#unterstanding

[markthedifference]

Mugwort (Isaac Mills)// He is using his artistic expression as a vehicle for spiritual exploration, he believes that though art and imagination we can deepen our understanding of ourselves, our interconnectedness with all things, and inspire social change. Inspirational !! 

[lionetinfinite]

We’re all so desperate to be understood, we forget to be understanding.

Beau Taplin

[clumsy-medi]

"Biologically, we are feeling creatures that think."

A while back, i mentioned that I was reading " My stroke of Insight" by Dr. Jill Taylor where the author narrates her experience of waking up one  morning having a haemorrhagic stroke and her journey through the process of paralysis and recovery. I haven't yet finished the book but I have to admire the writing style; its beautiful! I had been pushing off reading the book for a while now but now that I have started, I wish i had read it earlier. It's simply amazing. She has a way with words that just transforms them into reality for you. 

At a certain point, describing (brilliantly) the functioning of our brain and how information is perceived, she mentions how our limbic system is our emotional brain, the region were anger, hatred, happiness and fear originates. And how the cerebral cortices are responsible for the complete understanding, processing and responding to a stimulus. If you are studying medicine or any of the biological sciences, you will probably know that there is a hierarchy of control between the different parts of the brain and the cerebral cortex is termed, "The King". Information usually passes from down upwards, sort of like from the servants of the castle, if you may, to the king. The limbic system is lower down the hierarchy. So stimuli first passes through your limbic systems to your cortex. Hence, when these stimuli reaches your cortex, it already has a "feel" attached to it. So even before your cortex has had the chance to process a stimulus and apply logic and experience to react to it, you had been angered of made happy or whatever else when the stimulus passed your limbic system.

I find this interesting because a lot of people claim that they aren;t emotional beings, that their decisions are not driven by emotions, that they are made only and only by logic and science. But the truth is, even before you have had the chance to apply logic and science, you have been stimulated emotionally. Sure, your logic may be able to tune that emotion to a certain extent. But you will never be free of emotions because your cortex never receives the stimulus fresh from the source, it is always attached to emotions. 

"Biologically, we are feeling creatures that think."

The smartest thing to do is accept that emotions is a part of our existence. The classes of the animal kingdom that lack a cortex possess a limbic system. So emotions exist at the core of our evolutionary origin. Clearly, they make us stronger as a species. So you may be blinded by your emotions to not be able to see logic but you cannot be so blinded by your logic that you don't understand emotions because your logic is never free of emotions.

[ghoneim]

"Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding the third."

- Marge Piercy