What is sensory awareness and why it it important?
In some many spaces, the reference "self-awareness" comes up often conversations in different contexts to help highlight the importance of knowing self in terms of how one thinks, feels, and behaves (TFB). There is a shared belief, amongst many, that having self-awareness also helps one people be more conscious of how others may think, feel, and behave and how all people influence each others thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
In the process of building, improving, and using self-awareness to navigate life and the people around us, we tend to use ourselves and our history, experiences, and teachings to gauge what may be influencing our TFB and our perception of others to determine theirs. It's a type of "coding", if you will, where we use our own data that we've stored in our personal database to interpret ourselves, and others, so that we can communicate effectively (verbally or non-verbally) and co-exist in a good way.
Some of the common data we generally code and use includes some of the following things and how we relate or attach ourselves to them in different scenarios and how we assign meaning and value to them:
Gender, age, looks etc.
Race, ethnicity, nationally, etc.
Self-awareness, self-respect, etc.
How we value ourselves, others, etc.
Mood, temperament, personality etc.
Knowledge, education, teachings, etc.
Interests, talents, general preferences etc.
Weather, time of day, environmental context etc.
Customs, culture, and traditional norms and practices
Lived experiences (pleasant and non pleasant ones)
Etc.
That isn't an exhaustive list, yet, it helps give a good overview of some of the standard things that come to mind (data recall if you will) that we code & decode as a way to help us through life and our interactions with others. While the above list gives us a lot of information to work with, it doesn't include specific the various "senses" that are involved and that play a very active role in how our TFB are influenced in any given moment. Especially for those more sensitive than others.
To add, most people think of our senses as being mainly made up of only 5 senses: sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing; the "6th sense" that some also include is "intuition". However, there are actually 26 human senses (maybe more depending on different scientific and cultural studies) that play a role in how we interpret or decode ourselves in terms of our TFB. If we're not aware of all theses senses, and now they may be influencing our TFB, not only are we hindered in having a full understanding of ourselves but this lack of knowledge also impacts how little we can interpret the TFB of others; including loved ones, friends, colleagues, children, etc.
As such, building or strengthening sensory awareness empowers us to achieve a higher level of self-awareness which will play a role in improving our understanding of how we experience the world around us and how others do as well.
Here's a more inclusive list of our human senses:
Sight (Vision): Sight allows us to perceive the world through visual stimuli. It involves the eyes and the visual processing centers of the brain.
Hearing (Audition): Hearing enables us to perceive sound vibrations in the environment. It involves the ears and the auditory processing centers of the brain.
Taste (Gustation): Taste allows us to perceive different flavors of food and drink. It involves the taste buds on the tongue and the gustatory processing centers of the brain.
Smell (Olfaction): Smell enables us to perceive odors in the environment. It involves the olfactory receptors in the nose and the olfactory processing centers of the brain.
Touch (Tactile Sensation): Touch allows us to perceive pressure, temperature, and texture through contact with objects and surfaces. It involves sensory receptors in the skin and the somatosensory processing centers of the brain.
Equilibrioception: This sense helps us maintain balance and spatial orientation. It involves the vestibular system in the inner ear.
Proprioception: Proprioception allows us to sense the position, movement, and orientation of our body parts without relying on vision. It involves receptors in muscles, tendons, and joints.
Thermoception: Thermoception is the ability to sense temperature changes. It helps us detect heat and cold and regulate body temperature.
Nociception: Nociception is the perception of pain. It alerts us to potential harm or tissue damage and promotes protective behaviors.
Chronoception: Chronoception is our sense of time. It helps us perceive the passage of time and regulate activities accordingly.
Interoception: Interoception is the sense of the body's internal state, including hunger, thirst, heartbeat, and digestion. It helps maintain homeostasis.
Magnetoception: Some animals, such as migratory birds, may have a sense of Earth's magnetic field, allowing them to navigate during migration.
Stretch Receptors: These receptors detect stretching of muscles and organs, providing information about bodily position and movement.
Chemoreception: Chemoreception involves the detection of chemical stimuli, such as pheromones or environmental toxins.
Baroreception: Baroreception is the ability to sense changes in blood pressure, helping to regulate cardiovascular function.
