Sense exercise

[jks9199]

OK... I'm blatantly stealing this from Rory Miller. It's an interesting and enlightening exercise he mentioned in his blog, Chiron.

Right now, close your eyes, and name/identify five sounds, five touches, and five scents. This is what I got:
Sounds: fan on computer, tv (dialog, car, doorknob turning, steps), AC unit, baby cooing, dog licking... (I don't wanna know what!)

Touches: wood of coffee table against toes contrasted against carpet under foot, leather seat, warmth of laptop on leg, shirt pulling at shoulders

Smells: I suck... I'm stuffed up and can't smell a thing right now!

 

[jks9199]

And, yes, there's a reason this is in general martial arts. I almost put it in Self Defense.

 

[Omar B]

We practice similar sense excersizes in Seido.

 

[still learning]

Hello This excerise sounds like a good thing / fun thing to do once and awhile for class training stuffs...

Great idea here to add something different here...Thanks for sharing this..

Aloha, ......it that the "sea" i smell, the waves spashing on shore,...wake uuuuup...

 

[seasoned]

Great in touch with surroundings and awareness drill. Thanks.

 

[Chris Parker]

Hi,

Huge amount of respect for Rory Miller, Meditations is one of the best books I've read on our particular field. And, as expected, a great concept from him. I've actually done something very similar in the past, which was based on an awareness exercise from Stephen Hayes.

Essentially, in order to develop your various senses, the exercises involved separating them out one at a time. As you woke up one morning, you would simply focus on how much information you could get from a single sense, ie how much can you pick up from your sense of hearing, without opening your eyes, or feeling with your hands, or smelling, or tasting, or "feeling" intuitively. Then the next morning, another of the senses.

Over time, this was designed to increase your senses overall, so that each was heightened. You could also do it by spending a week (or six days) on one sense, then changing, making this a thirty day sensitivity exercise.

 

[tshadowchaser]

Thats a fun exceercise. I'll have my students do it in class monday night.
They will not understand it but maybe in a few years they will see the use in it

 

[Indagator]

sorry to resurrect an old thread, but this was a really good exercise.

As Mr Parker said, Mr Miller's book Meditations on Violence was an excellent read and helped me gain some perspective for living the art (same art as Mr Parker fwiw).

There are many similar excersises out there too, but I believe they are too often neglected.

Some may agree or disagree but I have even heard it said that a sixth sense could even be described as the result of all five senses working harmoniously to their full potential...