Sensory Acuity & Lollipop Ladies (Part One)
Are you a lollipop lady or a traffic warden?
Mmm Where do I start is the question?
I guess firstly it’s back to basics because this is an area that totally fascinates and intrigues me so much that I have to admit to being a sensory Acuity Junkie. And it’s not just for the Daniel Negreanus and Texas Dolly’s of the poker world… More on that shortly…
The ability to read people is an art form for sure but it’s something you are all highly capable of. After all you’ve been doing it since the day you entered the world and most probably even before (without even knowing it). Now, obviously no matter how long you’ve been playing poker I’m sure you didn’t enter the world with a pack of playing cards or slansky’s theory of Poker in your hands (unless you were born in Vegas).
So what is sensory acuity?
One way of thinking about it is our awareness of internal/external stimuli and what we tune into on a daily basis via our (basic) 5 x senses (Visual,Auditory,Kinesthetic,Olfactory,Gustatory) that’s the technical term for Seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting.
These are described in NLP as representational systems. Representation Systems
The way we take in information can influence our perceptions of the world whilst guiding us to make decisions, judgements and form assumptions based on the sensory input coming in via our five senses, our VAKOG.
So how can that be useful?
Well to navigate through the world we need to have an awareness of our surroundings so that we can anticipate the myriad of possible occurrences in day to day life. There are contexts where sensory acuity is paramount and not quite so but while ever you have a pulse it’s never completely switched off.
The need to be aware of our surroundings is I’m sure you’ll agree very important. I was thinking traffic wardens when I wrote that but let’s not go there as I don’t believe they have any senses whatsoever, so there are always exceptions I suppose. What about the old lollipop Lady? I mean all they do is a mundane job and help people cross the road right? Well you could say yes on one level if that’s how you perceive them. However, consider that on the other hand they have to be highly skilled and tuned to the outside world as they have a responsibility to help our children cross the roads.
If you ever watch them sometimes when there’s no traffic about it may seem like they haven’t got a care in the world or wonder how they pacify themselves. However, when the children come along or something triggers their attention they have to ensure not only the childrens safety but their own. Now if they were in their own head thinking about what they are going to have for tea or how the England goalie messed up and allowed in a goal they could be described as ‘internal’ or ‘in their own heads’, or in the case of traffic wardens ‘In their own little world’. The lollipop lady has to switch on to what’s going on and ‘calibrate‘ or ‘measure‘ what needs to be done in the moment to ensure a smooth transition from one side of the road to the other. Once mission is accomplished they can ‘go back inside’ or stay outside and marvel at what they and you do naturally when required or at will.
Now, this is where I like to use the word ‘Intention‘ and by setting your intention you can direct your ‘attention‘ to what it is you want to achieve. In doing so you can then let go of the outcome and allow your mind/body system do the work for you. So before we get to the felt why not try the following experiment.
Think about something that you don’t really care for doing that from time to time you’ve had those feelings of discomfort like boredom or you can hear yourself internally rabbiting on about how boring etc. It might be in a waiting room, a traffic jam or a queue at you local supermarket. It could be at the poker table when you’ve just been outdrawn by the table maniac who needed runner runner to win and hit it and you’re frustrating yourself.
Where was you? Inside or outside? How did it affect you? And how long was you there for as you think about it now?
Simple questions but if you back-track through your experience you’ll find that you can spend a lot of time inside your own head mulling over the mundane and you might say justifiably so. How about having the ability to switch your attention elsewhere?
Well that’s the easy part because you’ve been doing it all your life and just did it again in the above exercise.
You see, boredom for example is just a state of mind and if you focus your attention on being bored. Guess what…
Consider that next time you find yourself in one of the above situations or feel free to create your own ideas based on what’s written.
What is it that you can do differently that will allow you to switch your attention elsewhere?
And…
How many different ways can you start to think of that now?
How can you bring yourself ‘outside‘? Make it your ‘intention to do so the next time you find yourself ‘inside’.
My intention is to guide you through a very short focusing/de-focusing drill…
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Focus your attention on the star above and as you continue reading notice how your attention drifts away from it and although you can still see it your not actually really focused on it are you?
Now focus on it again but the next time finish reading the instructions then stay put with your attention fixed on the star. Only when you have really really focused on it allow yourself to start widening your vision and notice other things in your surroundings whilst still holding the star in your visual field.
What could you see ‘outside’ that you wasn’t noticing previously when focusing?
What sounds could you hear ‘outside’ that you wasn’t noticing previously?
And that’s it…
Other than it’s time to practice and take it out into the world to experience what it is I’m talking about. Although to some extents you just have, haven’t you? And you’ve been doing it all your life, aren’t you already realising this now?
Now the question is do the top players operate from ‘inside their heads’ wondering about the bad beat they got a few days ago or are they there on the table, in the moment, calibrating/measuring and weighing up the situation as the game pans out…?
Are they focusing all their attention on a star or do they widen your vision so that you can see and hear what’s going on around you?
You see in that sense their a bit like lollipop ladies guiding people to cross the road…
So as you think about it now how many lollipop ladies do you recognise you’ve played against in the past?
And how many were traffic wardens…
(Disclaimer) I have nothing against Traffic Wardens…
So… Are you a lollipop lady or a traffic warden… ?
Take care and see you at the tables…
Wayne
June 13th, 2010
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