Layers of Sensing

        "Touch something. What do you feel? Of course it depends on the texture and surface and temperature and size as to what response you get. Touch fingers to fingers and you feel warmth or perhaps cold if another's temperature is not the same as yours. Touch hot and we pull back and we learn not to touch wet cold surfaces. Touching is a sense that can keep us from danger and also bring us pleasure. Some people touch automatically and others refrain, but they all use their sense of touch on a daily basis.

        We are aware of the need for touching in some instances. A baby needs the feel of touch and animals like to make the contact also. As we grow we tend to become aware of the restrictions that touching involves and some who are overly cautious change their basic nature so there is no misunderstanding or wrong message sent. We pull inside ourselves often and we forget that touching is a type of healing if done in the right way. The comfort of a hand on the back or the connection made with a handshake or a hug of love and affection is both soothing and healing. To some it comes easy because their family was more physically demonstrative, while others come from families which were more formal and less outwardly affectionate.

        If touching with warmth does not come easy and is an awkward experience, then it is best not to try to force it. We know that one can touch another with feeling, but it is not often done deliberately as a comforting extension of touching without the physical manifestation of it. We can touch another with the eyes and send expressions of love and comfort without touching and without words. Sometimes a glance of understanding can be more communicative than actual touching. We can sense where there is a need and begin to quietly extend ourselves in a non physical way. Sensing loneliness or turmoil is easier than finding words which can take away some of the hurt and pain. A smile or a look is better at times because there is no need for verbal response. The fact that the pain is recognized and compassion shown is sensed on other levels of awareness than just the conscious one. We sense mentally, emotionally, and physically. We are almost always sensing and responding on all three of those levels, either one at a time or sometimes simultaneously. This sensing can be intense in those who are aware of other times and places and events than just those which are happening around them. It is almost too much sometimes for the "sensitivies" to contain and they have to learn how to adjust to more layers than the average person.

        Sense need. Sense pain, but also sense the more positive aspects of being. Sense lightness and calmness and serenity - if you can find it. Sense what it is to just be. Sense the inner you and the outer you. Sense who you are."