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Strengthen Your Sixth Sense

January 17, 2019 by Cheri Dostal

We’re all pretty familiar with, and convinced of the importance of our 5 senses:

Sight

Smell

Hearing

Taste

Touch

When someone loses or is born without one of these senses, their brain develops to compensate by heightening their skills of perception. Our bodies rule that way – they want us to survive and they’re really good at adapting to make sure we can survive.

Intuition isn’t a new thing – it’s been around as long as we have. Yet in our fast-paced technosociety, many people have lost their ability to feel clarity and ease in daily life, and struggle with making decisions that meet their highest good and goals. Doesn’t it stink when you end up feeling like you failed yourself, yet again choosing something that left you feeling sluggish, heavy, disconnected instead of truly living out your dreams?

This intuitive nature is a body-based skill. We must be able to slow down enough to listen, and then develop our discernment and trust in the messages we’re receiving. Some call it the 6th Sense. Knowing. Inner wisdom.

In Bali when I was on retreat this past September, a friend told me that “my discernment seemed so very trustable.” It felt like an honor to have only spent a few days with someone for them to be able to read me and my body, and I gladly received their words as a compliment.

One of the ways I help my private clients most is being able to take all their swirling thoughts, questions, worries, and body sensations or pain and help them sort through it all – coming to a sense of peace, clarity and okayness within themselves just on the other side of their one hour session.

When we develop ourselves as movers, whether dance, yoga, sports, running or swimming, it enhances our ability to perceive ourselves in space, in relationship to gravity effectively, and can even help us sense our gut instincts and intuition more clearly. We become more receptive to what our body has to tell us.

Anatomists for a long while scraped away the superficial fascia, fat and tissues that covered the main events, like muscles and organs. What was once discarded into lab buckets has recently become very fashionable – the fascia!

The article I link below states that fascia is “the thin, cellophane-like membrane” surrounding various tissues in our body. Although this is true, it is also a bit misleading. I believe the author’s more so referring to the qualities of the translucent, sliding yet tough deep fascial layers, when in reality, our superficial fascia plays as large a role, if not more so in our overall sense of our ‘self’ in space. Think of it more like a volume of felted substance, with capillaries and nerve cells and fat distributed all throughout its matrix-like structure.

Fascia is not simply a 2D layer that surrounds or envelopes us. Its three dimensional natures shapes the very contours that make us look like ‘us’, insulates us, produces and regulates hormones, and communicates a vast array of information back to the brain. When I did my dissection course with the infamous Gil Hedley, I shared his awe and reverence for this voluminous part of our body. I felt surprise when after removing the superficial fascia from 3 very different cadavers, their inner form stripped to deep fascia and the musculoskeletal system often seen in anatomy illustrations, shared far more similarities, regardless of how differently their contours or figures presented on day one. Their uniqueness in appearance came largely from the skin, facial features and superficial substances we had then removed.

Fascia’s like one big body-suit walkie-talkie and we literally couldn’t survive without it.

“There really is a sixth sense: it’s called proprioception. It is the sense of position and movement. It is produced by nerves in our connective tissues (ligaments, bone, fascia) and our 300-or-so muscles. Without proprioception, you couldn’t stand up (standing up is actually shockingly complicated). You couldn’t so much as scratch your nose, because you wouldn’t be able to find it.” Excerpts taken from article linked below.

You can read more about fascia research and what means for us in daily life and practice here.

And if you need help finding your nose, or your deep inner Knowing – I’m here for you. We can get your home exercise or yoga practice established together, and find creative ways for you to restore your senses and sense of self through movement.

Starting in February 2019:

I have openings for both my monthly mentorship (great for those of you wanting some support alongside your self-accountable home practice or to enrich your teaching endeavors) and the deeper experience of a 4 Month Embodied Living Immersion program where we meet weekly and really dive in to advancing and deepening your practice and skills for life. You can read more about working together privately here. 

Take some time today to feel your body’s sensations, take some deep breaths and check in with your 6th sense.

Our bodies know what we need, and we can learn to speak their language.

Have faith in your fascia!

Cheri

Filed Under: anatomy, Blog, embodiment, for teachers

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