Has anyone ever told you, “I am a visual person. You have to show me.”? Maybe you know someone who is auditory who needs the instructions read to them. Tactile people have to do it themselves to learn how. Then, there is me.
It is a cruel twist of irony I would birth children with sensory integration disorder. I am a full sensory input person. My autopilot has a three-story brownstone with a guest house.
For me, having merely one stimulus is unsatisfying. If the music is beautiful, I want to feel the rhythm. If the song is worth hearing, I want the lyrics to talk to me while the music makes my hips move. If the scene in the movie is going to be one you want me to remember, the sounds need to match or punctuate the dialog, and the scenery needs to be seamless. Food needs to look and smell fantastic before I put it on my tongue for it to feel and taste orgasmic.
Many have told me I have the feline ability to land on my feet. My sister tells me every time I leap I soar. My late husband, man of eloquence, told me I had a horseshoe in my arse.
What?
Did I lose you? We are still talking about the same thing.
Multitasking is doing one thing strictly by senses whilst you concentrate on doing something else. I listen to music or talk on the tele and type or code at the same time. That definition you know.
When I am using my senses to assess my surroundings, the actions of the people near me and the possible outcomes, I am merely multitasking. It really is not luck at all. What is more, where most people find it all distracting, I find it exhilarating.
Like every adrenaline junkie, I do like to relax with a simple scaled-down model. We are talking about my scale though. The music is more mellow, but just as full. The lyrics more soothing, but just as poignant. The scene just as memorable, but stroking softer emotions. The food, well, no change there.
Choices
For me, it means I am able to catalog what appears to be far more memories than any person could in a lifetime. I have memory banks which appear to be bursting at the seams, when in reality they hardly have scratched the hard drive. It applies to more than just the everyday tasks.
The happenstance which most see, without committing to conscious memory, is all around us. When you commute to work, you see it everywhere. The couple arguing in the car beside you. The man jogging with his dog. The smell of a paper mill. The television in the lobby. The music in the elevator. The client on the cell soothing a child out of a panic. The texture of the office chair. You see, feel, smell or hear them but make no note of them.
When asked soon enough, you can recall some of them, yet you would not be able to give a full account of all you encountered. You applied a filter, exercised judgment and concluded these events would not change the outcome of your day, which essentially made them of no value to retain.
What would happen if that filter were missing? What if you could keep all those bits in your head? What purpose would they serve?
I do.
Have you ever wondered what happened to something? You know you held it in your hand, but you cannot remember where you set it down. You pick up a book you know you did not finish, but you cannot remember where you were in the story. You return to a city years later, but you need GPS to get around.
Think of this as cropping pictures. I can see items in juxtaposition to others. I try to keep enough information in the cropped picture to allow me to know where items can be found, what the page number was where I stopped reading and which direction I am likely to find my destination.
They are not just visual cues. Occasionally, a sound, texture or smell will be part of the picture. Hearing the sound of a kitchen timer helps me remember I left the book in the kitchen. The feel of the third floor landing under my feet helps me remember I was on page 316. (Bonus if you know why 16 is integral to this association.) The smell of the bakery helps me remember where my favorite store is in another town.
Missing
In the vast morass of this filing system, there is one set of cues which is missing: people. With very few exceptions, I do not associate people and either places or items. To my mind, it seems one-dimensional, unfair and prejudicial.
Very few things in life are truly one of a kind. Knowing there are other people who have one, or one just like it, means to associate a person with an object would leave a skewed vision of the object’s potential. If the person uses the object in one way, the mind is less likely to explore other equally or greater beneficial uses because the memory of the object is set to one specific use.
The same is true for places. No place is the purview of merely one person. Others have influenced the place and/or lived there before. To allow a place to be dominated by a single person devalues its heritage and renders the experience there into a single dimension.
I do remember people. In my cropping, I put them in the foreground and leave only enough detail in the background to stir fond (or not) memories. Intentionally, the places and items are not associated with the person in the pictures.
We will discuss the people portion of this exercise in another post. Until then, I am still just
Are you visual, auditory or tactile? Can you take multi-sensory input well? Do you know the answer to the bonus?
Hashtags: #memories #sensoryinput
Thank you for sharing The M3 Blog with hashtags.
Gail Thornton
/ July 31, 2014Hi Red!
