#senses

The woman recovering from abuse or other stressful life situations may feel she's in no way in charge of anything, least of all her own world. She faces the horse with trepidation. The horse senses the fear and becomes tense and concerned. The wise instructor starts small. The woman is handed a soft brush and sent to fuss over the horse. It's pointed out that if she stands close to the animal, she will be out of range of a well-aimed kick. She is warned to watch for tell-tale signs of fear in herself and the horse. She's warned to keep her feet out from under the horse's stomping hoof. They're both allowed to back away and regroup and try again until they reach an accord regarding personal space. Calm prevails, and within a few minutes, hours or sessions, interaction becomes friendship. It happens almost every time a woman is allowed enough time and space to work through the situation. So a woman whose daily life is overwhelming her learns to step back. Is this a cure for her endless problems? Of course not. Simple is not simplistic. ↗

— Joanne M. Friedman

#calm #friendship #horses #interaction #regrouping

We know that our senses are subject to decay, that from our middle years they are decaying all the time; but happily it is as if we didn't know and didn't believe. ↗

— William Henry Hudson

#decay #decaying #happily #know #middle

Without renouncing the support of physics, it is possible for the physiology of the senses, not only to pursue its own course of development, but also to afford to physical science itself powerful assistance. ↗

— Ernst Mach

#also #assistance #course #development #itself

The Negroes have little invention, but strong powers of imitation, so that they readily acquire mechanic arts. They have a great talent for music, and all their external senses are remarkably acute. ↗

— Samuel George Morton

#acute #arts #external #great #great talent

It's very easy to say that something is a shadow of itself, and it may be true in some senses. ↗

— Sydney Schanberg

#easy #itself #may #say #senses

We speak not only to tell other people what we think, but to tell ourselves what we think. Speech is a part of thought. ↗

— Oliver Sacks

#cognition #communication #community #senses #sociality

When the Aggregates arise, decay and die, O bhikkhu, every moment you are born, decay, and die. ↗

— Gautama Buddha

#buddha-quotes #buddhism #death #emotion #five-aggregates

Lose your mind and come to your senses. ↗

— Frederick S. Perls

#mind #senses #inspirational

Hold out your hands to feel the luxury of sunbeams. Press the soft blossoms against your cheek, and finger their graces of form, their delicate mutability of shape, their pliancy and freshness. Expose your face to the aerial floods that sweep the heavens, ‘inhale great draughts of space,’ wonder, wonder at the wind’s unwearied activity. Pile note on note the infinite music that flows increasingly to your soul from the tactual sonorities of a thousand branches and tumbling waters. How can the world be shriveled when this most profound, emotional sense, touch, is faithful to its service? I am sure that if a fairy bade me choose between the sense of sight and that of touch, I would not part with the warm, endearing contact of human hands… ↗

— Helen Keller

#joy #nature #optimism #sensuality #faith