You have sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing... you have amazing powers of consciousness, reason, and creativity.
But your body is chock full of 'extra' senses that you may not even be aware you're using, like some of the mysterious powers that other animals possess.
You can access them if you drop out of your rational, thinking mind.
If you pay attention to what you feel in your body, you can detect and feel things around you that you can't see: objects, movement, emotions...
To try this out, at our last School of the Wild session, after some centring and grounding exercises, then fox walking and owl vision to get into the 'zone', we walked blindfold through the woods.
The results were extraordinary.
Everyone navigated round obstacles.
Some people reported being able to sense the trees in front of them. Some people found their hearing was more heightened and used it to navigate.
Everyone found their way back, called by the sound of a flute.
What a lovely day, up in the bluebell woods, slowing down and having a really extraordinary experience walking blindfold through the wood.
In our busy lives it's easy to ignore what our body wisdom is telling us, but how much more would you discover about yourself and what's going on around you, if you paid as much attention to what you feel in your body, and in your heart and your gut, as you do to what you see and what you think.
Try it for yourself, and let us know what happens!
(NB it's a good idea to have a friend watch out for you while you do it.)
Images from Becoming Animal, in Stanmer Park.