From Trigger to Tigger Happy

From Trigger to Tigger Happy 

The Multi-Sensory Revolution

Thank you!

For all the heartwarming responses I received to my last blog on Processing Loss, I have been so touched by your courageous stories and insightful comments.  For me this illustrates the importance of expression - we need to dialogue deeply about the tough stuff so we can move through it with grace and understanding.  So I'm offering some free talks this June to open up more dialogues on many levels.

Multi-Sensory Multi-Relational Expression

Since I started working with children with Special Needs in my teens, I have been intensely aware of the need for a multi-sensory approach to development.  We are all holistic beings and our senses interrelate in magically intricate ways.  Those with synaesthesia experience a powerful relationship between sound and vision, whilst recent experiment Fruity Note confirms that we associate smells and sound - ‘smound.’   

Tracking the Patterning of our Senses

Models such as NLP and VARK enable us to track our patterns of sensory relating. Many people have a dominant sense - those who are auditory will say ‘that sounds great’ and enjoy a healthy debate, whilst those who are visual will use maps and diagrams.  Our senses are hardwired into our memory hard-drives - the smell of fresh cut grass may trigger a memory of summer in the park for one person, whilst sudden movements may release disturbing recollections of an accident for another.  These sensory programmes influence our important decisions - we choose the partner who ‘smells right’ and then wonder why they turn out to share key traits with our parents.

Multi-Sensory Transformation

As we become conscious of our patterns of perceiving reality, we can make our own sensory medicine - we can dance out our inflexibility, cool a hot temper with soothing music, lighten depression with a daily walk and low carb diet and release defensiveness by experiencing gentle touch.  Whilst we cannot change the past, sensory work enables us to re-wire our response to it - a huge howl, deep massage or liberating dance can release the pent-up energy of moments that have been frozen in time, enabling us to move from trigger to tigger-happy - ☺

Multi-Sensory Revolution

Multi-sensory approaches are inclusive and accessible.  Multi-media content is increasingly available on the phones in our pockets - text messaging has revolutionised communication for people with hearing impairments.   

Multi-sensory work reaches across perceived boundaries of expression and opens up new realms of creativity.  This week I attended an inspirational meeting of Innovate Funded Music Projects, having been part of a project with excluded young people and infants with Sarah Fisher and Catherine Pestano.  Amongst the projects were BitterSuite giving young people a multi-sensory experience of classical music and Liquid Vibrations exploring the effects of music in water for young people with Special Needs.  Adele Drake, Founder of Drake Music talked of the profound change for parents who are able to see their children from a different perspective - those who have been labelled as ‘excluded’ ‘disadvantaged’ or ‘hard to reach’ by mainstream education can be recognised for the truly creative beings that they are.

Working with the power of our senses can bring about creative change and help us stay tuned to what is healthy for our people and our planet.

For those of you wishing to explore the Scent of Sound, please join me at the IFA on 14th June.   I am also looking forward to teaching a multi-sensory Sound Healing course at the Holistic Healing College in July.

Wishing you a truly bouncy tiggertastic June :)

Tigger-Happy Multi-Sensory Medicine Tips

1. Observe - your habitual patterns of sensory processing (kindly and without self judgement)- eg ‘I tend towards reading/writing activities and spend hours researching on the computer’

2. Diagnose areas in need of support - ‘I get backache and find it difficult to communicate confidently face to face (eg off Facebook)’

3. Prescribe an sensory antidote - must be FUN! :) ‘Go to a book club where people read aloud and socialise, take up pilates to ease back tension ’4. Enjoy - rinse and repeat