Natural mental health (part two)

Self-Management and the Limits of Individual Action

You get more of what you focus on, and what you focus on is the result of your habits, of trying to reproduce today the world as it was yesterday. Many of our habits are unconscious, but then ninety-nine point nine per cent of the brain’s activity is unconscious. Worse still, it is your unconscious brain which is deciding which tiny amounts of information to put up into consciousness! Your consciousness is there for the new learning which may be required in novel situations, in the face of danger or when an instinctive desire for belonging, for food or for sex is unfulfilled.

Learning evolved as a set of physical craft skills, of body awareness based knowledge - and remains that way despite academics and educationalists thinking they are doing something else. At school most of what you learnt was about your teachers. Human’s great advance has been to take learning by imitation to new heights using the brain’s mirror neurons; observation or demonstration is followed by imitation, then trial and error practice, then more imitation. But most of our learning remains unconscious, indeed we learn faster that way, when we let go of our hopes and desires, allow decisions to make themselves, and just be in the present moment without a conscious 'self'.

8,35  20.7.2016 (photo by Nick Hewling)

Joseph Pilates, in the early part of the twentieth century, was perhaps the first person to attempt to codify a holistic but systematic fitness regime for physical and mental wellbeing. He by all accounts was a bit of a control freak, insisting that his rational, contrived procedures were ‘the one way’, but his approach does make explicit a theme which has occurred through-out the history of health, and feels both natural and fundamental, the idea of ‘core muscles’ or ‘a centre’. In order to become re-orientated to natural body movement it is necessary for a while to stop moving in a reactive way towards our physical surroundings and focus instead on our own bodies, on where muscular movements will start if freed from external influence. Consider too, that all the muscles of the body are really doing is lifting against the resistance of gravity. Watch the breath, consider where involuntary movements begin and end. Then the idea of ‘core muscles’ (around the abdomen, lower back, hips and buttocks) becomes obvious, along with the breath that ultimately powers them! Consciously starting every movement ‘from the hip’ can be a revelation, not just in the feelings it provokes, but in the new orientation you experience towards the natural environment and to other people.

Much of Pilates is there in yoga of course, how could it be otherwise? But in the modern world people come to yoga for varied and individualistic reasons rather than as a necessary collective communal activity. Now, it seems there is no wrong way to do yoga if your intentions are worthy, and what you take away from it psychologically has become an increasingly private concern. Traditionally yoga was never a practice for the attainment of physical beauty, rather it taught that reconnecting with the natural is healthy and what is healthy is beautiful, there is in all of us a brain and body trying to be fit, impeded only by the unnatural. The natural body is perfect, we honour it by exploring the breath and movement which heals and renews. When we move mindfully with the breath we achieve balance and harmony. Yoga endeavours to open a space where the truths of our existence can emerge, it should be transformative. Like any set of skills, practice is everything and the more you put in the more you get out.

To talk of the natural means one must be tapping into ancient knowledge; yoga for example has a recorded history in its various forms of around 3,000 years and perhaps a real history many times longer. Considered in its recorded context, its particular forms of body movement and the emotions they provoke - along with the meditative practices developed and taught by the Buddha that were to grow from it - yoga appears to have been an attempt to cope with the confines of early agricultural society. Restricted by fixed territories and concentrated populations, practitioners developed a ‘personal space’ to try and hang on to, or regain, the physical and psychological freedom that their hunter-gatherer ancestors had possessed as they moved through a landscape. A way to express natural instincts, but which over time became more and more formalised and prescribed by those in authority. 

The power of yoga postures is that they change our emotions minute to minute – any meaning or understanding always follows our emotional response. Movement is creative - just as demonstration followed by imitation, then trial and error, leads to skill. Yoga is perhaps the most easily observable example of the purposeful manipulation of the natural phenomenon of ‘embodiment’, and of the psychological concept of ‘embodied cognition’. Everyone must live with change and uncertainty, making creativity fundamental to our wellbeing. Creating appears to ‘bring something out of nothing’, but is better described as a recombination of elements imitated from others to form a new and temporary uniqueness. The structured movement of yoga follows tried and tested ways of igniting a spark, leading us to look anew at the taken for granted. But equally, changes to our body’s coordination, change our actual physical perspective in a given environment, leading to changes in how we navigate the world. For example, the many variations of Warrior pose and the movement between them highlight the symbolism in posture. The warrior does not flinch from conflict, and in the last resort is willing to turn from flight to fight. (Again, in natural, instinctive nonverbal behaviour the sequence in response to a perceived threat is always; freeze, flight, fight.) The warrior is a strong defender and protector, whether male or female. Our inner warrior survives in us today, although it only emerges under intense stress. Yoga brings it into consciousness in a controlled way. Warrior pose shows us how to function from a position of strength, courage and determination when it is most needed.

