Senses
What are you feeling?
It sounds like an innocuous, innocent enough question, doesn’t it? But what - when you get down to it - does it actually mean?
What are your senses taking in at this very moment?
What one of the big five takes the lead? Taste, touch, sight, smell or hearing? Take a moment to notice your senses right now, where you are. What can you see, hear or smell? Is there a lingering taste in your mouth? What is your hand touching? What does it feel like?
Let yourself become aware of your senses.
And these are just the big five: the headliners, the celebrities and key influencers in the world of senses. What about their lesser known colleagues, the unknown, under-appreciated senses?
Neurologists, psychologists and sociologists disagree about the number of senses a human has. (I like to imagine the debate getting out of hand like the rival news reporters in Anchorman. Maybe even with other -ologists getting involved.) 20? 30? Even 50-something? (Look at this blog for some more details)
Some of those lesser known senses could include the sense of heat, or colour, or balance. Hunger, thirst, the need for oxygen.
So, back to the question: what do you feel? What temperature are you? How’s your balance? How are your muscles? What is your skin feeling? Is it stretched taught or loose? Are the hairs on your arms standing tall?
Try closing your eyes and concentrating on these senses for a moment. You’ll have to open your eyes again in a bit to read the next part though…
Having taken a deep dive into all of this, I have been amazed again at the human body. How all these senses, however many there are, happen automatically, without our command. And the interconnectedness of our bodies and the senses: did you know that we construct flavour by combining taste, smell, touch and temperature? And that there is a connection between sight and the sense of our own heartbeat?
Then there is the whole question of how the modern world affects our use of our senses. Some psychologists argue that our senses are so underused that they can become over sensitive which may lead to stress, anxiety and depression. Or our senses simply atrophy over time and stagnate so we are less aware of the wonderful world around us.
At Ocean Church we believe that we are all spiritual. Where does a spiritual sense fit into this? How is this spiritual sense connected to all the others? Is this sense also underused in our modern world?
My two big takeaways from all this sensitivity are about appreciation and attention. Take a moment to appreciate how awesome your body and brain are in combining all of this different sensory information. We are truly fearfully and wonderfully made as Psalm 139 says.
And secondly, what sense can I give more attention to? When next by the ocean, how can I pay attention to all of the sensory overload? What might God be showing my spiritual sense? How are they all interacting and feeding into one another?
Maybe some of us are a little sensory deprived. How about paying attention to all of our senses and experiencing our heartbeat, spiritual sense and sense of balance on our next walk?
https://www.sensorytrust.org.uk/blog/how-many-senses-do-we-have
https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/how-many-senses-do-we-have
