How to Revitalise and Utilise our Senses

Our sensitivity to life is governed by our senses. Our sensitivity reminds us we’re alive. Our senses enable us to interact with the world around us. It’s how we take in information and observe our surroundings. Our senses help us build a picture of our reality, shaping the landscape of our present moment. However, not all of us are connected to our senses on a conscious level, we eat without tasting, we hear without truly listening. The pace of our everyday lives often leads us to feel depleted and when we are depleted of energy so are our senses. When we revitalise our senses and heighten our sensitivity to taste, smell, hear, see and feel, this brings us closer to connecting to life, to the present moment and restoring our body and mind to its vital essence. 

So how do we heighten our sensitivity? How do we revitalise our senses?

On a physical level, it is prana  (life-force energy) that feeds and vitalises our senses. When we are low on prana and feeling depleted and fatigued, then our ability to utilise our senses is depleted too. 

So how do we stock up on prana? 

Pran Vayu is our energising and revitalising pranic force that moves inward and upward and is connected to the in-breath. As the energetic force of Pran Vayu is housed in the chest, it is intimately related to our health, energy levels and vitality as it governs the function of our heart and lungs, our circulatory and respiratory systems. On the subtle level, Pran Vayu is an internalising force that allows us to take in. Whether that be information, breath, conversation or even love, our capacity to receive and take more of life is related to Pran Vayu. 

When Pran Vayu is weak, our connection to prana is low and it will seem impossible to take in any new information. Paradoxically, we will feel full when in fact our senses are depleted and stretched at their capacity to take in anything new. Lights will feel too bright, the TV too loud, conversation feels flat and you’ll feel like you cannot handle the sound of that dog barking one more time let alone feel able to learn anything new. Is this reminding anyone of a hangover or an all nighter? Energy feeds our senses! Lack of it, drains away at our capacity to function.

When we increase our pranic sensitivity and capacity, we strengthen Pran vayu and we revitalise our senses. We are able to utilize our senses and our capacity to take life in, to receive information and to keep us awake to the aliveness of now. 

This doesn’t mean that we become a slave to our senses. I’m sure we also know the feeling of fatigue after a day at a shopping centre. Our senses are met with an onslaught of information. Our eyes meet artificial lights, crowds and things to buy, our ears meet the constant hum of conversation, adverts catch our attention, our noses catch smells from the food halls and our feet feel the weight of walking for hours. This is likely to make most of us completely drained and tired. Yet when we are energised and our senses are revitalised we don’t come home depleted. We can take in this information when it serves us and can let it go when it’s not. 

We can manage the sound of the dog barking and stay present to the taste of the apple we are biting into and the conversation we are having with a friend. 

Connecting to prana, sensitising ourselves to its subtlety, building our pranic capacity and strengthening our ability to retain prana, shape and direct it is the Tantric science and system of Hatha yoga. It teaches us to mobilise the force of aliveness in all things.

So next time you feel depleted and full to the brim, take a few long deep breaths in. Bring your awareness to the sound, speed and sensation of your breath. As you lengthen your inhales, see if you can retain your breath for a second or two, or even just drop your awareness into that pause between the inhale and exhale. 

You can also practice this Pran Vayu kriya (internal action) practice shared by my teacher Octavio Salvado of the Sri Vidya lineage of Tantric Hatha Yoga; 

ACTIVE

  • Inhale and draw white light in through the gate way of the five senses towards the Third Eye.

  • Hold the breath briefly and gently. See a ball of light concentrate and build in the midbrain.

  • Exhale, see and sense Prana expand out from the midbrain back out through the gates of the 5 senses. (10 rounds)

STATIC

  • Rest quietly. Experience the brain soaking in a pool of white light, recharging the brain and nervous system completely.

  • Sense brain being nourished, the five senses being revitalized and vital intelligence being restored (3 – 10 mins).

  • Rest in the third eye.

Remember, we have unlimited access to a pool of energy that surrounds us, there for us to recharge at any moment, with every bite we take of food, or breath we take in. 

Utilise it, take in the prana that surrounds you, let it soak into your cells and know that your energy and vitality is in your hands, or more accurately, at the tip of your nose!



Hanine Waked