Grounded by the non-dominant foot, the placing of the leading foot forces into consciousness how the placing of the feet can cultivate or constrain awareness itself. How we are grounded mediates what any of our senses can sense! Warrior feels as though it is all about preparedness. It resonates with similarities to other martial endeavours, from finding the stance for using a slingshot, to learning to lunge in fencing. Equally, the discipline of achieving level and forward facing hips and pelvis embodies an approach to life itself. The movement from a more gravity-defying posture to a lesser one should be experienced as a mental release as much as a muscular one, whilst a rising movement is powered by the core. But holding a posture through the breath requires commitment and endurance, and thoughts and feelings will crash into consciousness. Simple positive affirmations help to let go of the unwanted and hold on to the desired.

Whilst Warrior is a task focused set of postures moving all the way from preparedness for action to the expression of victory, Cobra opens us up to change and renewal, to reconnection and engagement with our intentions; mental, physical and spiritual. The body movements of yoga can unlock our potential for transforming the emotions that are created in action and reaction. Self-confidence emerges when we have evidence from our own bodies that change is possible, and in turn allows the mind to accept the inevitable uncertainty and brevity of human life. Taking nature as the only possible muse and inspiration, yoga identifies certain postures which evoke similar feelings in whoever practices them. Cobra, is the most fundamental embodiment of what is variously called transformation, renewal, regeneration or rebirth. The shedding of a skin no longer required. Inhale, with a strong image of what is to be achieved. Ask, for the strength and resolve. See, the breath flow and carry intention. Follow the breath as it reaches the core of the diaphragm, of commitment and determination. Here lies fire, the means of transformation, of burning away to release new energy. The breath expands the abdomen towards the ground, connecting to mother earth, nurturing resolve. As you exhale you let go, release fear of change and challenge the burden of anger. Practice the discipline of gesture.

But a pose freezes a moment and real targets move. In reality the body should be in constant movement and we evolved to find solitary practice of anything stressful. It’s in the way you move; it is your body’s coordination and orientation to others in an environment which enables you to navigate the world. Your body shapes your mind, how you move determines how you feel. Around us is change and we must reality check constantly and recalibrate our routine behaviour and responses in order to belong. The faster you can move, the faster you can learn; the more you can calibrate your body, the more accurate your knowledge, the more likely you are to hit the target (your aims and objectives). Mental distress is so much a desire to avoid the present, of stopping behaving naturally. Yet we increase our speed and efficiency in life often by letting go, which feels like slowing down and seeing more, of increased stillness. We know we are ‘in the moment’ when we feel balance, symmetry, comfort and confidence. Being there, means there is no difference between the self and what’s going on around us - the world of others and things.

Nonverbally we can experience each moment in terms of a continuum from comfort to discomfort; of fear, or the lack of it. I see someone in the distance approaching, their gait identifies them as a stranger or someone familiar, but also their degree of balance, health and competence. As they come closer I am aware of the need to freeze, to take flight or to fight. The need for ‘personal space’ (proxemics) sets real boundaries. I turn towards in liking, or away in dislike. The direction in which my dominant foot points gives a reliable indication as to whether I would rather be elsewhere or am happy to stay. But all this is context until we are close enough to read the face.

Facial expressions reveal universal emotions plus individual variation. Emotions are overwhelmingly displayed on the face, of everyone - supported to varying degrees by tone of voice, and some body movement. Forty-three muscles, up to ten thousand possible expressions, about a third of which are expressed emotions. The repeated making of an emotional facial expression will lead to the persistence of that emotion, inducing changes in mood. It is in the act of making the expression, in response to another human, that the emotion is felt. What is personal, is specific to the context an individual finds themselves in, and is always a variation built upon the structure of universal emotional expression. What remains uncertain is the extent to which emotion can be said to be made in the moment that you physically feel the shape of your face change, how much felt emotion is cued by others, how much effective communication depends on correctly learning what you are feeling, being able to communicate it to others, and make a correct interpretation of what others are showing you. Put another way, the windows through which we can understand another’s mental distress, the extent to which we can be said to ‘have empathy’ (feel what others feel) are; the facial expressions of emotion, the tone of voice, plus some supporting cues found in the gestures which support them. But when it comes to meaning, to what a particular emotion refers to, then gestures display their principal role - and that is to support language.

