Sensory awakening

Individuals frequently think they feel rather than actually feel; by ignoring such primary processes they freeze situations and themselves so that there is no sensory contact with the richness of each event. Each experience therefore tends to be predetermined by a frame of reference which effectively specifies the nature of the experience. Sensory awakening is a method of rebalancing the nonverbal aspects of the organism with the intellect. The process consists of different experiments designed to shift attention from symbolic or verbal interpretation to the actual sensations. Attention is focused on simple bodily functions such as relaxation, breathing, listening, movement and touch. Used separately or together in various combinations, these help to bring the individual back to an awareness of his senses.

Again, excessive muscular tension causes desensitization of the organism. By redistributing awareness throughout the organism rather than localizing it in the head, the person is often able to make contact with muscular tension, learn how it is created, and experience what it is like to gradually let go. The process of sensory awakening leads to heightened awareness, contact and experience. It allows the individual, if only temporarily, to let go of some of his defences, experience the intensity of open experience and, to some extent, the potentialities that lie within.