Tension Receptors: These receptors detect tension in muscles and connective tissues, contributing to proprioception and pain perception.
Hunger Receptors: These receptors in the stomach and intestines signal hunger and satiety, influencing eating behavior.
Thirst Receptors: Thirst receptors in the mouth and brain detect changes in hydration status, prompting the desire to drink fluids.
Oxygen Receptors: Receptors in the lungs and blood vessels monitor oxygen levels in the body, regulating breathing and circulation.
Glucose Receptors: These receptors in the pancreas and brain monitor blood glucose levels, influencing hunger, metabolism, and energy regulation.
Pressure Receptors: Pressure receptors in the skin, muscles, and internal organs detect mechanical pressure, contributing to touch and proprioception.
Vibration Receptors: These receptors in the skin and joints detect vibrations, providing information about texture, movement, and tactile feedback.
Peripheral Temperature Receptors: Temperature receptors in the skin and mucous membranes detect external temperature changes, contributing to thermoception.
Chemical Receptors in the Gut: These receptors in the gastrointestinal tract detect nutrients, toxins, and other chemical signals, influencing digestion and metabolism.
Cutaneous Receptors: Cutaneous receptors in the skin detect various tactile sensations, such as pressure, vibration, texture, and temperature.
Visceral Receptors: Visceral receptors in internal organs detect sensations such as fullness, discomfort, and organ function, contributing to interoception and homeostasis.
Our senses are always being activated by things around us and things we consume through our eyes, ears, mouth, skin, and nose. All these portals, if you will, serve as gateways to our internal system which includes our operating system - our brain - and all connecting pathways, covered organs, and the cells and neurons that carry and transmit information throughout our body. Constantly, and, outside of our control.
This is the same for others.
Increasing our sensory awareness also helps to foster a greater understanding of how we connect to certain people, places, and things more than others. It also helps to explain why we may a higher sense of wholistic wellness or well-being in certain environments, or doing certain things, or being around certain people (and vice versa). It also adds a deeper understanding to "the mind-body" connection and how different therapies, healing modalities, and alternative remedies may work with certain people and why they may not with others. It can play a key role in understanding ones sensitivities, intolerances, and allergies (to foods, lights & sounds, animals, etc.), choices made about one's health care, and decisions made about lifestyle choices.
Having an increased level of sensory awareness can also help explain why people enjoy certain activities, or are curious about specific things, and why some people may seem to have different quirks, habits, or preferences that may not be like most. Being more informed about sensory awareness can also help to better understand different cultural traditions, why people have specific talents and gifts, and why we choose or are drawn to certain types vocations and areas of work.
At Boho & Knots, we promote sensory awareness (as it relates heavily to self-awareness) and we enhance our supports and accommodations to those with unique sensory needs. We help to show the linkage between sensory awareness, wholistic wellness, and the mind-body connection .
There's a series of references that are linked to sensory awareness such as highly sensitive people (HSP), sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), neurodivergence, and others. There's also a number of things people are allergic to, or have intolerances of, that also are tied to sensory awareness. We learn so much from the diverse people who would self identify as being someone who have a system that processes information, food, chemicals, and environmental spaces (etc.) and concludes their system cannot decode or process elements of them as easily as others.
Biologically speaking, not everything in our environments are compatible with us, or, certain things need to be provided in a modified or more natural, clear, clean, and simplified form. And, this is OK.
By increasing our sensory awareness, we improve our ability to be more considerate of ourselves and others so that we can be more present, mindful, and compassion in relation to how we relate to our abilities, limitations, and choices and that of others.
We think sensory awareness needs to be included in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives as there are so many people living with different sensory processing needs that make it challenging for them to access standard, conventional, and common products, services, and vocation opportunities. While many adapt and find ways to cope to "fit in" and "go along", doing so often causes dis-ease in their bodies, distracts them from being able to be fully present, and otherwise negatively impacts their quality of life.
More consideration needs to be implemented when it comes to the general way society operates in all facets; there are many places, cultural practices, and social traditions (here in North America) that aren't accessible or easy to adjust to for this segment of the population. To address this, we need raise more promote sensory awareness to educate people and so that the social architects will develop more spaces that are more accommodating to this diverse community and their unique decoding style.
~ BK
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