Recently I gave a talk about meditation and the importance of “Unplugging” from our current, everyday conditioning inputs. We discussed topics such as the role of the subconscious mind, as well as where meditation sits with this stuff. It was a great evening. One concept that I mentioned was the idea of consciously developing “sensitivity” in both the body and mind.
What is sensitivity? Sensitivity is the ability to notice a change, a perturbation.. To notice a different result depending on how you tweak an input. If awareness requires a moment to moment observation, it seems that as awareness increases, so should sensitivity. If we are unconscious, we are alive, but without awareness and we are far from sensitive. While unconscious, you could change the colour of the walls of your room and not notice. The more awareness grows, the more sensitive we become. But sensitivity is not exactly the same as awareness. Awareness (to me), implies something which can be expanded or extended outwards. Sensitivity though would be with more focus on the task at hand – so global awareness may be low, but sensitivity might be high. A surgeon might have great sensitivity with the task at hand but not have any awareness with his nutrition. Once a system develops more sensitivity, it actually can become more stable or resilient. Many animals for example have far more sensitivity with smell, helping them to avoid danger or find food.
Let’s look at nutrition. In the default diet, awareness is low. Many choose fast, sugary foods, or feel they simply don’t have time to look deeper at the food that they are eating. With low nutritional awareness (see my previous post on learning about food through experience, here), we have low nutritional sensitivity. We are exposed to so MANY added chemicals, preservatives and processed foods, that if we tweak one, we have no idea how it ACTUALLY feels. Therefore, our future choices are dictated by what we are TOLD is good, versus what FEELS good. It’s like a wall is covered in dirt and we make a new mark on the wall – it’s hard to see any difference or change.
As we start to eat real food, we become more sensitive. The wall becomes cleaner, so we see new marks more easily. We can change an in input – say the quality of the meat – and actually feel a difference (on all timeframes) in the body as the output.
If we look at exercise. The default pattern is to follow whatever is given to us, trusting that it is right. When we start to train in different modalities, such as olympic lifting, hand-balancing, accuracy-based sports, or dance, we can develop an increased sensitivity in the body – we can change an input, such as training stimulus, the surface we are training on, the wind, the type of session – and instantly feel the outcome. It follows then that by training across more of these types of movement that develop sensitivity, we can also increase our body-awareness.
So, what’s the point of all of this. Through experience, I suggest that sensitivity can span across different areas. As we develop nutritional sensitivity, we are really developing sensitivity of the mind, with the body (how we feel) as the output. Why is this important? If we increase sensitivity of the mind – and turn it in on itself, we have suddenly an ability to note the passing nature of thought and emotion, which is a huge step towards freedom. With the mind the subject of our own experiment, increased sensitivity lets us see more and then leads to increased awareness.
How does increased sensitivity of the mind play out? Whenever we have a sense input – we see something, hear it, etc.. the input passes through a filter, which is constructed through past experiences, memory and conditioning. We then develop a particular mind state as a result of the input, or situation. This could be positive, negative, or neutral. So, it follows that ANY sensory input can (and does!) lead to a biased mind state. When we develop sensitivity of the mind (or more awareness), we can see these states. We can learn to see what state the mind is in – as a continual practice. When we become aware of our current mind state, we can remember that it is passing – and watch it pass. We know that what lies underneath is still stable.
Developing sensitivity of the mind states is an immense help. We learn to notice slight changes in the mind based on tweaking the inputs. In a way, this is learning how your mind actually works. It’s not that we try to control them and stop negative mind-states from coming, but we can SEE them when they begin to pass over us. For example, anger can pass through. We can experience the anger, but not be angry. An increased sensitivity (or awareness) of our mind state can help us identify this stuff sooner. It also helps alleviate “blind emotion,” or living directly through the anger for too long. We have control over the mind, not the other way around.
How do we develop this? Choose to develop sensitivity. With exercise, incorporate training methods that require attention, precision, balance or flow. Develop new neural pathways through new activities. With food, the task is to start to take notice of how you actually feel after eating certain foods. Forget everything you “know” about nutrition – throw that away. Start from scratch and see what feels right. With the mind, we can do the same thing. Start to watch the mind – what do you see passing through as you experience different sensory inputs? Is it craving? Aversion? Ultimately, the road must lead towards meditation, which really is the actual watching of the mind itself. Through watching, we can eventually see everything pass and benefit from an emptiness, or open awareness – where the mind is actually aware, yet stable.
Interested in finding out more about meditation? Check out my upcoming course – A 6 Week Exploration in Meditation Here.
