Is Your Brain Ever Truly Empty?

Do you ever get this sensation that your head is empty, not as in lacking intelligence or focus, but more so that you're "living" in a layer where thoughts don't normally exist?

A layered understanding of the mind isn't necessarily something new.

I think it's a good framework to at least make sense of the different states of consciousness.

However, this sensation mentioned above gives me the impression of being in a different region of the same landscape, albeit one that's largely unmapped by our everyday awareness.

To me, these two frameworks(layered model of consciousness and the landscape metaphor) acknowledge that there are distinct modes of mental existence beyond our conventional cognitive processes.

Of course, I wished I could know how to consciously navigate this landscape or view it in its entirety from a wide-angled lens.

For now, the best thing I can do is be more aware and observe as much as possible, making sure I remember the key details.

For example, there's a timing aspect to it.

Visiting a region with no vegetation (i.e., thoughts don't normally exist here) is usually correlated with states of deep relaxation, meditation, and other related states with a similar flavour. the liminal moments between sleep

The causation part is still on the run, as whether these quiet states create the empty sensation or accessing these mental regions naturally leads to stillness remains to be ascertained.

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Escaping The Center Of Pain

I recently heard these two words: localization and delocalization used in a context that somehow rang a bell with these experiences of consciousness shifting between focused and diffuse awareness.

Localized pain, delocalized pain.
Localized awareness, delocalized awareness.

Perhaps a good example to explain what localization is: picture yourself having a headache, the pain is in the head and your awareness becomes mostly tilted towards being aware of the head than any other part of the body.

Delocalization on the other hand could be when this headache causes you to be tired but the tiredness is felt throughout the whole body as opposed to just the head.

Thinking it out loud, I can't remember ever hearing someone say "my head is tired."

Another form of delocalization is intentionally shifting your awareness from the source of the pain (center of the circle) into the broader field of sensation (periphery of the circle).

A bit of an unintentional example is passively consuming content while lying on the bed such as scrolling through videos or reading without deep engagement.

It's a way to get one's mind off from the immediate discomfort, which by extension also gets one's awareness off the same concentrated point of suffering.

Experientially, I must say it's actually a herculean task to intentionally delocalize pain from any part of the body when the pain reaches a certain intensity threshold.

Sometimes, when I fail on this task, sleep welcomes me with a good rest and interesting dreams until reality comes knocking.


Thanks for reading!! Share your thoughts below on the comments.