The Dolphins of Awareness

or
How To Grow Your Sixth Sense

Developing your awareness can be a great first step in creating change. The following exercises will help you to better ground yourself, pause and check in with where you are at, and then decide what is next. The exercises will expand your awareness, both with your physical surroundings as well as your mental state and internal self-talk. It will increase your spatial recognition and spatial memory which are important for how you sense your self in the world and how you move about it. Strengthening your cognitive map is the first step in building your resilience and keeping you grounded in personal choice.

The suggestion is to do the two parts of the exercise in the morning preferably, though choosing a time that works best for you to do at the same time each day is better. If possible select a location where you can see outside, even better if you can crack a window and hear whats going on outside. The best location might be a porch or deck outside. If you are in an apartment in the city with limited options, try to sit near an exterior window.

When doing the listening exercises, listen with your whole body. You will find you can feel vibrations in areas of your body, perhaps in your chest or feet or elsewhere. Notice how you can hear in all directions. This is an important first step in learning to engage all your senses together. In the process of opening to your senses more and focusing their use together you develop a sixth sense made from all the others in synergy together.

During the weeks you are practicing the exercises, pay attention to which direction you are facing as you go about your day.

As you progress with the exercises, you may find that your sense of where you are in the world grows, and it becomes easier to pay attention to a wider view of events when navigating through the day. Also, some of the questions may shift in meaning from day to day. “Where am I” becomes not just a question of location, but also a question of “Where am I in life?”. “What’s around me?” becomes more than just the physical environment, but what activity is happening around me that is creating my local atmosphere of events and emotions? “How did I get here?” becomes quite philosophical for some, as in “What series of decisions, choices, events I didn’t have control over, events I did have control over, led me to being where I am now?”

After enough daily practice - you might quiz yourself throughout your day, “What compass direction am I facing now?” See if you can do it through out your day. Also, as your practice with the exercises continues you may find your dreams may become more vibrant.