Just love this post and it made me think of you and others and myself. The bonus question was easy for me, the 16 refers to the first paragraph, sixth line down. But I know a little about how you think, though this was fascinating to hear about your sensory world. I am a tactile person. I only learn by doing. I teach myself to improve by doing more each time. I have a bit of a sensory integration problem, too. I have to have the room quiet when I talk on the phone. I have to have the room quiet when I write. I easily get overwhelmed by multiple stimulus and shut down or go ape shit. Music, although I was a proficient musician in a concert band, is difficult for me to listen to now. I cannot discern lyrics from the music or the music from the lyrics. It’s overload for me. The only time my filters are off and I enjoy the input of multiple stimulus is when I am manic. Then, the colors are so vibrant as to make me in love. I observe everyone and everything and it is all so intense and again I am in love.
Thank you for teaching me something about you and about me. Keep posting, I will be here.
Love,
Gail xoxoxox
Gail Thornton recently posted..Prose – Of Loss and Love
Red of M3
/ August 2, 2014Often, being this attune to everything is considered a manic symptom. When I explained it to me therapist, she had a hard time wrapping her head around how much input I actually take without being overwhelmed. When I took an hour and a half to explain less than five minutes, she realized it really is all the time. xxx
Tess
/ July 31, 2014Sigh. I cannot multi-task anymore. Too many projects (more than one) to juggle. I hate it.
I have always been a hands-on person. Let me go through the motions and it’s a snap, whereas if you tell me, or leave me instructions, the task takes much longer. This scenario still works today but not as effectively.
Sometimes, life is not a beach.
Tess recently posted..What’s a Hero?
Red of M3
/ August 2, 2014I am still wondering if this brand of stimulus-response is something which will change over the years. Thus far, it has only increased for me. I now require more than I ever have. xxx
Binky
/ July 31, 2014Mostly visual. But I dislike video lessons or how-tos when text will do the job better.
Red of M3
/ August 2, 2014That has to do with the ability you have of visualizing. You see the text as you would do it without having to overcome seeing how someone else did it. I prefer instructions as well.
prenin
/ July 31, 2014Memory is a BIG problem for me!
I have to rehearse every action two or three times before I remember to do it and even then my once perfect memory tends to let me down, so I stick to a routine which, by its repetitive nature, means I get by!!!
The paranoid schizophrenia doesn’t help I’m afraid… 🙁
Love and huge hugs my friend!!! 🙂
Prenin.
prenin recently posted..Thursday – Internet woes…
Red of M3
/ August 2, 2014Repetition is the key to mastery more often than not. Routines keep us safe and from burning up all our neurons. 🙂
gigoid
/ August 1, 2014Red,
Now I know I’m in love!…. Just when I’d given up hope of ever finding, or meeting another like myself, there you are!…
I’ve known this about myself since childhood, when I noticed other kids didn’t react to things the same way I did, perceptively speaking; they also seemed to ignore a lot of information that I had picked up on as a matter of course, simply because they didn’t notice it…
Music isn’t right unless it stims at least three senses for me, as well as more than a couple of neurons, and food should stim ALL of the normal five… sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch. (When I was a chef, back in the days before arthritis, I used to enjoy people being served my food, to watch them as they first saw, then smelled, then tasted…. and then pushed away from the table, full….) My favorite activity is to listen to music while composing Pearls, or reading and thinking, with a side of tasty snack, or adult beverage…
Realizing how people learn, and communicate, is terribly handy as a tool for social interaction, but, like you point out, one must pay attention, a hard task for too many…. Myself, I learn best when more than one mode is used, such as in movies, or books, or conversation with like minds…. utilizing just one pathway for absorbing information is not only potentially boring, but inefficient….
As smart and able to multitask as I am, though, (my last job before retiring was as an executive secretary for the CEO of a state hospital….), I am not completely familiar with the venue here at your site (I’m still gathering info on exactly who Mantra is; I have my suspicions…)….), so I am unclear on the “bonus” question, or feature…. and couldn’t figure it out from the context of the answers made by other readers, more’s the pity…. What is it, please?….
That being said, this was a great post, very thought provoking; so much so, I am having to cut myself off before this gets any longer than it already is…. I look forward to the follow-up posts on this thread….
See ya, milady…. Take care, & Blessed Be….
gigoid
gigoid recently posted..Irregular behavior patterns on parade….
Red of M3
/ August 1, 2014Just a quick reply, as I am in a bit of a rush… This should help you understand Mantra. She has a tab under the header as well 😉 BB, Ned.
