When Your Coach Has Synesthesia

I never knew that I saw life completely different than most others until I read a 2017 article about an artist with a condition known as Synesthesia, who painted songs the way that she saw them. In colours and shapes.

As I looked at those pictures and then pulled up the songs that she based them off of, I realized something profound. I actually understood what she was conveying when I listened to the music. Then in my low 30's, I had spent my entire life thinking that everyone interpreted reality the same way as me- but according to this article, I actually saw the world completely different than a vast majority of the population.

How Do You See "Reality"?

After I realized that the way I saw reality wasn't the way everyone else did, I began to pay closer attention to how I saw things. It had never occurred to me to analyze how my senses presented information to me; why would I? Who ever asked you how you interpret the impressions from your senses?

People that I tell about my (unofficially but quite lived condition) are often bewildered about how that would be possible. It helps to say, that this isn't something I see entirely with my eyes.

It's as if my mind overlays on top of my visual field, a picture, or an image. I would imagine that you do this in some ways yourself at times. Can you look at this screen and picture a pink hippo dancing across the page? It's the same for me, but it's something that is almost on, unless I intentionally try not to see it. I often times close my eyes, or look away from people when I am talking to them, as I find eye contact narrows my attention too much, causing me to miss the nuances in their voice that tell me much more than their eyes do.

People as Colour Blobs and Wave Forms: When I am talking to a person, I can 'see' their emotions as colours that seem to envelope their bodies like cocoons. If a person is angry, that cocoon tends to then take on the shape much akin to a porcupine, spikes and all. People who are relaxed tend to look deep blue, like a calm lake or the emptiness of space. I have found that people who seem like a night sky to me, often report to me that they don't think a lot or experience strong emotions. It's like things just pass through them.

Voices tend to affect how I see people. Some people's voices, combined with their demeanour may look like various hues of pink, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange or brown. I can often tell who spends a lot of time outdoors, because they are predominantly green, brown or a dark blue. Enthusiastic people, or people that tend to be excitable, usually express a various mixture of yellow, orange, or red.

No one colour in and of itself seems to be bad, but more like a general expression of who that person is. Sometimes when viewing a person who looks sad, I may see black rectangles over their brows, or horizontal dark blue lines that crease their forehead. Usually, their outer 'shell' tends to droop- maybe some visual shoulder or facial expression cue my mind is interpreting? I don't know, but it really doesn't matter. I love it!

My own body has a colour that is consistently blue inside, but depending on how I am feeling, populated by various 'lights' of different colours. That shoulder issue might be a mellow yellow or a light red today, showing me that I need to leave it alone and rest it. That knee issue might be a bright orange, signaling to me that it needs to be stretched and tended to carefully. Fatigue may be felt multitude of dark blue permanent lightning streaks, burned into my eyeballs.

Sounds: When I close my eyes and listen to the ambient sounds around me, they look very much like what you would see if you viewed a synthesizer. Birds chirping excitedly in the afternoon for example can look like jagged vertical lines, while their soft morning chatter may seem wavy and smooth. Beyond that, when I hear the sound itself, even the shape has a colour. The tone of their voice, or the feeling behind the voice is what determines the colour. Listening to a single person tell a story, I will notice those lines shift from colour to colour, as they become more excited, saddened or alivened by what they are expressing. My hearing or auditory field is almost always open, humming with life as it is conducted, orchestrating a symphony of mental shapes and colours. I find being alive a truly fascinating endeavour, and for the life of me don't understand why everyone doesn't either.

I have found over the years, that I can't listen to certain songs, or certain radio stations, because not only are the colours that I see 'off', but the feeling I get from listening to them also doesn't feel good.

Bodily Tension: When I am working with a client, or watch anyone move, their body lights up in my mind like they're a giant string of Christmas lights. Watching someone do something like a push up for example, I can see which muscle groups are firing, how strongly they are glowing, and where certain lights are out. From there, I use ques, analogies, and subtle corrections to guide my clients to turn them back on. That's usually the point that their eyes light up or they begin cursing me- when the system is finally connected and they feel their true strength flood their body.

Countless are the victims, I mean students, who have attended my classes, thinking that being hidden in the corner or behind a machine, I couldn't tell if they were working or simply showing up. One rep is all I need to see, and I can spot instantly which lights are firing, and how strong the signal is. This is perhaps my greatest advantage and gift to my clients.

They can't bullshit me, because I can see it.

Tastes and Smells: Much like my hearing, but these senses also seem to be colour based. It might sound ironic, or like a cop out, but I think you'll understand what I mean. Oranges for example, taste like an explosion of orange in my mouth. Lemons taste like millions of jagged lines of a white-yellowish light. Most earthy scents appear brown or dark green. I tend to pay the least amount of attention to these two senses, but the effect is there nonetheless.

My Greatest Gift

Some people will probably think I'm crazy for writing all of this (Welcome to the club, you are Legion), but my quirky way of seeing Life around me makes life infinitely fascinating, at that the same time, almost overwhelming at times. Most people think that I'm just 'introverted', which certainly, I am, but being in rooms full of people, colours mixing, sounds interpenetrating everything, it sometimes becomes too much. That's when you'll find me slipping out of the backdoor.

Being able to see people, and life in a different way, has ultimately given me my creative faculties, which I enjoy exercising on a daily basis. Having a different way of seeing the world, bringing another viewpoint, a fresh perspective, is mainly what I have to offer the world. I make movement and mindfulness fun by showing my clients how much freedom they have, and with a simple understanding of how your own language works, you too can enjoy a more fulfilled life.

What I have really noticed over the years since I have leaned into my weirdness, is how many of my clients eventually end up understanding completely what I am talking about. As I guide them into their bodies, using my own journey and body as the template, they too find that they are seeing in colours, textures, vibrations, lights.

They begin speaking my language back to me, using their own interpretations of what they are experiencing.

Maybe I'm not so weird after all.....