Sensory Stories # 70: How to understand your senses at work
Posted: 17 January, 2023
By: Annemarie Lombard

Today Annemarie is talking about our senses at work.
Maybe a foreign concept for some, but our senses are part of our bodies and our being. Work is a reality for most and even if you don’t work, you still operate in an environment. In any work environment we see, we hear, we smell, we taste, we touch, we move and our brains are constantly being stimulated within our space. We know if there’s a lot of noise around us, a lot of people screaming or yelling or talking, that causes distractions and if there are distractions then we don’t focus that well. This is particularly relevant for people who are sensory avoiders – people who have low neurological thresholds who’s brains are wired to such an extent that they experience distractions a lot more intensely and frequently with more impact. Sensation seekers are people with high thresholds and experience it differently, they actually thrive on activity, busyness, noise, stimulation and are often the ones being noisy or making the noise. We are using noise as an example but we also have visual stimulation as well as touch, smell and taste.
The important thing here is that each one of us are wired differently, we respond differently to the stimulation in our environments and obviously there’s this whole continuum of threshold types that we have but we are just using these two extremes because it’s easier to understand. It’s important to remember that environments really matter and this has become important as we are more drawn into the hybrid working space because all of us are now either working from home and going back to the office – we hybrid then we’re at home, then we’re at the office. There’s a lot of confusion and new challenges that hybrid working has brought up for us so this is just a key insight that we want to offer to those of you engaging with us at the moment. It’s really important to remember that your workspace has capacity to elevate your brain, your focus, your attention and your energy so that you can work better or it can actually detract you from delivering your best quality of work. Please listen to the full vlog for more detail and insights.
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👩🏼🎓 Annemarie has a PhD in Occupational therapy, Health Sciences and continues to be fascinated by sensory processing and the impact it has on our lives. She has also written a book, “Sensory intelligence, why it matters more than IQ and EQ”. Buy it here. She works with a dynamic team and a group of licensed users of the Sensory Intelligence® tools.
#sensoryintelligence #work #workfromhome #hybrid #productivity #performance #focus #energy #time