Enhance Your Senses With A Blind Day

August 17th, 2007

The topic of a "blind day" came up in a recent email exchange with Kenton Whitman (whose terrific web site I wholeheartedly recommend), and I decided to elaborate on that topic here because an occasional blind day is an excellent way to enhance your senses and your overall awareness.

We rely so extensively on our vision we don't even realize how many sounds and scents and textures we fail to notice. That abundance of sensory input becomes background noise. We unconsciously tune it out, and we do it so often we don't even know what we're missing. We forget how beautifully rich sounds can be, how delightful and intoxicating certain smells can be, until we're hit with a sound or scent intense enough to make it through all the filters into our conscious awareness and suddenly we remember.

A blind day can bring all your other senses into focus. It can awaken you to a whole world of sensations and impressions that have been right there under your nose (or ears, or hands…) all along.

How to have your own blind day:

The technique is very simple: spend a full day without sight.

You can blindfold yourself with a piece of dark cloth or buy a cheap set of swimming goggles and paint them black. I recommend using goggles or a Mindfold mask because either of those options will allow you to keep your eyes open. The Mindfold mask is a wonderful tool for this purpose because it's very lightweight and comfortable, completely blocks out all light, obscures your vision, and allows you to keep your eyes wide open. It may seem easier to tie a blindfold over your eyes, but you'd be amazed at the difference you'll feel as you wander through your home with your eyes open rather than closed.

It's best to schedule your blind day for a weekend or a day when you won't have to work or drive. If possible, have a friend or family member around for the day. (Make them promise not to laugh the first few times you bump into the furniture.) Despite being someone else's comic relief, you'll find it's worth having a licensed driver around so you can explore a park or another person's home during your blind day. In your own home, you'll navigate partly through your senses and partly through memory. In a park or another person's home, you'll have to rely primarily on your senses.

Don't pack your schedule with activities. Keep in mind it will take you twice as long, if not longer, to perform your usual everyday tasks. That's part of the fun. The longer each action takes, the more time you'll have to explore all the sensations involved in it.

Put on your blindfold or mask immediately upon waking up in the morning, before you even get out of bed. Allow yourself a few minutes in bed to give your newly sightless self time to adjust, then get out of bed and go through your usual morning routine.

Move slowly. Pay attention to your body. Notice how you move more deliberately, how each step and each motion requires attention and awareness. Move with conscious intent instead of operating on autopilot. Your shins will thank you later.

Stop. Listen. Feel. Smell.

As you get dressed, take time to really feel your clothes, to hear the sound of the fabric rustle against your skin. As you eat a meal, notice the smell, taste, and texture of the food. Walk across a room and feel the texture of the floor beneath your feet. Listen to the sound each motion makes. Explore each room of your house with this new appreciation.

Stretch out your awareness.

Walk outside and feel the change in temperature as you pass through patches of sunlight and shade. Feel the air. Is it dry, humid, thin, thick, light, heavy, breezy, still, warm, cool…?

Take a deep breath and smell, really smell, your surroundings. Open your ears and listen to the sounds of nature, people, animals, cars, music, and all the other things that normally slip in underneath your auditory radar.

Things will feel awkward at first, but that's perfectly okay. It's natural to feel off kilter when you're suddenly without a sense you've relied on so heavily until now. Don't stress. Give yourself a full day and enjoy the chance to explore all your senses to their fullest.

You may also notice an increase in vivid dreams during the night after your blind day. I don't know if everyone experiences it, but on the occasions when I've practiced this technique, my own dreams have been extremely vivid after spending the day without sight. My theory is that a mind so accustomed to receiving a huge amount of visual input throughout the day feels starved of that input during a blind day and, as a result, generates an excess of visual stimuli in dreams to compensate for a full day with no visual input whatsoever.

If you like this exercise, you might enjoy this other technique for enhancing your sensory awareness.