The Physical Education of the Senses (Context)
With an experiment for sensorial awareness.
Hello and welcome to another post in Navigating Fitness and the series ‘The Physical Education of the Senses’. The aim for today is to discuss the senses in context of our nature and daily living, and I will be sharing an exercise. Feel free to comment on not just what the message conveys but also on what you know about the topic and what you think I may be missing here. This is an open class. Remember to hit like, share, and subscribe.
At any given moment, even while sleeping, our senses are engaged. We perceive the world through them. The color of the flowers, the smell of a delicious meal, the taste of wine, the texture of our partner's skin, the sound of music, and the position of our bodies. We give meaning to those sensations, and through those we give meaning to the world around us. Everything we experience, do, and even what we imagine is sensorial.
Our senses, unless we are born with a condition that inhibits them, come with their full splendor. Younger children can sense it more deeply than most adults, at least in more civilized cultures. It is not until we start getting trained into the ways of our family, culture, and immediate environment that they start ‘setting’ to those frequencies. Yet, there is always space to sense the world better. Without the grinding, but through exposing ourselves, exploration, creativity, and play.
By better I mean experiencing the world to a greater degree. Not with the end goal of outsensin every other species, or anyone else. This is not even a competition against yourself to prove yourself better than before. It is just experiencing life at a fuller spectrum (the good, the bad, and the ugly).
Just like strength for the sake of it may not make you functional, working out the senses for the sake of it may not lead you to greater experience in general.
In our early days as a species, as we expanded across the globe and moved to different climates and environments, each sense played a different role. Yes, all senses are activated at the same time, but we give importance to some more than others depending on the physical, environmental, emotional, and social situation. For example, since ancient times, some cultures who lived in the forest depended more on their senses of smell to survive. Other cultures required a more acute sense of sight to see better underwater or far out in the snow or desert. These adaptations came not through a fitness program but through exposing the senses to the world around. They manifest naturally in a form of intuitive progress.
Yet not all progress is for the good of humanity, especially when it does not align with our evolutionary nature. When we think of this concept (progress) as something that makes us superior to other species, other humans, or gives us a higher social status we take things out of context. Instead of adapting, we end up trying to reshape the world to please our perception, and in consequence our senses wilt.
As the fitness industry spreads through the world, bringing with it new trends, practices, and equipment (mostly focused on image and social hierarchy) we have lost connection to our senses as well. Generally, under the idea of modern fitness, taste is the enemy of healthy eating, sound is only for motivation at certain BPMs, sight needs to be focused on numbers and mirrors and quick reactions, smell is not even considered, and proprioception comes in the form of balance and stability drills. I often mention that in a way, this kind of progress is holding us back from our own natural potential.
We need to understand how we work, and what is holding us back not only as an individual, but as part of society. When we think of our senses, we imagine them as something personal, unique, and disconnected from the rest of the world. But we also need to understand how, because of our individual perception, we also influence others.
In tribal and hunter-gatherer societies, the premature demise of the senses occurs at a slower rate. Without schools to educate their children, gyms to create a fitter tribe, and programs to direct movement and the senses, they experience life at a deeper level. Their culture is not a fitness and wellness system. Meanwhile, in cultures based more on capitalism and industrial progress, despite the number of programs, applications, diets and gyms for every need and desire, the opposite is true.
This reminds me of the concept of French Paradox in that a culture so focused on fitness and wellness suffers from a lower level of health compared to cultures that focus mostly on pleasure, or on just having enough.
This poses a complex situation for those of us who live in more “civilized” cultures and want to perceive more. There is too much noise, too much light, artificial smells, and a war on simple food. We have an abundance of stable and flat surfaces, ergonomic everything, and so much training but little learning.
It is also difficult because, in a fitness obsessed society that focuses on perpetual progress, it is assumed that we’d have to renounce technology and our culture to do so. It is not a bad idea, but maybe, by just developing an awareness of the moments in which we sense the world to a greater degree is enough to start. No need to advance more, or to regress to sticks and stones.
Here is the experiment:
You can do this even in a small room in the heart of a concrete jungle. You can do it while working, cleaning, or just sitting and relaxing. Yes, even while having sex. It is a memory/thinking exercise. The only goal of this exercise is for you to become aware of the moments in your life when you feel the world the most. Sometimes that happens more than we imagine, and sometimes it happens less.
That you are aware of, in a normal day of your life, under your normal existence (occupation, pleasure*, spirituality), and within what you consider yourself capable and healthy: What are those moments (and where) in which you feel that your senses are more awake or that you have a greater sensorial connection with everything around you?
Morning, mid-day, evening?
At work, at home, in nature?
While cooking, while exercising, while hiking?
Is it after meditation, after praying, after taking a nice warm (or cold) shower?
*Remember that this class is about Physical Literacy and Education for Adults. You can talk about more “adult stuff”. You don't need to go into details, and you don't have to comment if you don't want to. But the question is worth asking.
Is it during or after sex, or when you please yourself?
Is it when you get high?
Is it when you get that cup of wine after work?
Think about this question, explore your moments, and (if you are up to it) share your findings or thoughts.
For me it's after a walk in the woods, when I'm cooking (almost daily), and when it rains. There are many other moments when I feel more connected but these are the most intense.
See you in the discussions and next post.