When asked about our senses, most people will quickly name the famous five:
👁️ Sight
👂 Hearing
👃 Smell
👅 Taste
✋ Touch
👂 Hearing
👃 Smell
👅 Taste
✋ Touch
But did you know that humans have at least eight senses – some scientists argue even more? These additional senses are crucial to how we navigate the world and experience ourselves in it.
Let’s explore the 8 core human senses:
1. 👁️ Sight (Vision)
The sense that detects light, color, shapes, and movement through the eyes, creating visual representations of the world. It helps us identify danger, beauty, and navigate our environment safely.
2. 👂 Hearing (Auditory)
This sense perceives sound vibrations through the ears, allowing us to communicate through speech and language, sense direction of sounds, and experience music, tone, and rhythm.
3. 👃 Smell (Olfactory)
Our sense of smell detects airborne chemicals, triggering memories, emotions, and instinctual reactions (like avoiding spoiled food or enjoying a flower’s fragrance).
4. 👅 Taste (Gustatory)
Taste receptors on the tongue sense sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. This sense guides us toward nourishment and away from potential toxins.
5. ✋ Touch (Tactile)
Touch includes pressure, temperature, vibration, and pain sensations through receptors in the skin. It’s vital for bonding, safety, physical awareness, and emotional comfort.
6. ⚖️ Balance (Vestibular Sense)
Located in the inner ear, the vestibular system senses movement and spatial orientation, allowing us to maintain balance, coordination, and posture. It’s what helps dancers spin, athletes pivot, and children play without falling over.
7. 🏋️ Proprioception (Body Awareness)
This is our sense of where each part of our body is in space without needing to look. It comes from receptors in muscles and joints and is essential for movement, coordination, and even feeling grounded in our own body.
For example, when you close your eyes and touch your nose, it’s proprioception at work.
8. 💓 Interoception (Internal Awareness)
The often forgotten but deeply profound sense: Interoception is your internal body awareness.
It includes sensations like:
- Hunger
- Thirst
- Fullness
- Heartbeat
- Breathlessness
- Needing to use the restroom
- Emotional states (felt as bodily sensations)
Interoception connects us to ourselves. It plays a key role in emotional regulation, self-care, intuition, and the ability to understand what our body is asking for in each moment.
🌌 Why These 8 Senses Matter
Understanding these senses changes how we approach:
✅ Trauma healing – integrating vestibular, proprioceptive, and interoceptive work.
✅ Child development – supporting sensory processing and motor skills.
✅ Emotional health – tuning into interoception for better self-regulation.
✅ Spiritual practices – enhancing embodied presence in yoga, meditation, and breathwork.
✅ Child development – supporting sensory processing and motor skills.
✅ Emotional health – tuning into interoception for better self-regulation.
✅ Spiritual practices – enhancing embodied presence in yoga, meditation, and breathwork.
💡 Beyond The Eight
Some neuroscientists also include:
- Thermoception (temperature sense)
- Nociception (pain sense)
- Chronoception (sense of time)
But these 8 form the core framework through which we experience life in our human body.
🌱 Embrace All Your Senses
Your senses are not just functional – they are portals to a richer, more embodied, and more conscious life. The more you attune to them, the more alive, safe, and connected you will feel within yourself and the world.
Which of these senses do you feel most connected to? Which do you want to cultivate awareness of this week?
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