Exploring the hidden dimensions of the self for more remarkable growth and resilience is the essence of this article to delve into the concept of “9 Senses,” revealing how shifting one’s mindset from seeing problems to embracing challenges can lead to personal transformation. I draw insights from neuroscience, ontology, mindfulness, ecology, mbraining, and coaching. This supports us in exploring how understanding and nurturing each sense can unlock potential, resilience, and self-discovery.
Our most significant challenges in life start with us; we block every possibility by magnifying situations and events in our lives as a problem or problems. That is why experts in neuroscience say, through epigenetics and neuroception, we influence who we are, even to the genetic or DNA levels. This article supports you in discovering the power of embracing your entire being to lead a fulfilling life filled with possibilities and wisdom.
Once you shift your mindset from seeing the same situation as a problem to a challenge, your brains fires coordination through neurogenesis, neuro-synapses and neuroplasticity for solutions and drive possibilities and opportunities. In the face of problems, your body retreats and coils, but in the face of challenges, a growth mindset fires all the neurochemicals such as dopamine, vasopressin, oxytocin, serotonin, etc. And once your body marks challenges with the perception and interoception as possibilities for exploring opportunities, the neurochemicals influence your tenacity, grit, and resilience.
Your outputs or results reflect your thoughts, feelings, and ways of being and manifest in how you do self-talk. You are the vanishing point of your personality and personal reality; you require a certain level of intellectual and reflective humility to activate shifts.
This is why in coaching sessions, sometimes I ask clients/coachees, “What is the smell of your personality, or what is your angle of perception about your personal realities of life.”
Or sometimes I ask, what is the fragrance of your leadership or taste of your influence? That is how deep a coaching question can cut and a reflective mirror it can be to explore your five senses.
You are the frames of your imagination and reflect how deep your body goes. When you go on a tour of your head, heart, guts, penis/vagina, lungs, spin, etc, what do you see/experience/? This is exploring your 6th &7th senses. Once you limit your life and person to just one faculty of your being head through overthinking and unproductive rumination, you cut off about 90% of who you are. So in coaching, I can ask a question like, what is the song of your heart, then I say, don’t think the answer but let it emerge. Or what is the sound of your gut. or what is the essence of your penal/vaginal influence?
Many of us live in abundance but go thirsty for water because we don’t know the value of our environment and the power of quality, healthy relationships. Our profound 8th sense is the quality of our ecological bond and relationship. This generation and age have reduced everything to quantity and figures, so we cannot plug into the universe, our immediate environment and our relationships. It is this mentality that, in coaching, I will ask, who is your ally for your greatness, how is your life here influencing the universe and what do you bring to the table of a relationship? What can you liken your relationship to? Nobody’s greatness is in a vacuum; it is within our environment and relationships. This is a healthy way to build trust through the neuroception of the autonomic nervous system to navigate through life.
To wrap up this piece, I wish to explore the 9th sense I call the child within. Our most vulnerable but powerful self, whom many of us dread even having quality relationships with nor engaging in our life, is that child in us. Our truest sense of self is where our freedom, self-love, purpose, and optimism sit. The little child within is the centre that manifests through all the other 5-8 senses, yet we care less, nurture less, regard less, inspire less etc.
Everyone can give up on you and pretend to you, even how you perceive yourself, but that little child in you is your anchor and is always there to stand with you. The little child we always know has a unique name and space when we build a deep awareness with and appreciate it. Who is that little child in you? How well do you do him/her? What is his/her name? What is the relationship with him/her? How often have you given up on yourself, forgetting you are not alone.?
We(5-9 senses), or as Dr Dan Seigel will call it, “Mwe”, is our indescribable mirror for our greatness—a being with magnificent possibility and incredible wisdom. Once you doubt, observe how your project and assess all the senses mentioned here. Walk the path of your greatness like a diamond in a rough ride through the process for the worth it carries. This article took a lot of inspiration from the Wheel of Awareness works of Dr Daniel Siegel, Dr Stephen Porges’s works on polyvagal theory and neuroception, and Dr Andrew Huberman of Stanford University’s exposition on exteroception and interoception and Dr Bruce Lipton’s depths on epigenetics.
Scofray Nana Yaw Yeboah, PCC
Transformational Coach | mBIT Master Coach | Corporate Trainer | Lead Consultant for Zoweh Global Consult.
