Coyote Mentoring Core Routines: Expanding Our Senses
What It Is—and Why It Matters
Expanding Our Senses is a core routine that cultivates full-body awareness and sensory awakening. In the words of Coyote’s Guide, it helps learners “see more, hear more, and feel more”—not just to gather information, but to come alive in the moment. This practice is both a doorway to connection and a training ground for deep nature awareness. It’s how we learn to notice the subtle, the beautiful, and the hidden.
In modern culture, we tend to rely heavily on sight and intellect, leaving other senses underused. Expanding Our Senses reawakens hearing, smell, touch, and even inner senses like intuition and proprioception. It tunes us to the language of birds, the movement of wind, and the stillness of presence. It’s what allows a child to spot the deer before anyone else, or to hear the shift in tone when the forest quiets down.
This routine matters because awareness is the foundation of connection. A person with expanded senses becomes more alert, more responsive, more alive. They begin to sense patterns—of animal movement, weather change, or emotional energy in a group. Over time, this practice fosters a deep intimacy with place and a felt sense of being part of a living world.
What It Might Look Like
The day begins with a blindfold.
Children enter the woods with sight removed. They’re guided through the landscape by sound and touch. Each step becomes intentional. Leaves crunch differently. A spiderweb brushes the cheek. This is not a gimmick—it’s sensory recalibration. When the blindfolds come off, vision returns with new depth.
They learn to listen with their whole bodies.
A mentor crouches beside a learner and whispers, “Close your eyes… which direction is that bird calling from?” Or, “Can you hear the layers of sound?” Over time, learners start hearing the robin’s whisper call, the difference between a wind in the trees and a bird taking flight. They’re not just hearing—they’re perceiving.
They play games that stretch perception.
Fox Walk and Owl Eyes are classic sensory games. In Fox Walk, children learn to move silently, heel-to-toe, feeling every twig and slope. In Owl Eyes, they practice wide-angle vision—expanding their field of view to take in movement at the edges. These games are fun—but more than that, they train a naturalist’s body.
Mentors model sensory joy.
A mentor might pause to inhale deeply: “Can you smell the rain coming?” or exclaim, “Feel this bark—like dragon scales!” This kind of modeling signals that sensory engagement is meaningful. It opens the door for learners to trust their own noticing, and to experience the land as something alive, textured, and responsive.