A couple of weeks back, I read a book by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, a devoted Buddhist monk, "In Love With the World" and one sentence, in particular, stuck with me: "The five senses always report neutral information," he goes on and describes how each of our five senses just perceives. So if we hear a sound, touch an object, smell a sense, taste a flavor, or see our surroundings we are unable to just experience the incoming sense without our mind connecting it to our memory.
While I've been expanding my knowledge about the neuroscience of the brain, I come to notice how limited we let our senses lead us. Most of the time we make a judgment if we like or dislike a taste, smell, sight, touch, or sound. Surprisingly enough, if we had to live with one less sense, we would be able to survive. It might take some time to adjust and we might need some accessories or new skills to strengthen our memory. Today's advanced technology lets us rewire our brains and would be able to live quite a normal life. Here is an example of a sensory vest introduced by David Eagleman for deaf people. He also demonstrates how electromagnetic radiation provides the necessary information for us and animals to create our reality to thrive in our environments.
We don't have to wait until our functions are restrained. The number one sense we use mostly is sight. We rely on our sight for so many things, from driving a car, riding a bike, walking, watching TV, or reading a book or on a tablet, pretty much anything we do depends on our sight. While practicing breathing exercises or meditation with our eyes closed, we increase our hearing, smelling, and feeling ability. Not only that, but it will also teach us what happens in our minds. How we communicate with ourselves and how our thought process jumps from one thought to the next.
These observations could provide us glimpse insights on how our brain functions. Our perception and reality is only a small part of what is going on. When we practice breathing awareness, we teach our brain to connect more with our intuition and unconsciousness through understanding that a thought is just a thought and how we could change our way of thinking. When we expand the capabilities of our senses, we also increase our consciousness of our surroundings with more care and kindness. For a better future let us practice mindfulness breathing.
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