Showing posts with label senses. Show all posts

A few creative ways to do this is to eat something really spicy in the morning to numb your tastes the rest of the day or you can suck on a piece of ice. Another though less safe way is to coat your tongue with (these are medicines and should not be used if you have low tolerence or allergies to these over-the-counter drugs) Ambesol or Vicks Throat Spray which are designed for strep throat or cold sores. They numb the skin and would effectively kill your taste buds for a while.


As for myself, I will attempt to eat food without flavor or spice today. There are plenty of bland, tasteless foods out there. I usually avoid them, but today I will give my stomach a break and avoid salts, sweets and spices. :)

Acquire some earplugs. earmuffs or just put some headphones in which muffle outside noises. This day will be hard for me, personally, since I answer phones all day and LOVE music. But I will try my best to block out noises when I can.


This would also be a good day to try learning some sign language. ASL has a huge dictionary full of animated gifs for those of you wanting to learn something new or just to translate a favorite phrase: http://www.handspeak.com/tour/index.php


Once the day is over, try listing some pros and cons for this sense deprivation. Then decide how important hearing is to you and rate it on a scale of 1-10 (10 being VERY important). I will update this post at the end of the end of the day with my analyisis.

***UPDATE***
I tried it for as long as I could stand, but silence bores me. Even when it's seemingly peaceful, my mind and ears tune in to all the small noises. I love my ears. I love the sounds of this city. I couldn't ever imagine giving them up voluntarily for an entire 24 hours. My end-of-the-day rating is 8/10. I can tolerate peace when I have a headache or when my heart is racing and noise exacerbates the situation. Other than that, I really love listening. :)

Since many of us already have jobs or small children to which we cannot take our eyes off of, I suggest that whenever you DO NOT need your eyes, close them.

If you are stirring a pot to cook, close your eyes and focus in on the smells and sounds of cooking. If you have a moment to write, try writing without the aid of vision. Try typing or blogging through key memory alone. If you are on the phone and do not need to see (don't do this in a car!) then close your eyes for a moment and just picture the person's face, really hear their voice and try to pick up background sounds behind them.

Every small moment you have today which doesn't necessitate vision should be used to take in the other senses. Listen more. Smell more. Touch and Taste more. Just the simple task of closing your eyes while you eat will surprise you. Enjoy. :)