The Power of Emotion

I have two main points of focus for this post.

• The inter-connectivity of nature, and our very own actions here on Earth.
• The spiritual story of Mother Earth, Father Sky

For the first I’ll be showing you some interpretations of the natural world and “big picture” neuroscience. Also, I’ll be hoping you, reader, come away with something you find valuable. Something that allows you a bit more confidence in each breath, maybe? Or even some seed of truth that grows around you to see the outside world in a more friendly light.

An understanding that becomes an enabler of acting upon your dreams?

I can only hope.

Let’s think about the divide between natural and artificial. Here’s a picture to get started.

Here’s a really good, sciency video:

It seems like artificial identifies and structures a system or product based on simplified components, whereas natural products exist in a state of harmony without modification. And the complexity of the world is where I undoubtedly see the most beauty.

Nature is pretty complex.

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Here are some quotes to analyze:

“I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.” – John Burroughs

“Most people are on the world, not in it — have no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them — undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate.” – John Muir

How connected do you feel to nature? Open question here. You know a lot of so-deemed logical assumptions about human nature have labelled us “animals,” when, in reality, we are the one’s who have defined the word. So, does it really matter that we are animals?

No.

What matters more is that we start to understand the value of life, and the power that comes from learning about and feeling our connection to the rest of the world. We are all powerful beyond our own measure. How would we ever be able to measure such intricately assembled wonders anyhow? I know physics, I know SI units, but I don’t know how to paint 7.5 billion people into a picture anyone could fully understand.

Good try, Da Vinci: 

Awesome job, NASA: 

Here’s a good attempt from a science perspective, boxing in our negative impacts: 

Here’s a good attempt from another perspective, opening up more creative possibilities: 

It is a subjective world out there. Creativity isn’t always easy to see. Everything has a natural balance, and, so, this is why I believe in and observe the power of emotion. Our strongest energy. The fire in our guts. What really drives us to act like human beings.

Comparing our understanding of emotions to weather, both can be analyzed to promote correct predictions based on the past patterns; however, I see that no weather report can ever be certain, just like no read on how someone’s feeling ever gets to underlying condition. Can math ever be sure of us? Can the natural randomness and complexity of expression found in forces of nature and lives of people ever be predictable. Or can we only work with the flow, not necessarily knowing where it may go.

I say flow on. That’s my view of all things beautiful. They can’t be boxed in, nor can they be seen by the unwilling eye. Actors don’t need observers after all. They can do it alone.

Here’s some fun insight: 

And here’s someone who really knows how to channel his emotions 🙂

So many blessings. Being alive is the first. Feeling alive is the second. Getting what we need is the rest. Understanding stuff is also nice. So, now let’s talk science.

Neuroscience, in fact.

This page has lots of relevant info, if you wanna give it a comb: http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_05/i_05_cr/i_05_cr_her/i_05_cr_her.html

But this is the real thing I want to talk about: 

The three parts: neocortex (where we get super radical with thinking), mammalian (where we hold together our instincts), and reptilian (where we’ve got all the necessarily involuntary actions for survival, and facilitating consciousness packaged in).

The picture is part of a really great article that talks about the effects of stress:  https://drjanelewis.com/the-reality-of-stress-at-work-and-in-life/

To summarize what I want to share from this picture:

1. There’s a logical way of living that can harness the potential of our brain’s structure. Namely, sustaining life, facilitating natural comforts and security, imagining and getting creative about problem solving, and interpreting the world with a multiplicity of perspectives.
2. The flow of controlled energy is top-down: thoughts and ideas in the cortex to actions executed through the lower levels and spinal cord, with responses to change always bouncing back in sensory information, which can then be perceived and acted upon. How simultaneous it all is inspires me ever more to live freely.
3. The flow of energy production is bottom up/inward-out: from blood pumping through your circulatory system, food being broken down in your digestive tract, feeding the mitochondria, refurbishing your cells; then sustaining the impulses that regulate essential functions in the reptilian brain; and, finally, feeding the powerhouse of our conscious experience. The noodle that determines life’s meaning.

Emotions, from this picture, are strong neural impulses that coincide with activity underneath much of the neocortex in the mammalian brain (which could be interpreted as “deeper,” because it get’s closer to the core of the regulatory system life is built upon).

Strong impulses are what light a fire under our butts when someone tells us to quit sitting on our ass and do something. However, emotions are also what get tied into the message Tyler the Creator promotes with his song Boredom.

Good song right? Here’s something else emotions are so important for:

Politics 

More politics 

It seems emotions can make citizens vulnerable and leaders powerful?

Ok, one more: 

It also seems emotions are what drive us to do what’s right to try and help repair communities. Is it even fair to call emotions the rule here? How about calling such emotional “do-gooding” common human values that fluctuate depending on the energy put into sustaining their worth? I think that’s reasonable.

So, knowing a sliver of what we can do with our emotional energy, why don’t we look at a few actions we can take to prevent our single-minded, economic progress from eating up a balanced world? Without all the politics, that is.

Can’t we all believe in the power of positive emotions (i.e. good vibes, being protagonists of our lives, and never forgetting to look on the bright side) and working/playing towards a cleaner, more sustainable global act.

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Ok, so before I finish, I promised a spiritual story about Mother Earth and Father Sky.

Here’s a review of a book: https://nightstandbookreviews.com/mother-earth-father-sky-by-sue-harrison/

Here’s the summarized story:

Indian children were taught that Sky is Father and Earth is Mother and that the Great Mystery is neither male nor female, but aspects of both. Sky and Earth – one cannot flourish without the other. Each has a separate role, but each is equal to the other.

Here’s where I found it: http://www.great-spirit-mother.org/

Now I’m wondering if maybe the Mother Earth is a nurturing figure mostly because of the energies she possesses and the balance of forces she promotes; whereas the sky holds up the limits of reality. Either way, the Earth is all one ever needs.

Here’s a dude going sky high for yah: 

I don’t know, but it feels right. ☯️

🤟