Do you have a sixth sense?

Yes, you do and I don’t mean you can talk to dead people. OK, prove it – close your eyes and gently touch your nose with a finger. How did you do that?

Most people are familiar with five senses; seeing, hearing, smell, touch and taste. These are ways we find out about the world outside of our skin. You don’t use these to touch your nose (with your eyes closed.)

There are more than these five senses – many more! Touch is a separate sense to itch, pain or pressure. Thermoception is the ability to detect hot or cold. In fact there are a whole bunch of senses that are monitoring what is going on inside you, which are collectively called “interoception”. Most people can sense if they are hungry or thirsty. How do you know when you need to go to the toilet? Stretch receptors in your bladder. These are just a few and not only are these internal senses important in keeping us alive they are involved in how we feel and our emotions.

Information from sensory receptors throughout our bodies, in our joints, tendons and muscles, are combined so that we may know where our body parts are located in space in relation to each other and how they are moving. It’s called proprioception. Not only do you know where your finger and nose are; you can move one to touch the other with your eyes closed and still be able to judge the speed so that you don’t break your nose or take a week to get there.

Feldenkrais is focused on learning to sense your body and it’s movement, to clarify and refine your connection to yourself and find easier, more pleasurable ways to do the things that you want to.