Reading Time: 10 Minutes
Why to even care about the realities, does knowing them will actually benefit you, read along the post to uncover the shocking benefits of understanding what they are.
Are you a person who is stuck in a realm of distractions and not able to get something done worthwhile in a long term basis, or are you in a position where you are ready to bring your goals into action but driven back by small setbacks and obstacles that deviate your mind into gaining pleasure from short term activities like scrolling through social media for a long time.
If your are struggling with what you just read now, it becomes highly crucial to forget about the events in past where you were in-efficient, and start to focus on amplifying your mind to align not with the end goal or result alone, but rather to the actions, strategies and techniques that actually take you towards the goal.
Before we delve into the actual process and formulating strategies, it is very important to estimate and analyse where your are right now towards achieving your goal, so prioritising to understand how your mind and body functions is pivotal.
In this post let’s dive into exploring the two different worlds or realities in which we live, what are they, how do they impact our daily routine and how to strike a balance in between them in order to make the best of ourselves.
I firmly believe that this post will give you a fresh perspective of productivity and goals, and this investment of your valuable 10 minutes is going to yield you good returns in long term.
Let’s Explore
We all are living in two worlds, some people say it is the conscious and unconscious mind, some say that we live in objective, subjective and intersubjective realities, and some believe that we are stuck in pod, that generates energy from us and we are living in a simulated world, I am not going to explore which is right or wrong, it is universally accepted that everybody gets to have a say about their beliefs or perceptions and have their freedom of expression.
The ultimate truth lies in facts that are backed up with solid evidence, to be more precise it should be backed up with ideas that match with the scientific literature, in places where facts can possibly be biased or a myth.
Some may dissent what I am trying to convey, but you have to understand that this paragraph is not written to question the truth of holy texts or God, it doesn’t really matter whether you are a theist or an atheist, because no body can prove anything regarding this topic, even if someone comes up with something that is absolutely legit, there is always criticism and controversy that comes along with it. So it is truly a matter of belief when it comes to this subject.
The Realities
Okay, now let’s delve into psychological and existential reality of ourselves without having any biases. There are many theories and believes around this topic of humans living in two types of realities. If you have read Homo Deus written by Yuval Noah Harrari, you would have an idea of his interpretation of realities, which are objective relativity where things in the world exist. independently of our beliefs and feelings, subjective reality which depends on our personal beliefs and feelings and lastly the intersubjective reality where the subjective entities depends on communication among many humans.
Existential reality is typically considered objective. Existential reality refers to the external, observable aspects of the world that exist independently of individual perceptions. It includes the physical world, concrete phenomena, and shared experiences that can be observed and measured.
On the other hand, psychological reality is subjective, as it involves the internal, mental experiences, thoughts, and emotions of an individual. Psychological reality is unique to each person and may vary based on individual perceptions and cognitive processes.
So now that you have a concrete understanding of the realities we live in, let’s understand the implications of these realities from a neuroscience perspective as to understand why is it even worth exploring these concepts.
The Neuroscience Perspective
Our brain consists of billions of neurons, and each neuron is interconnected with one another, communicating due to inhibitory or exhibitory actions guided by neuro-chemicals, they form a basis of what is known as a mental model or a neural circuit. Don’t get intimidated by the jargon, we’ll walk thorough each of the technical word one by one.
There are two types of connections between the neurons in our brain, they are:
- Excitatory connection – transmission of signals from one neuron to another increases the likelihood of the receiving neuron firing an action potential (an electrical impulse) to other signal other neurons
- Inhibitory connection – this is the exact opposite of excitatory connection, here the chance of receiving neuron firing an electrical impulse is suppressed, making it less likely to transmit signals to other neurons.
(The chemicals that regulate the communication between the neural network is known as neuro-chemicals).
Neural networks consist of intricate combinations of excitatory and inhibitory connections that shape the overall behavior of neural circuits. This interplay between the connections contributes to the complex information processing capabilities of the brain.
The functions in the human brain is divided into multiple sections and few of these interrelated sections work together to execute a task.
For example the primary visual cortex is responsible for processing the visual input which is obtained from the eyes. To be more precise the sensory input from the eyes travels goes through the thalamus( it is a central region in our brain that helps in the regulation of consciousness, sleep, and alertness) and then reaches the visual cortex.
