Six sensory living begins with awareness. Start by using the five senses that you are used to working with. For example, on your way to work really look at what you see around you. Pay attention, come out of your own mental reverie and begin to listen to the world around you. I’ve had clients do this exercise and they’ve told me after trying it, they heard birds singing for the first time.
Raising your awareness means being aware of what’s going on around you now. What do people sound like, what does the environment look like? What does your food taste like? Start by noticing how you are experiencing the energy around you.
Six sensory living is training yourself to become sensitive to subtle energies you are not used to integrating. You do this by slowly and methodically stretching the boundaries of your attention and trying every day to notice a little bit more.
You also need to move your attention to your interactions with other people. Rather than be preoccupied with what you think or how you feel about the people you interact with every day, just notice them. Never think you know anyone completely. Let every encounter you have with someone be fresh every day.
When you’re interacting with others ask yourself questions such as what is their energy like. Are they calm? Is their energy smooth like a still morning on the water or is it static and turbulent like a roaring wave? Are they tense or are they relaxed? Do they feel healthy or do they feel tired? Are they fearful are they aggressive?
Tune into people and pay attention. Study the energy around you and don’t jump to conclusions or bunker down and put up your defenses. Practice the art of simply noticing. One of the ways to do this is to subtlety put your hand on your stomach, breath in and out when you are around people. Try not to draw any conclusions and avoid talking for the first five minutes. Just notice as much about them as you can.
Make every day an opportunity to notice something new. Initially you will just notice physical things. For example, perhaps you never noticed that your coworker’s eyes were blue or the person you sit next to on the bus every day has a birthmark on their arm or hand.
As you gradually get beyond noticing just the physical you will start to notice other things about people as you tune into their energy. Notice if they are happy or sad. Notice if they feel well or sick even if it isn’t apparent to your physical eye. The more you notice the more you will notice. This is how intuition works, by paying attention.
One of the most difficult experiences people have with other people’s energy is the minute they get around someone who has a strong physical energy they become overwhelmed by it. If you are around someone who is agitated and angry you will often feel the same way or if you around someone who is fearful, you become fearful or if you are around someone who is exuberant, you become exuberant. We tend to get caught up in someone else’s experience and absorb their energy instead of staying connected to your own experience.
Stay aware of the energy around you. Just learn to notice and observe. Don’t get sucked into the other person’s energy and drama. Once you learn to do this you’ll not only turn on your own inner light but you’ll also be a light for others as well.
