Human Senses

Human senses are really amazing..

The first time I realised this was the first time I went on a night-time hiking as a part of beginner Search and Rescue training. I was still in junior high school at that time.

I think I have once wrote about my first hiking experience when I slipped down a hill. That happened during the day. The next hike, the instructor planned the trip so that we did the uphill walk during night time.

At first we were a little scared (of course), but after a while, somehow we became much calmer. The cool temperature was obviously a good thing, but the biggest help was something that we did not expect before we started the hike, less eye-sight!

The morning after the hike, the instructor showed us the path that we had walked on during the night, and we all gasped! It was much narrower than the path where I fell down about half a year ago from that day.. We could not see the path clearly during the night, so our measurement of the path size was mainly based on the grass grew along its sides.. the rest of our concentration was put to watching where our friends were, and what we could hear around us.

Our eyes provides us with such high clarity of vision that often our eye-sight override our other senses, and our brain reacts primarily on the images and impressions created by our vision. When we see something that looks uncomfortable, our eyes will send warning that the thing that we see is dangerous and we get scared.

When we use less of our eye-sight, our other senses work harder to compensate. The result is better mix of judgment as a result of a complete mix of senses work. Every thing (including fear) becomes more balanced.

I experienced this again last night, after an event in Ariq's school (Fast Breaking) from 4 pm to 7 pm. We decided to ride to school so that we didn't have to walk back home.

The road from our home to Ariq's school is always very bad with a lot of loose stones, much like mountain paths. I'm always a little tensed riding around the area, afraid I will lose balance and get thrown off the bike.

Last night, it was different. While I was riding in the dark, I could only see clearly the width of the road and rough glimpses of the holes on it. Ariq was leading and trying to find the most comfortable route (less uphill road) and he did well.

I was a little tensed starting from Ariq's school, thinking it would be very challenging to ride in the dark, while I often worried during the day.. However, it turned out that not being able to see the holes on the road in full was a great advantage. I concentrated fully on balancing myself on the bike and I could hear approaching motorbikes and cars (from behind) so much better. So, I found myself riding more comfortably.

My ride last night turned out to be the least bumpy I ever had, despite the fact the road was the one I often travelled on (and worried about) during the day.. :-)

Our eye-sight is probably the strongest sense out of all human senses, but when we use a little less of it, the teamwork of other senses can give us a better and more balanced approach in achieving our objectives..