Then there is the prefrontal cortex, where temporary information is stored and processed to create meaningful neural circuits out of that knowledge into wisdom. But this doesn’t happen in one go in most of the cases, we might be biased to certain information or it could be false information, so formation of wisdom is more of a consistent repetition and reinforcement of certain thought processes.
What I am trying to emphasise is that the psychological reality for each of us is built in various parts of your brain using these various neural network, powered by neuro-chemicals. This is what the scientific evidence and literature tells us, but this can’t completely explain why a person behaves in a certain way, makes a certain decision and lives life in a way.
These concepts are of high level and we do not have complete explanations for all of them, except theories from genetic literatures, neuroscience or psychology. This has to do something with what is called the mental models which we create in our brain throughout our life.
The Mental Model Perspective
Mental models are hypothetical structures in our mind, which forms a basis of who we are and how we think. From a science research paper which explains how mental models are created in our brain, One of the main idea that explains how mental models are formed is the topographical sensory maps, this is a small snippet from the article, I will explain the key take aways from it after you go through it.
The nervous system performs computations to process information that is biologically important. Some of these computations occur in maps – arrays of neurons in which the tuning of neighbouring neurons for a particular parameter value varies systematically. Computational maps transform the representation into a place-coded probability distribution that represents the computed values of parameters by sites of maximum relative activity. Numerous computational maps have been discovered, including visual maps of line orientation and direction of motion, auditory maps of amplitude spectrum and time interval, and motor maps of orienting movements.
This paragraph gives an insight of how mental models are formed creating topographical sensory maps where these maps essentially contains that probability of maximum relative activity of an event which is experienced through sensory input. The most appropriate activities are embedded into the neural network which finally forms a mental model after lots of fine-tuning, overlapping of various other mental models and adjustments over the course of time.
This “most appropriate activities” is formed as a baseline or a supporting network by means of genetic information and learnings in the childhood days. So to boil it down, all of these factors account into why a person is behaving in a certain way or making certain decisions and this gives an answer to why is it so complex to decode the psychological reality of a person.
Some people can slip into forming wrong set of mental models which can create a huge gap between their psychological and existential reality, and this explains why certain people get lonelier, being afraid to come out of their psychological reality into the real existential reality by getting out their comfort zone, and this also explains the cause of drug addictions.
Harmful drugs interfere with the communication process of neuron in our brain, and mimic the neurotransmitters in the brain, which leads to abnormalities in the neural circuitry and eventually creating a false reality of extremeness, where the regular activities which used to be rewarding and pleasurable becomes less effective to them, and eventually these drugs becomes a vicious cycle of trap from which the person who is used it will find extreme difficulty to come out of it.
The BottomLine
Bridging the gap between existential reality (the physical aspects of our existence) and psychological reality (the philosophical and emotional aspects of our existence) is absolutely essential and it involves integrating the understanding of our physical existence with our subjective experiences and deeper sense of purpose. Here are some useful insights to get bridge this gap:
- Mindfulness Meditation and Yoga: Practices that bring attention to bodily sensations, emotions, and thoughts, fostering a connection between the physiological experience and our existential awareness.
- Outdoor Activities: Try to engage in nature-based and sport activities that encourage mindfulness and appreciation for the environment and getting health consciousness.
- Art Therapy: Utilising creative expression can be a blissful experience to explore and integrate psychological and existential realities fostering self-awareness and emotional processing. Art doesn’t only imply paintings or music, it can be any of any forms that involve creativity and which brings you a peace of mind.
- Journaling and Writing: Engaging in reflective writing to explore thoughts, emotions, and existential questions can lead to a more clear mind and improve your skills in articulation and effectively delivering your thoughts to the people whom you want to convey.
That’s a wrap, to sum up the entire post, we first started with the types of realities and how do individuals perceive their reality and from there we touched upon the basic concepts of how psychological reality is formed from existential reality through the lens of neuroscience, and finally emphasised the importance of bridging the gap between the existential reality and psychological reality and went through some useful ideas to bridge the gap.
As we conclude, let this discourse serve as a catalyst for fostering a deeper understanding and unity between the layers of our existence, driving us towards a more cohesive and integrated comprehension of our perceptions and experiences, and building actions and strategies from the root knowing how it functions and get closer to achieving the goals which we set.
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