Connecting with Your 7th Sense

Evolution has provided all living things with a range of senses to interpret and interact with the world.  Senses are controlled by the same part of the brain that stores memory.  That is no co-incidence, as remembering sensations or experiences allows all living things to move toward pleasure and avoid pain or danger 

So, the most important function of your senses is to ensure you seek to have your needs met.  Basic needs comprise safety and survival, security, closeness with others, challenge and growth, happiness, self-esteem, balance, and fullfillment. You strive to satisfy each of these needs within each area of your life--work, relationships, parenting, hobbies, sports, volunteering, etc.  Simply put, your goal is to reach your comfort zone to stay safe, healthy and happy 

Each sense focuses on and interprets energy waves such as heat, light, and sound in a different way.  The senses of taste and smell allow you to enjoy food--a mechanism that ensures you get enough nutrients, and don't eat foods that might be poisonous.  In fact, the olefactory sense triggers your most powerful memory response

Touch allows you to experience pleasure and pain, the ability to physically connect, as well as the ability to interpret whether something is good or bad for you.  Hearing and sight allow you to become aware of what is around you

Your sixth sense allows you to 'feel' what is intangible.  It picks up highly subtle clues from your environment such as body language, voice inflections, energy patterns and auric fields, thought waves, intent

Everyone has this sense, and everyone uses it to some degree, especially when another sense becomes limited, such as when in the dark.  But, because of its complexity and subtlety, few understand how to use this sense to its fullest degree. And because you are constantly bombarded by sensory input, your subtle sixth sense sometimes gets drowned out.  Animals, however, are highly adept at using all of their senses, especially their sixth sense of 'feeling'      

Mammals also possess a seventh sense, although few understand that it is an actual sense.  Your seventh sense is your emotions.  This special sense is designed to make you conscious of what is helpful or harmful to you and whether or not your needs are being met

The degree of intensity felt by emotions prompts you to take action to ensure your needs do become satisfied.  Emotions like happiness, satisfaction, and fullfillment tell you that your needs are being properly satisfied.  The purpose of 'negative' emotions such as fear, anger, boredom, resentment, and frustration is to make you aware that your needs are NOT being met

That makes emotions very important to your sense of wellbeing and survival.  Yet most people bury, dismiss, or ignore their negative feelings, rationalizing them away.  Worse yet, we are taught that negative feelings are not socially acceptable

The sole purpose of feeling an emotion is to prompt you move toward what is making you feel good, or to move you to take steps to change or rectify what is wrong so that you can get your needs met.  That makes emotions one of your most important senses! 

Negative feelings are particularly intense because they need to force change.  So, when you ignore or suppress your 'negative' feelings, you ignore their message, and therefore don't take the necessary action to change what is uncomfortable or wrong in your life.  Consequently, you ensure your continued unhappiness, loneliness, and lack of security and ease in life

For example, feeling anger reveals that you perceive an injustice or lack of fairness is occuring. That unfairness might be simply be that you are not being heard.  Anger makes you want to speak up or take action.  And that makes anger a really GOOD thing!  But, if you suppress anger or don't take appropriate action to rectify a perceived unfairness, your self-esteem declines, and that is a bad thing

You feel fear when your safety or security is being jeopardized.  It prompts your 'flight or fight' instincts, and that keeps you safe and alive.  Stress is one form of fear.  Mostly it is the fear that you are not adequate to cope with the responsibilities at hand.  Just like anger, stress is self-esteem related

You feel lonely when your need for companionship and connection to another is not being met.  Since you are the only one responsible for your happiness, loneliness is prompting you to reach out and take action to connect.  But, if you wait for others to come to you and don't reach out actively to satisfy your need for companionship and closeness, you will start to have negative thoughts and doubts about yourself.  Your self esteem becomes affected

Boredom tells you that challenge and growth is not occuring.  When you ignore your need for challenge and growth, your self esteem suffers

Frustration is an emotion that is felt when you try unsuccessfully or ineffectively to get your needs met.  Low self-esteem also results

Depression follows frustration.  It occurs when you give up and no longer try.  Depression is a shut-down of the entire seventh sense process.  Since we are living in a society that prizes and rewards rationalized thinking over emotional wellbeing, it is no wonder that 85% of the population experiences chronic stress, and depression is at an all-time high.  Using drugs to combat depression only feeds the escapism and low self-esteem that is the source of depression    

So, allow yourself to feel!  There is no right or wrong to emotions, so stop judging how you or others feel.  Love, hate, joy, anger, satisfaction, fear, security, boredom, fullfillment ... ALL these feelings exist for the sole purpose of forcing action, either toward pleasure and growth, or away from pain.  Simply become more aware of what your feelings are trying to tell you

Thank your feelings for making you more aware of the need to pay attention to how a particular life situation is affecting you.  LISTEN to your feelings.  But, rather than acting blindly with your feelings, try acting on the state your feelings are really trying to achieve for you.  Take intelligent action to satify what your feelings represent--address your deeper need

Understand we all share the same basic needs and these needs will cause emotional responses in others.  Respond by helping those around you to get their own needs met  

When you respond to emotions in a conscious way, your self-esteem will begin to soar.  Your life and relationships will immediately improve.  That ensures your emotions are a wonderful gift to your wellbeing and happiness, and will also be a great gift to others in your life