Much of the intuition and sixth sense comes from seeing and hearing and smelling things that we only somewhat acknowledge.
It is not that we are asleep, it is we are conditioned to handle one thing at a time and thus we lower our high brain functions.
We can easily negate this practice by working two at a time stimulus drills and the reward is exponentially greater than just a martial practice.
Before this though, I ask you to consider how you think before considering what you think! Our thoughts come and go but the process lingers. It is the process which leads us from A to B and that is where we must place our focus. Each and every one of us has setbacks. Dwell not on the failure to succeed in a particular time and manner, Dwell on the thought processes that got you to that point and alter them. Learn to ask different questions of yourself and the world. Independence is a process.
And now, to the work:
- Create two stimuli such as light and sound or voice and music. Engage in a particular movement when both are present (it can be talking to a partner while doing a calm movement drill) and as one of the stimuli is gone, you engage in a take down and disengagement.
- Notice your partners breath pattern and their hand movement. Engage in walking together and read the changes in both as they prepare to attack you by drawing a knife. Release the first response that comes to mind as you are moving and allow yourself the mental space (in the drill environment) to actually think.
- Place yourself and a partner on hands and feet. Play in pushing each other with your limbs, head and body and have a third party calling either X or Y. Relax your body on the X and tense it on the Y as you push and pull and learn how the body moves in different tension levels and how to workaround it to maintain your freedom above all.
The Martial Art of Walking 