We are a social species and our greatest desire is to belong, this is the context when considering all motivation or intention which proceeds action. If society (parents, siblings, peers, school, work, community) was the cause of the way you turned out, and it almost certainly was, then the chances of it helping you change your emotional education is practically zero! But you don't have the answers otherwise you wouldn't have got into such a mess. Neither do your friends or your partners - it was their similarity to you which attracted you to them. The only way out, is to find the few people who represent excellence, those who have the life you want, and to model them.

There is a hierarchy to our senses; from the most fundamental but least conscious, to the most conscious but overused; from smell, taste and touch to sound and vision. From a state approaching hibernation to the highest levels of self-awareness, they may take as little as ten minutes a day to bring back into consciousness, or they may take a lifetime! It is usually assumed that sight and sound are dominant but this is only so amongst the small amount of sensations which we can be conscious of in any one moment. Equally, touch is thought to be hugely powerful because of its ability to suddenly appear and seem to overwhelm conscious emotions and thought. But most action is unconsciously pursued by the massively unconscious brain; here smell, taste and touch dominate our navigation of the world without our being aware of them. Each day we must coordinate and then re-orientate our bodies and minds to both the environment of others as much as to the natural environment, allowing us to navigate the world. It begins as individual practice, but then becomes social. If we use the breath and core muscles to activate the hierarchy of senses then upon waking, smell, taste and touch are actioned before we are conscious of sound and vision. Body movement can be conceived in terms of three basic postures, lying, squatting and walking, with all else a movement between them.

Touching the ground we are aware of temperature and humidity, the dampness or dryness of flora and fauna. On our skin we can feel light and shade, and the wind. The felt temperature on the surface of the skin is the main filter for what is put up into consciousness upon waking. Throughout the day we are moving through different states of consciousness, sometimes by deliberately focusing, more often as the result of sudden external influences. Our brains and bodies evolved in a landscape, a visual topography and an emotional one. Our natural measure of time is distance. Our focus is one we can see, the current horizon, and we can orientate to any fixed point upon it taking the path of least resistance. The sun is our guide; whilst washing at dawn and paying salutation it is the fresh water that is sacred, not the river. When we start to walk, we walk with nature. Stillness in the mind is not the same as being motionless in the body, being in the moment is an ambling pace most of the time; slow enough to observe, fast enough not to be depressed by gravity. I have purpose; my goal is the horizon I see today. My actions should not be a fixed set of routines and habits but a series of moving targets to be hit moment to moment, hour to hour and day by day. Our ancestors hit moving targets with a bow and arrow whilst in motion themselves, using more skill than is required of us today - there is nothing necessarily progressive about evolution.  

When we move; from the core muscles, from the hip, and walk; follow the sun, turn towards what or who we like, turn away from what or who we dislike; stress should be a distance from us, whilst relaxation ought to come with closeness. Moving from the hip we calibrate our movements with our emotional responses. Let go. We orientate ourselves to others to invoke social interaction, for our prime motivations to action, our ‘get up and go’, our passions and desires, come from and are directed towards others, rather than from a goal that a 'self' can have.

Natural mental health (part one)

Introduction

My preferred way to meditate is to walk, but then walking is the most common and natural activity of the human species, it is what we evolved to do.

The basic elements occur naturally too, one following from another. First by focusing on the breath, it dictates an open upright posture, and balance comes from knowing that the centre of the body resides in the diaphragm along with the breath. In motion the focus shifts when the eyes are allowed to rise naturally to an open horizon; not a point of constant attention, but the place they come back to again and again as you let-go of distracting emotions and thoughts - from a past which is gone (behind you), and a future that is unknowable (beyond the horizon). With the eyes to the horizon and with good posture, then the feet will start to follow the contours of the ground and as if by magic, a ‘bodyscan’ occurs all on its own, as the right muscles are stretched, and then relaxed, along with stressful feelings and thoughts. A ‘mantra’ can be found in the pace and rhythm of the stride, but it must be flexible enough to change in an instance, for walking consistently and repetitively will soon narrow the horizon and an open future.

