NOTE: This is the first post of fifteen in a series of published blogs written and distributed during the Clean Hands Project.
Overstimulation: the overload of sensory perception.
It’s exhausting, yet it’s what I love about being in a different and new place – the complete unfamiliarity of it all. It’s like being 2 years old again – the world is so amazing, so incredible. When we are introduced to new environments, we become aware to a greater degree because it is different and new.
Eventually this fades; it has to. Like by the time we’re thirteen, the world is already old hat and nothing seems to amaze us anymore. But for now, as I adjust to this new time zone, my sensory perception is at its most receptive. And Kathmandu is a constant assailant.
I’ve been in Nepal for two days. Walking the streets is like having thousands of sensory bullets being fired at me from every direction: the brilliant yellows and oranges of the women’s saris, the squish of the feces (dog? human?) below my feet, the linger of masala on my tongue from my morning breakfast, the motorcyclist’s horn blown in my ear, the stench of the drainage canal I cross after walking out of my flat, the heavy humidity curling my hair, the buzz of mosquitos around my head. At some level, this all registers with me. Yet I also find myself trying to float above it; a sense of meditative numbness to remain sane.
At some level we all must enact a sensory filter to our lives to tune out certain stimuli. Without doing so would be exhaustive and stressful. Perhaps it is a survival mechanism. But is it not the more experiences you have, the better?
I hope to make an effort to remain aware of these filters. Not just on this experience, but throughout other journeys I might find myself on.