How to Improve Senses for a Survival Situation

The biggest problem of the senses in the modern world is satiety and information overload. The mental and physical health of people living in large cities suffers from the disruption of natural biorhythms, an abundance of noise, odors and an incessant stream of visual images. As a result, our senses become dull, fall asleep, in order to enable us to survive and adapt to the aggressive digital environment. With a sharp change in conditions, for example, a trip to the wild, we literally become immune to natural sounds, smells, changes. Finally, we have to admit that we have serious problems with our feelings.

The Problem With Our Senses

We intuitively seek protection from factors that irritate our nervous system. For example, we will mention sleep masks, blackout curtains, headphones, earplugs. People try to minimize visual and audio noise in order to rest our congested senses.

The situation with the sense of smell is not the best. Smoking, an abundance of chemicals in the daily care of ourselves and our home, completely deprives us of the perception of light shades of odors.

Fast food and convenience foods, canned food, an abundance of synthetic additives in food kill our taste buds and deprive us of the ability to distinguish between the natural variety of tastes.

In addition to sight, hearing and taste, we have a tactile and thermal perception of the world. But most of the skin is hidden by clothing, at least in the population of large cities. In fact, we are deprived of the ability to perceive the environment by our skin.

We do not train our senses to perceive subtle nuances of smells, shades of color, details of images, barely audible sounds and not significant fluctuations in temperature. Instead, we try to give them some kind of short rest.

Improving Your Senses

To Improving any one sense, it is necessary to focus on this feeling and ignore or exclude others.

Hearing training

To train your hearing, you should close your eyes and concentrate only on sounds. Our ears do not hear the same way. You should find out your “leading” ear and turn to the sound source with the “working” side. We hear better in the prone position than in the supine position. Therefore, to train your hearing, you can take a mechanical watch and lie on your back at such a distance that you can distinguish its sound. By gradually increasing the distance, you can achieve phenomenal results of several tens of meters. To concentrate auditory perception, you can select certain instruments from music, seeking attention only on one and ignoring others.

Vision

Focusing exercises are useful for training vision. If you are in nature, looking at the horizon through the foliage is helpful. Try to see both with the same clarity. Gradually, this will become possible. This way you will keep as many objects in your attention as possible. It will be useful to look at the starry night sky. Gradually, vision will sharpen and it will be easier to navigate at night.

Vestibular apparatus

Coordination is critical to survival. The initial stage of training can include yoga or qigong exercises for coordination of movements. Anything that trains the vestibular apparatus without sudden movements will be useful: gymnastics, dancing, skateboarding, trampoline, swimming, equestrian sports. For more advanced workouts, walking on a suspended log or rope can be suggested. For an extreme experience, it will be helpful to walk a safe route in a forest, relying on hearing, smell, heat, light and spatial perception, without using sight. By training coordination, we stimulate the development of hearing and improve the conduction of nerve fibers in the muscles of the whole body.

The ability to distinguish between odors

The ability to distinguish between smells can be developed by training. For example, walk in the direction of the source of the smell, until it is detected. In this case, it is worth associating the smell with sensations in the body, aftertaste, changes in mood, associations. This is necessary for odors that are not registered by the nose, but affect the emotional background. For example, pheromones, adrenaline, the smell of a sick body. Sometimes, we will not smell, but we will feel unexplained anxiety or peace. This will indicate that an uninvited guest has appeared near you. Having mastered your sense of smell perfectly, it is much easier to navigate in poor visibility conditions, identify danger before collision and find a target, even in the dark.

The human body is a complex system capable of self-improvement and fine tuning. By developing one sense, you will stimulate everyone else to improve. By training multiple senses at the same time and regularly, you will expand your ability to survive. Practicing in an environment close to the environment you intend to visit will greatly increase your chances of success. We do not promise that it will be easy for you, but what you will be interested in is we promise.