Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Sensory Awareness - First Draft

When I was taking part in the various sensory awareness exercises, my attention was brought to many new experiences. For example, during the exercise in which we had to find our way back to the class blindfolded, I noticed how many other senses became enhanced when we lost the use of our eyes. My ability to hear took its place as my main source of information, along with my memories of the area I was in. In addition, there was a nagging feeling I had. I was more aware of things around me just from their relation to my body, however even if nothing was near me, it merely felt like I would walk into something. It is hard to put into words but it was as if the air was more active and my skin was noticing the signals. The last item of interest was that I felt some sort of tingling in my eyes. In addition to this, either in my mind’s eye or in the back of my eyelids I swear I saw when I paid attention, little golden sparks dancing around. I’ve noticed them before, and they only seem to be there if the tingling sensation is present. And as many times as I’ve seen them, I never really stopped and asked why they were there. I suppose that I just looked over them as useless information.
After doing the sensory awareness exercises, I do find Laing’s points to hold true in many aspects. It is very important to be in the here and now. This has the potential to greatly increase the value of our lives. However, I also I think that there is a greater advantage to be gained by having enough wisdom to know when to be physically aware and when to be the so-called “floating mind with a body”. In the world that we live in, there are times and events that call for certain responses from us mentally. For example, school. Some activity need for you to physically aware but the majority of them calls for us to be making good use of our mental being. Even as I am righting this now, I can feel some parts of my body, but overall my awareness is rooted within my thoughts. But in times when one is just walking down the street or waiting for something, it may be better just to relax and take in all that is around you, instead of just being trapped in your head.

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