The Physical Education of the Senses (Intro)
"This sub series will be focusing on pursuing a greater sensory experience. How can we sense food, music, nature, and movement better?"
Hello, welcome to another post in the Navigating Fitness section. Here I share topics on fitness, wellness, and physical education for adults. This post is dedicated to introducing a new angle on the series I’ve been running about the human senses. The focus now will be on physical literacy and education. Make sure to subscribe, leave a comment, hit like, and share. It is free. If you find this content valuable you can support me a little more by upgrading your subscription for $5 a month, $50 a year or leaving a donation through paypal and you’ll be supporting my book project (Navigating Fitness).
For some time now I have been thinking about starting a series titled ‘The Physical Education of…’ The original idea was (and still is) to explore daily living, as well as joyful and practical activities through a lens of Physical Literacy and Education for Adults. I figured that since I’ve been publishing a sporadic series dedicated to the senses, this would be a suitable time to begin such an idea.
At the bottom of this post, you will find a list of past newsletters and podcasts that I have shared on the topic of the senses.
NOTE: This idea of Physical Literacy and Education for Adults is my way of extending the concept beyond high school. Adults need to keep learning and moving, and physical capacity is not only achieved through working out. Later I will dedicate a post to explaining this concept in depth, but the general focus is to:
Learn about our body and its components.
Develop joyful and practical movement, and wellness, for everyday life.
Play and explore more.
This involves thinking beyond trends, learning about our (and other) species, and questioning the status quo.
Now the series takes a turn towards intentional engagement, exercising, and enhancing the senses. It will have a direct focus on practical fitness and performance. Not sports or gym performance but daily living, pleasure, reeducation, and rehabilitation.
I will be posting about the senses of smell, taste, sound, touch, sight, proprioception, and synesthesia. This sub series will be focusing on pursuing a greater sensory experience. How can we sense food, music, nature, and movement better? How to improve awareness, engagement, and learning? What conditions or stimulants (social, environmental, emotional, etc.) make us feel the world to a greater degree? What can we do while we carry and enjoy our life (sex, cooking, driving) without deviating from our daily agendas?
I assure you that there will be no porn intended content in this series. But remember this is Physical Literacy and Education for Adults. While I will not cross the line, sex is fascinating in my area of work. There's a reason so many people ask trainers and coaches about it. It is one of those moments and activities in which our senses are most acute and engaged. It is movement, it requires fitness, it is sensorial, and it promotes well-being. What can we learn about or from it to have a better sensory experience at it, and other things?
My intention is to present this content as far away from trendy methods as possible. There is a whole multiverse of learning that we ignore thanks to these. This is not to say that I will ignore popular practices. The focus will be primarily on alternatives that can be simpler, or easier, to do by the average person. For those who don't follow the rhythms of the fitness industry and social media. Yes, we can improve or enhance our capacity without such things.
I like the idea of this section (Navigating Fitness) being a kind of interactive Phys. ed. class. I am more of a facilitator who promotes self-learning, exploration, play and critical thinking. Although I will be sharing my knowledge and research, this is not a lecture. I encourage you to participate. Try the practices I share and report back. Each of us experiences the senses differently. It would be interesting to learn about your process. Share what you know and ask questions.
This series will be published between the newsletter and the podcast both in English and in Spanish. It will be (as much as possible) in short format to make it easier to digest. I will share pictures, videos, and references (and hopefully interviews). Help me reach more people for this class. Remember it is free so bring as many people as you can. Share my posts (starting with this one) on social media, Substack, and everywhere you can. Next post/class on this series is coming soon.
List of my previous posts about the senses
I’ve published these at separate times and sections of my newsletter, and in the podcast from different angles and tones. But they align with what I want to do in this new turn. Check them out.
The first three are from my old podcast and do not have a Spanish version.