Sensitivity

When I'm in yoga i realize how much we are in need of being aware of and using our senses better in our current culture and times. We are a very visual culture but we are also a very overloaded culture. We are the culture of multitasking and the culture of over-sensitivity.

It's ironic for me to talk about being oversensitive because I am extremely sensitive. But my sensitivity is a different type. I'm sensitive in the true sense. I am not selfishly sensitive in the sense of being offended about things and thinking that society should be tailored to my needs and wants. I think that's what people mean by sensitive now.

I am sensitive as in emotional.  Sensitive to feelings, sensitive to my surroundings, sensitive to sounds, sensitive to smells, sensitive to pain, sensitive to words, sensitive to light, to textures, to conflict, to stimulation, to provocation, proximity and intensity.

I believe the senses that we are under-using, underestimating, and undervaluing  to some degree are sound, smell and touch. We have lots of sounds surrounding us, distracting us, even assaulting us, but the lack of sound and soft sounds are missing. Even in yoga, people seem to always want music. That was one of the first questions one of the students asked the new yoga teacher when she arrived--did she ever use music.

She does use it, but only at the beginning during the slowing down of the breath and at the end during shivasana. During the practice, there is no music, and I love it. It's not necessary. There is enough to do just listening to her cues and focusing on the breath and the movement and how we feel. Once you have done the class a few times, you don't even notice that there is no music. The silence is part of the beauty of the class.

Then when you're in shivasana and receiving the benefits of the practice you just did, the music is even more relaxing and special. It's not just background noise that has been there all along. It is deliberate rhythm and chanting sounds to help you relax, release and ground yourself.

I feel the same way when I hike. I never use headphones when I'm in the woods hiking. The silence and the sounds of nature are the music. Music is nice for the gym or classes, but out in nature, nature is the music. We are surrounded by so much noise from the news and even social media and internet input, that lack of noise is more important than ever now to help our brains realize that everything is not so awful or urgent or desperate all the time.

Smell is something that is very underestimated. When I was teaching, I was very deliberately attentive to smells in my classroom. Sometimes it was with inexpensive gel air fresheners. Sometimes it was with the melted wax warmers. The smells were something that was commented on as much as my decorations.

I had students from other classes come in my room all the time and just inhale and say how it smelled so good in my room. I used fruit smells, in the spring and at the beginning of the school year when it was still summer. I used warm vanilla and spice smells in the fall and hot cocoa smells and cinnamon smells in the winter.

One year I had those pine cones that smell like cinnamon in baskets all over the room. I had many boys come and hold the pine cones to their noses and smell them every day before class or during class. When I would tell them they could take one, their eyes would light up and they would put one in their backpack.

Our yoga teacher puts essential oils on her hands and walks around during shivasana and holds them above our noses. We breathe them in. Then she pushes our shoulders down. That small event is something I look forward to every class. When she comes around. I take a deep breath to inhale the beautiful scent.

That touch is wonderful, too. Hands on adjustments are such a pleasant part of yoga. People are so afraid of touch now with all the inappropriate touch, that real, appropriate and loving touch is so lacking in our culture.

I was never afraid of touching my students appropriately. I know what appropriate is and so do they. They needed it. I grew up in a family that didn't touch. It's something I lack. There are ways to show love and compassion without touch, but touch is an important sense that needs to be used.

There are people who are really very natural and good at it. I've had several yoga teachers who were good at it. My trainer, Khris, is very good at it. There are ways to incorporate touch into your life. Yoga, massage, baking, crafts, art, petting animals, dry-brushing, crystals, manicures, pedicures, skincare, haircare, etc.

Maybe I need to reframe the word sensitivity and think of it as awakening my senses. So instead of thinking about how I am overwhelmed by certain things and I am too sensitive, I should think about what other senses I need to enhance and awaken so that I become more balanced and less overwhelmed and perfectly sensitive.