Touch Steers Your Mind

Keywords

Thin-skinned, irritable, touchy-feely, glad hand, standoffish, empath

Hold Yourself

When touch steers your mind, you might catch yourself doing things like giving your arm a little squeeze, rubbing your belly, or tapping your fingers or feet when you're nervous.

Feel the Vibes

You sense the vibes around you. You can tell when someone's staring at you or when someone has good vibes or bad.

Navigate Relationships

Concerns about how others perceive you may not matter to you or you may feel a desire for a reassuring pat on the back. You may or may not feel comfortable with hugs and affection, creating closeness or distance in your relationships. Empathizing deeply with others, you might struggle with overempathy or even act callously.

Adjust Your Stance

You may subconsciously filter the behavior of others through what you feel in your body. In social settings, you may constantly adjust your stance to deal with the vibes in the room. Crossing your arms might shield you from uncomfortable sensations. You might shrink as small as you can or grow as imposing as possible when you sense other people’s aggression. You may feel the need to dominate others by putting a hand on them or you may keep your hands hidden in your pockets.

Wear It Well Meditation

A simple practice to relate to your sense of touch is to notice how your clothes feel against your skin. The weight of what you're wearing, the texture, how it moves with you—it's all a part of how you experience the world. Paying attention to these sensations can bring a new understanding of how touch shapes your feelings and thoughts. You may discover that tuning in to the little things that make a big difference.

Why Understanding Your Senses Is Valuable

As part of the animal self, the senses are driven by pleasure and pain, appetite and distaste, craving and revulsion. They move toward what they desire and away from what they dislike.

One sense may dominate or a few may conspire to rule your mind.  This can lead to feelings that your life is out of your control and your senses drag you hither and fro.  May you numbly aimlessly wander through your day as the senses seek to satisfy their appetites.  Anxiety, depression, hopelessness, restlessness, insecurity, and sensitivity are symptoms of your senses steering your mind.

The results of this quiz can help you improve your relationship with your senses.  Like a horse-whisperer subtly communicates with a horse to steer them, you can learn to guide your senses through self-empathy.  As your senses relax and trust your conscious guidance, they operate as a powerful team that you rein in the direction of your choosing.

I logged my experiences and shared the practices that taught me how to improve the relationship between my senses, mind and will in my new book, Rein: Harness the Wild Power of Your Senses.