is to us to decide which it will be. The mind has the ability to become selective about which signals that it wishes to focus on. Despite receiving all stimuli at the same moment, the mind can isolate for a discreet set and bring conscious thought to them. Learning to control this phenomenon will allow for objective use of the environment as opposed to allowing only the largest signals to hold prominence in the conscious self. A starting point for this practice is to reduce the number of inputs in order to reduce the unselected signals. Find yourself in a busy place. Listen to the noises with your eyes open. Now close your eyes and attempt to locate (imagine in physical space) where a singular sound is originating. Maintain the sound in your mind and add another. Track two locations. Keep expanding as far as you can. The same can be done with the eyes. Block sound out as much as possible, hold the eyes as still as possible and attempt to track the movement of two objects relatively close to each other. Continue to expand your abilities by tracking multiple objects further away from each other. What can be done with the eyes and ears can be done with all of the senses if you make the honest attempt.
An alternative approach is to over stimulate certain senses in order to remove them from the equation. For example, if you press your finger into a soft spot on your body, eventually you will lose the sensation of touch in that spot. The harder you push, the more you will lose the sensation of touch. This is a safety mechanism built into your senses that stops the overload of a sense from making all other senses impossible to function. What works for your touch works for all other senses. If you go to a very loud concert, you will find that you seem to be able to smell better. If you are in an over illuminated setting, you will hear better.
Information is received from the environment through all possible means whether we are fully aware of it or not. There is no method of turning off signals if the signal has been sent. Light continues to radiate, sounds continues to vibrate, odours proliferate until either we remove ourselves from the signal or the signal reaches the intended target (the receptor). Imagine yourself in the brightest, loudest, smelliest closet in the world and you will immediately begin to imagine a way out. Sensing the environment is both a blessing and a curse. It is to us to decide which it will be. The mind has the ability to become selective about which signals that it wishes to focus on. Despite receiving all stimuli at the same moment, the mind can isolate for a discreet set and bring conscious thought to them. Learning to control this phenomenon will allow for objective use of the environment as opposed to allowing only the largest signals to hold prominence in the conscious self. A starting point for this practice is to reduce the number of inputs in order to reduce the unselected signals. Find yourself in a busy place. Listen to the noises with your eyes open. Now close your eyes and attempt to locate (imagine in physical space) where a singular sound is originating. Maintain the sound in your mind and add another. Track two locations. Keep expanding as far as you can. The same can be done with the eyes. Block sound out as much as possible, hold the eyes as still as possible and attempt to track the movement of two objects relatively close to each other. Continue to expand your abilities by tracking multiple objects further away from each other. What can be done with the eyes and ears can be done with all of the senses if you make the honest attempt.
An alternative approach is to over stimulate certain senses in order to remove them from the equation. For example, if you press your finger into a soft spot on your body, eventually you will lose the sensation of touch in that spot. The harder you push, the more you will lose the sensation of touch. This is a safety mechanism built into your senses that stops the overload of a sense from making all other senses impossible to function. What works for your touch works for all other senses. If you go to a very loud concert, you will find that you seem to be able to smell better. If you are in an over illuminated setting, you will hear better.
My Bio-Feedback
Above and beyond what is listed above as practice, I have attempted to expand my boundaries on the amount of signal that I can receive prior to my senses become overwhelmed. By increasing my capacity for signal reception, I expand my ability to receive as much information about the environment as can be tolerated, always working to increase that tolerance and therefore the amount of information received. Some examples of this include, not wearing sunglasses but instead learning to flex the appropriate musculature around my eyes and within my eyes in order to receive the signals without becoming overwhelmed. Sunglasses are the equivalent of wearing noise cancelling headphones. If you won't wear one then why would you wear the other? Another example is exposure to temperatures. The ability to sense temperature is vital to our survival but the body will choose to be conservative as always and will reduce the tolerance at both extremes. I make the effort to resist removing myself from the extremes in order to appreciate them more. Understandably, my body reacts to this and is forced to have to adapt, to re-organize the physical structure in ways that will allow for the extremes more (fat depositing, skin pore control, blood compartmentalization, etc.). In yet another example but to less of an extreme, I work on my capacity to feel the sensation of touch. In so many ways, we push and press our way through life and our body develops dampeners to our sensation of touch from becoming overwhelming. We form callouses on our feet and hands, we have thickened gluteal tissue to sit, our knee and elbow surfaces are numb yet there is so much to learn from the environment through touch. In order to help my body remember, I attempt to take a moment to feel objects with delicacy. To just barely press against the surface of something while I feel it in order for my body to work towards expanding the sensation as opposed to diminishing it. I try to feel the imperfections in flat surfaces. I try to draw mental maps of the object with as much granularity as possible.
Above and beyond what is listed above as practice, I have attempted to expand my boundaries on the amount of signal that I can receive prior to my senses become overwhelmed. By increasing my capacity for signal reception, I expand my ability to receive as much information about the environment as can be tolerated, always working to increase that tolerance and therefore the amount of information received. Some examples of this include, not wearing sunglasses but instead learning to flex the appropriate musculature around my eyes and within my eyes in order to receive the signals without becoming overwhelmed. Sunglasses are the equivalent of wearing noise cancelling headphones. If you won't wear one then why would you wear the other? Another example is exposure to temperatures. The ability to sense temperature is vital to our survival but the body will choose to be conservative as always and will reduce the tolerance at both extremes. I make the effort to resist removing myself from the extremes in order to appreciate them more. Understandably, my body reacts to this and is forced to have to adapt, to re-organize the physical structure in ways that will allow for the extremes more (fat depositing, skin pore control, blood compartmentalization, etc.). In yet another example but to less of an extreme, I work on my capacity to feel the sensation of touch. In so many ways, we push and press our way through life and our body develops dampeners to our sensation of touch from becoming overwhelming. We form callouses on our feet and hands, we have thickened gluteal tissue to sit, our knee and elbow surfaces are numb yet there is so much to learn from the environment through touch. In order to help my body remember, I attempt to take a moment to feel objects with delicacy. To just barely press against the surface of something while I feel it in order for my body to work towards expanding the sensation as opposed to diminishing it. I try to feel the imperfections in flat surfaces. I try to draw mental maps of the object with as much granularity as possible.