A Balanced Approach to Wellness!

Posts tagged ‘senses’

Guidance for the Journey

Journey sign

“The journey through life is a series of starts and stops, U-turns and wrong turns, ups and downs, unobstructed paths and no entry areas, straight and obvious routes and winding and precarious backstreets, unpredictable events and constant rhythms. The journey through life is perceived as difficult, or difficult and interesting, or difficult and unfair, or difficult and deserved, or difficult and surmountable, or difficult and this-or-that. The journey through life is varied in length; a short life is mourned and a long life is accepted. The journey through life is similar for all in that it starts with a breath and ends with a gasp (except in cases of sudden unnatural death).”
…from Oneself—Living

We all enter life with stumbling blocks in front of us. Some stumbling blocks are more difficult to pass and some stop us completely. The journey is meant to be trial-and-tribulation full, not smooth-sailing-the-whole-way. The idea that life is supposed to be easy is a marketing ploy that cripples and weakens us. Life is not a laundry detergent commercial with all the stains coming out, clean as new. Life is complex! Yes it is, and the more we prepare for complexity, the more we can exalt in the journey.

Here is guidance for the journey:

  • Learn to breathe properly and variedly. Knowing how to breathe through the changes in life will help you stay focused and well.
  • Develop your senses. Use your eyes to study the world. Use your nose to create memories. Use your ears to connect with animals and plants. Use your mouth to nourish your body. Use your hands to create. Use your bodily awareness to connect with other people.
  • Know yourself. Know the things that draw you to them and the things that repel. Know your temperament and accept it. Know your abilities and your drive. The more you know yourself, and live accordingly, the more you can live truthfully.

“After a life is over, a new life will one day come. A different body and a varied soul that will live life anew. Each incarnation with its challenges and successes-defeats. Each incarnation with its relationship groups changed yet revisited. Each incarnation in the continuous cycle of life-death-life-death-life-death-life-death-life.”
…from Awaiting Light

Category:

Focused living

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The sense of self—the sixth sense

sense of self

While writing Awaiting Light—Understanding the Development of the Soul, I learned that there is a sixth sense:  “The senses develop in staggered pairings (taste and touch, sight and smell, hearing and the sense of self [one’s boundaries])…”.

The sense of self is awareness of oneself separate from others, awareness of boundaries, and awareness of one’s body. An infant normally develops these awarenesses unless interference has occurred. Interference can be natural (such as complications during the birthing process or genetic causes) or unnatural (such as complications during the birthing process that are not related to natural birth, accident, or abuse).

The sense of self is connected to all the other senses: tasting one’s skin, touching oneself, seeing one’s body, smelling one’s body odor, and hearing one’s voice and the sounds emitted from one’s body and from using the body. An infant experiences these sense sensations and through the awareness of them and through maturation of the thinking process, comes to understand that there is a physical container for all these developments. The physical container is the baby’s body, and a baby delights in his or her development.

The sense of self has impact on future development. A baby who receives encouragement develops with strong sense of self. A baby who receives negativity often develops with skewed sense of self. The sense of self accompanies a person into adulthood and influences actions and decisions.

Here is an example of a person I have worked with: a woman in her 30s is battling excess weight. The struggle began when she was very young because she was a pudgy baby whose mother had weight issues. The mother related to her daughter’s size negatively, which affected the daughter and her sense of self.

The sense of self has physical and nonphysical elements. The physical elements are the sense organs that continuously feed information to the brain about the body and its boundaries, actions, and hurts (wounds, aches, pain). The nonphysical element is the emotional component of health: the feelings for the body, its actions, and its hurts. The feelings about bodily functioning include acceptance or disregard for normal bodily functioning, admiration or impatience for the body’s actions and abilities, and reasonable or overzealous focus on hurts.

The sense of self and the other senses create the feedback that people require to live and grow.

“Smells and sounds and textures and visual cues and taste bud activity provide interest to human life. And provide warnings. And provide information for storage. And notice for information retrieval. And input for reactions. And input for instigation of creativity. And awareness of outside interesting sensations and varieties. And wonders.” –from Pond a Connected Existence.

Category:

Development

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