Incomplete topology outlined by Dutch explorers- 1663
What does it mean to know ourselves?
Or better yet, how do we imagine ourselves?
I mean sure we all have ideas, ideas of people, ideas of community, ideas of me and ideas of you. How we imagine these ideas are often just as powerful as the thoughts themselves. I had previously imagined getting to know myself as though I was mining deep below to find the crystalized ideas of my own self present within my psyche, when in actuality thoughts and feelings don’t exist as limited objects you can hold in your hand, but instead exist like boundaries we crudely draw out on maps. These boundaries shift and alter over time as the inertia of life takes its toll. These lands that we demarcate are never isolated archipelagos but great expanses that extend onto other ecosystems, alternating ecosystems that we never realized could border eachother. Our brain is a series of biomes that are interconnected and mish-mashed with the ecology present within our heads. As we delve into our mind we form a rough map of topologies and sections of our psyche, a map revealed to be interwoven and constantly changing.
Me and you exist, we exist in physical space pulsating with the energy and rhythms that have driven us for our entire lives. And while our bones appear solid and our teeth set, even the firmest sections of our being are slowly replaced by living cells within our body, on average most cells in the human body are replaced every 7-10 years. This is the nature of being, a constant flux that appears to us closer to the weathered landscapes that surround us as opposed to diamonds and gems locked in museum vaults. We are filled with fluxing bodies of flowing sand, not callused gems that do not change or extend. These laws of our physical nature link squarely to the mental rhythms within our own head. For our brain is a physical beast and no physical entity can escape the universal laws of inertia. The universe and landscape change and so do we.
Kohala mountain range runs next to a dry valley with little precipitation /plant life occurring
“In the brain, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and amygdala are extensively interconnected and work in concert to tune the expression of emotions, such as fear and anxiety”
Excerpt from
Prefrontal entrainment of amygdala activity signals safety in learned fear and innate anxiety -2014
If we can acknowledge how the landscapes around us are constantly in flux, we can also acknowledge that they are complex and interwoven with bordering topologies. Mountains and deserts may seem so different yet if they are placed next to each other we may realize that one influences the other, so too with sections within our brains.
There are multiple realms of the brain, each part offers unique specializations for our minds to process. In regard to mediation and mindfulness it’s the literal link between the medial prefrontal cortex and the amygdala that I find inspiring. The amygdala provides a central role in emotion processing and regulation, while the medial prefrontal cortex is a key location for experiencing “self-awareness”.
Many spiritual practices like Yoga and Tai Chi have repeatedly called out the importance of self-awareness. Think of the way in which a yoga teacher reminds you to pay attention to your breath or notice if you find yourself holding tension in your tongue, these are all questions which reach into us and help activate the mPFC. This activation of the medial prefrontal cortex inturn literally connects to emotion centers of our own selves. Deserts often border mountain ranges because the mountains push the clouds high enough to start raining so much so that a desert is left on the opposing side. Much like how mountains often coincide with dry valleys, meditative spiritual practices often coincide with bringing focus to self-awareness. As our conscious self-awareness center of the brain has a direct in-road to our emotional centre a change in one can correspond to a change in the other. It's no coincidence that a practice like yoga that asks you to feel your body also can help subdue the bubbling sensations of anxiety that may be present in your bloodstream.
“Many described the cultivation of self-awareness that they practiced as part of their tai chi exercises. Participants described awareness of the breath, of their own bodily sensations, body signals, and symptoms, and how this allowed the forming of a new connection to themselves. “
Excerpt from
The Impact of Tai Chi Exercise on Self-Efficacy - 2014
Other sections of the frontal lobe like the Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dPFC) have no direct connections to the emotional hormone releasing structures (amygdala) of the brain. The dPFC is a section of the brain responsible for where we develop plans of action. It’s interesting then to reflect how in moments of absolute state and shock how it’s not been my planning side of the brain that got me back into sync but my introspective mind frame that has. Questions on my breathing and sensations have always calmed me way more than organizing a plan of action in the moment.
In imagining my own topography of my mind, I became aware of myself and in doing so I relaxed the emotional centers of my brain, which in turn allowed me to get a closer look to the terrain of my mind.
To create this map of self has been a wild experience. It's lead me to altered states of mind that I didn't know existed. It’s as if I’ve been trying to write in a loud bar for my entire life only to find that down the road is a lovely quiet library where my internal monologue can have space to expand and spread. In this space of quietness, I actually found out what I am driven towards, what experiences matter and who I am and who I can be. Like the sailors during the age of exploration I find myself with a crudely drawn map that shows the loose fluxing boundaries and extents of the reality I preside in. My mind is a shifting topography and an interwoven ecology. I'll avoid saying tapestries as tapestries don’t unweave and reknit themselves like our minds can. Of course, this is my life and my brain, everyone's life is different and so is the physical structure of the neurons in their head. Even with that said, I find that there are beautiful commonalities between all of us, between the ways in which we imagine ourselves and the ways we feel, commonalities between the practices of Yoga and contemporary PTSD treatment. We may all craft our own maps of ourselves, yet we all share the same world, a world in which we can voyage into the deepest expanses of our mind.
BBC, What cells in the human body live the longest?, Online page, BBC Science Focus, accessed on 12 march 2023, <https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/what-cells-in-the-human-body-live-the-longest>
Kolk , B 2014, The Body Keeps Score, Penguin Books, London UK
Likhtik, E., Stujenske, J. M., Topiwala, M. A., Harris, A. Z. & Gordon, J. A. 2014, Prefrontal entrainment of amygdala activity signals safety in learned fear and innate anxiety. Nat. Neurosci. 17, 106–113 (2014)., accessed on 11th March 2023, <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15920-7#:~:text=In%20the%20brain%2C%20the%20medial,%2C2%2C3%2C4.>,
Yeh, G. Y., Chan, C. W., Wayne, P. M., & Conboy, L. (2016). The Impact of Tai Chi Exercise on Self-Efficacy, Social Support, and Empowerment in Heart Failure: Insights from a Qualitative Sub-Study from a Randomized Controlled Trial. PloS one, 11(5), e0154678. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0154678
National Geographic, Rain Shadow , Online article, National Geographic Education, Shadow, accessed on 12th March 2023, <https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/rain-shadow/>
Thevenot, M. 1663, Hollandia Nova detecta 1644 ; Terre Australe decouuerte l'an 1644 De l'imprimerie de Iaqves Langlois, [Paris viewed 12 March 2024 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-230670124
