Touch, taste, smell, audio, and sight: could these universal human processes be the key to saving the planet from its projected demise? The brain is constantly monitoring its surroundings, searching for threats and opportunities, and taking in an overload of information to store away for later use. In a world where we are constantly overstimulated with technology, work, personal interactions, and more, humans have actually trained themselves to sensually suppress within their human experience. All of this external stimuli is assaulting our senses, leaving us to disconnect from anything that can be considered an extra sensual responsibility; relationships, emotions, and even our natural world.
Due to the shared experience of destruction, degradation, violence, and oppression, our world has diffused a deeply heavy energy that looms in the background of our human realities. This is an energy that is omnipresent for all beings, yet rarely acknowledged. A collective experience such as this causes uninvited tension to be stored deep within the body as society has left no room for emotional processing of any sort. We run on a hamster-wheel schedule collecting emotion inside of ourselves like a punch card, the more suppressing you do will eventually lead you to a free state of psychic numbing! Oh joy!
Unfortunately human beings are unable to be selective with this sensory avoidance. Both the good and the bad sensations will be deprived. Experiencing the nostalgic activity of blackberry picking with your grandma can feel repetitive and time-consuming instead of heartwarming and joyous. Even witnessing the death of an animal on the road can feel casual instead of shocking and devastating. Sensory numbness works both ways. Laura Sewall, director of the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area and the Shortridge Coastal Center at Bates College, argues that, “the deadening of our senses is at the heart of the environmental crisis…” (1990, pp. 201). Disconnection to the natural world has led us to the current position that humans hold, dominators of a dying planet.
As simple as it may sound, teaching human beings to tap back into their 5 senses can actually be the path to human reintegration to the environment. Rewiring our well ingrained programming of “collective myopia” (Sewall, 1990, pp. 202), will take intentional work and consistency. Humans have instilled this destructive way of living deep within their systems, causing mindful sensory experiences to feel foreign and uncomfortable. This means that this seemingly simple task will be more complex than we may realize. An ecological perspective, “requires receptivity and the participation of our whole selves, despite the potential pain. It means fully witnessing both the magnificence and destruction of our Earth” (Sewall, 1990, pp. 204).
What does sensation have to do with saving our natural world anyways? Well let me tell you. “Perception, consciousness, and behavior are as radically interdependent as the rest of the biosphere” (Sewall, 1990, pp. 203). This means that each of these components are interrelated and influence each other in major ways. Where we direct our consciousness will directly impact both perception and behavior. By attuning our sensual awareness to all that the world around us has to offer, humans can become more conscious of their interactions within this world and guide our behavior to support the preservation of Earth. Simply put, the more we connect our senses to the natural environment, the more we will recognize our natural roots and feel motivated to take proper care of our home planet. So, I invite you to take a second to explore your current environment with your various senses. What colors are alive for you right now? Are they vibrant and bright, or dull and dark? Is there a slight breeze brushing against your skin? How about the smell of your environment. Have the local flowers in your area begun to bloom and release an exquisite natural perfume smell that is filling your nostrils? Take a second to act as a curious witness to your current experience and shift your perspective from the internal world to the external world. It might make the difference between life saving awareness and environmentally devastating suppression.
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Roszak, T., Gomes, M. E., Kanner, A. D., & Sewall, L. (1995). The Skill of Ecological Perspective . In Ecopsychology: Restoring the earth healing the mind (pp. 201–204). essay, Sierra Club Books.
