Neurons are specialized cells that transmit chemical and electrical signals in the brain; they keep the party going. They are the foundation for the central nervous system and are the body’s primary agents for receiving and processing information and stimuli. There’s 86 billion of them firing in your brain, all the time. That’s epic!
Sensory neurons are neurons responsible for converting external stimuli from the environment into corresponding internal stimuli. This is how we hear, touch, taste, smell and how we “receive” the outside world.
What’s the point?
What we do with this information is interesting. We get some raw data but then what? We need to make sense of it, we are meaning machines. And with meaning, comes a feeling, “that feels good/bad”. That’s awesome if the sense machine is wired in positivity or can see the sense in life the way that it is.
Mostly, we end up looking for what’s missing or how things aren’t quite good enough.
Our “perception” is adapted and influenced by so much which creates such disparate realities such as, “that house is nicer than mine”, “I’m happy/sad, fulfilled/empty” etc.
The lense through which we perceive the world is in flux like everything else but what does affect the sensory input and our interpretation of it is a combination of our past experience, hormones, motivation/anticipation, and most importantly, attention, ie. what we choose to focus on. What we focus on shapes our internal reality and some would say, our external reality as they feed into each other.
The 86 billion neurons saying “hello” in you is beyond miraculous and “synchronistic” if you tune into it. There’s a whole lot of evolution, alignment and atomic sexiness that got you to this point. That’s love. You are loved.
While we are incredibly complex systems, we are also very simple. The mind and the lense by definition keeps experiencing “same same”. So if we grew up feeling under appreciated , then we get into relationships where that happens. Or if we grew up trying to “get love” from an absent father, then we end up working ourselves ridiculous to get approval. We can still be at the mercy of social validation, living up to expectations , hiding how we really feel etc. Because we have this function called memory and as a meaning machine either that past experience was good or bad and then we either want more of that or need to avoid that and somehow still play out the consequence of something which happened ages ago.
What we focus on matters though. What would you do if money was not an issue? What would you do if you didn’t need to impress anybody or didn’t care what people thought of you? Imagine a world where the 7 + billion people inhabiting it recognise their inherent amazingness, that they have 86 billion neurons and countless other particles and processes working effortlessly together to enable them to wake, sleep and experience this world. Imagine if people could feel that they are part of something much larger than themselves and focused on bringing about more love, more kindness, more creativity and more acceptance of this reality. What a beautiful reality.
Focusing on an ideal or putting your energy towards something you believe in doesn’t mean to ignore the pain, dispair and emptiness. There are some deeply ingrained patterns of feeling and relating to eachother which are painful and fingers crossed unsustainable. Using tools such as breathwork, meditation, visualisation and focus, you can choose to remember your innate brilliance. You can create more space for doing what you love, for treating yourself and others with respect and compassion. You are what you practice. You can tune into this now though, don’t let anyone try to tell you otherwise . You are amazing, beyond 86 billion hellos 💓