I am at a true crossroads of choosing my well-being or submission to my nature. You may define your nature as being something other than it is. We often mistake our self-image for our nature.

My nature does not seem to have my well-being as its best interest. My nature tends to do a lot of defining without my future in mind. Perhaps this will help. It’s been confirmed that we have two memory systems, one explicit and one implicit. Our explicate memory system is the part of our mind that keeps the newsletter of our personal life running, and if our organic health keeps up, it never misses an issue. But just like any other news source the reporting is often spotty, even blatantly wrong, biased. But the other system, the implicate memory system, concerns itself with other things. It reminds you that fire burns even without you thinking about it. It reminds you that rejection hurts and gives you pause when you are about to reject someone else, even if that pause is only for a moment and willfully ignored by you.

So it’s better to use implicate to adapt? Well, the implicate by its very nature is adaptive, but there is a split, a point where noise kicks in. The implicate can’t easily reconcile the activity of your explicate consciousness and its own memory of your experiences.

If I want to change something about myself, I need to link it to something implicate? Yes, exactly. They have found this is true even in the case of motivation. Activities that are seen to have intrinsic or implicate value have more power to change behavior than anything abstract. It’s the implicate memory system that gives you the sense that you almost remember something, like having a word on the tip of your tongue.

Have you any practical advice on making this shift? I do. When you are just aware of your being, your breathing, your resting state, the implicate system is active. When you are aware of your efforts, your thinking or distress, this is the explicate system. The explicate system sends a seemingly constant stream of warning or distress signals to your awareness. It’s the hammer and nail scenario. It’s adapted to understanding what’s wrong so if everything is wrong, the implicate system remembers what’s right. It’s connected to your involuntary nervous system, and can warn you when your baseline wellbeing is threatened but doesn’t elaborate on any sensation, doesn’t dramatize anything. Its voice is quieter, so we mostly ignore it.

My implicate system makes me want to hug my wife. My explicate system makes me worry I might annoy her. One can’t avoid using the implicate system ultimately. It’s just a degree of balance, realistic ratio in perception. Would this be like artistic perspective? Ratio of one element or view to the other? Even poetry and things like that concern themselves with “voices.” Did I answer your question?

Yes, you did. I turn forty next month. I really feel a change. That significance hinted by turning thirty made this last decade a practise of sorts. So thank you, as always. It’s been a hard life.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~