Red of M3
/ August 2, 2014I think this may spin off into another series about attention, as in why we pay it or not. You will find there are more of us who are perceptive than you may once have imagined. I run into more people who are than I ever imagined existed, especially given the penchant of society to label us as dysfunctional. I pointed out to a professional my ability to see more than she did not make me the dysfunctional one. Frankly, I have been telling all who would listen for years it is a better path. Blessed Be, Gigs. xxx
Gray Dawster
/ August 1, 2014Firstly I said Thursday, then Thursday arrived and I mentioned Friday and now that I am here I am only popping in to say the weekend, but I will be calling back and catching up with you my sweet friend, that you can count on 🙂
I will see you tomorrow my dear Red 🙂
Andro xxxx
Red of M3
/ August 2, 2014I shall be here. Certainly, so shall you. 😉 xxx
Gray Dawster
/ August 3, 2014I wasn’t but I am now, finally getting here and adding my thoughts to your awesome creativity.
I hope that your weekend has been lovely so far my sweet friend here the sun is shining after a morning of rain so things are brightening, not that my next door neighbours’ dog would care, he is busy barking at nothing and breaking the tranquillity of the moment.
That’s neighbours for you, but never mind 🙂 lol
Andro xxxx
Red of M3
/ August 3, 2014I am applauding the rain! We had a mite here, which did well to drop the temperature about a score of degrees. So mild for August in Texas. I shall tip a glass to your neighbor’s dog getting laryngitis. 😉 xxxx
Valentine Logar
/ August 2, 2014I am mostly visual, though words hold my attention including those in song or on a page. For me though, I often enjoy silence complete silence.
Valentine Logar recently posted..Never Enough
Red of M3
/ August 2, 2014I think there are far more people like you who can savor the silence. I so rarely encounter it. I only crave it when I reach information overload. xxx
Gray Dawster
/ August 3, 2014I am a visual kind of person, and when shown how to do something I can do the job myself, I have always been that way.
Years ago when cars were not so reliant on computerised chips and so forth I could tune my own car, change the brakes, add customised bits and pieces and even change the oil without a reminder.
Now everything needs a rocket scientist to achieve the most simplest of tasks, but that’s the price of progress.
I was reading what Val said in her comment about silence, and I too enjoy just sitting in the calmness of the moment, not that I will get the chance today, weekends are always noisier than through the week, which is why I probably like Monday’s more than most.
Have a wonderful rest of Sunday Red…
Andro xxxx
Red of M3
/ August 3, 2014Someday, I may discover the silence of which you speak. Thus far, it is only an inhabitant of my poetry. xxxx
nan @ lbddiaries
/ August 3, 2014Visiting from Kim’s My Inner Chick – I have no clue what I am. I like written instructions like printed or book recipes for cooking. I needed a video to understand how to make laundry detergent (may have been faulty written instructions?). I can have the television on with murmuring in the background while working but not music because music will distract me (probably because it leads me to singing lyrics or getting irritated). I have a handful of childhood memories – very few – maybe being an Army brat and moving all the time? I am always amazed by people who have an entire lifetime of childhood memories. I can go an entire day without speaking (to anyone) until Alpha Hubby gets home and not think a thing about it – then we may talk the house down. Huh. I know – I am human (smile)!
nan @ lbddiaries recently posted..Stockings and Garters and Rope, Oh My!
Red of M3
/ August 4, 2014Welcome to M3, Nan! Your comment made me smile. My guess with the detergent was bad instructions. I am with you on the lyrics either making you want to sing or smash the player. My grandsons are growing up Army brats, but so far, the older one is busy telling me all about the world. We are going to make them scrapbooks (beyond baby books) to remember the places they go.
Very glad you dropped by! Feel free to stop in any time. 😉
nan @ lbddiaries
/ August 4, 2014Well thank YOU for visiting! Glad I discovered you via Kim’s awesome site. You have awesome things to say that speak to ME, a grownup – whoo hoo! (Well, I think I am – the jury may still be out on that!)
Red of M3
/ August 4, 2014Jury be damned. Around here we are a great mix of adults and those who are on their way to becoming adults. 😛 I have a sneaking suspicion you will fit right in. Grab a cuppa and scroll around. No telling what you will find over the last 3+ years. 😉
Grant Helms
/ August 12, 2014Normally I feel that I am sensory kind of person. But during the times of doing what I most enjoy I find multi-sensory hits a home run. For the G version, it is the feel of the wood in my hands. Depending on the variety, it can be course or smooth. Then the variations of the smells as it is cut or or sanded. The sounds of the tools as I am making something that only I can see in my mind. But the sight has the most impact. The colors of the wood, the uniqueness of the grain, the beauty of the knots and the view of final product before I decide if I think it is worthy or goes in the burning barrel.
Thank you for another wonderful post.
Red of M3
/ August 26, 2014At times, I wish I could be more visual, but more often I prefer the darkness. To me, it enhances the other senses.