A connectedness to the world around us, of others and things, should be our moment to moment pre-occupation. We cannot see others as they are, if we are preoccupied with ourselves. The origins of spirituality or religious experience may lie with making others, and or other things, rather than one’s ‘self’ the central focus of our lives, allowing for transcendent experiences – a going beyond our usually limited perception of others. Equally, in the past there must have been a time when we were all very effective meditators. In some sense it must be a natural state, for it is hard to imagine our hunter-gatherer ancestors being able to survive without such skills. Think of hunting; of long hours on one’s feet, of the constant gentle movements needed to pick up a trail, to track and stalk, feel movement in the air, the physical coordination, the ability to navigate, feel the sudden stress of real danger, but be able to let go when it passes, the need for so much stillness, and the quick flowing response. And afterwards, to squat for a while under a tree, within the only real temple there is - not enclosed by the buttressing of branches but open to the vaulted sky beyond. And later still, the making of fire, the focus of community and our collective narrative.

8,34  20.7.2016 (photo by Nick Hewling)

The brain and body are so intimately connected it makes little sense to separate them when conceptualising mental wellbeing. Indeed the process of mental mapping which creates enduring neural pathways in the brain, and imposes habits of behaviour, evolved from the sense data coming from all our five senses as we move and grow in a landscape. The appropriate ‘treatment’ for mental distress may well be a physical one. When in the presence of someone who is ‘psychotic’, how often do we understand the content of their words? Better to pay attention to the body; the tone of voice, facial expressions of emotion, gestures and body movement. What would a physiotherapist see observing a client in their own territory away from the clinic or hospital? Suppose on encountering someone for the first time you ignore their apparent mental problems, offer just physical relaxation techniques, enforce a regular but limited sleep pattern, strictly control their diet and everything else they put in their bodies, and wait. Introduce mindfulness techniques for better anxiety and stress management - for greater mental awareness. After a week or so you may well be left with someone with enduring communication problems, a blocked ability to empathise and a limited ‘theory of mind’, but visible, through their nonverbal behaviour. Reintroduce one of the most powerful communication tools of all, touch. Allow the mentally distressed to learn, or more often relearn to be intimate with others. And you teach them to play again, to gain ‘balance’ (physical coordination) and the ability to ‘navigate’ (in space and time) in that social landscape of others. But all this would of course require staff willing and able to model and demonstrate natural and desired forms of behaviour.

A cold but awake body is physically and mentally stressed, warmth is relaxation - too hot and you are anxious. The mind and body are always on a positive feedback loop! Health in body and mind are the same thing. The source of health lies in natural environments – where only the unhealthy or threatening is ugly. We evolved to be outside and on our feet all day, with our eyes coming to rest on the horizon, catching the sun. Depression is entombing oneself all day, with a slumped body posture and nothing but artificial light, consuming more calories than you use up. It is about having a fixed territory, being stuck in one place and one time, and defending it in both a mental and physical sense. Mental wellbeing is about being happy with movement, change and uncertainty. It is not a sign of progress that the modern world is able to offer mental healthcare, rather it has become necessary since we started transforming our natural habits and ways of living. Anxiety and the heightened awareness that goes with it, is the normal response to perceived danger - the natural reaction is to freeze (the predator notices first the moving object), take flight or in extreme situations, fight. In the absence of real danger, anxiety should rapidly fall away. It is normal to fear the unknown, ‘outsiders’ or ‘strangers’. Anxiety is part way on the continuum from happiness or joy (loss of self-consciousness) to intense fear. A misplaced fear of others in the modern world, or the inability to attribute fear to the right people (or human artefacts) is what makes others appear as permanent strangers, outsiders or simply mad.

Most communication is nonverbal and unconscious, but with training can be consciously observed and a conscious nonverbal response given. But the meaning of any communication is the message received. You can only be conscious of a tiny fraction of what your brain is doing in any one moment, including thoughts and emotions. There are severe limits to what any one individual can objectify. In a sense you can only ‘know’ your own character by what you put into your body, and by the kind of people you spend your time with! The best diet for physical and mental health is probably still a pre-agricultural one, certainly the absence of refined sugars, cultivated and grounded grains, dairy products and domesticated animal meat. An inability to navigate with sight, sound, touch, smell and taste, is a fundamental element of what some call psychosis. A lack of balance, from not being able to rest the eyes on the horizon and feel the natural contours below one’s feet due to the modern built environment, shows in the long term mental as well as physical ‘crippling’ of the body.

History Seen Through the Wrong End of the Telescope

We are a social species and everyone’s greatest natural urge is to belong.

The natural mind has a nonverbal purpose in life, it notices signals, may or may not accept them as cues to action or as indicators of how others intend to act - though not necessarily how they are thinking; it allows us to decide whether others are comfortable, being honest with themselves or us. Verbal pronouncements are often just an explanation that satisfies the speaker and not us - they occur after the fact, and are not a cue to action.

Happiness or joy, is our baseline or default emotional state, the point to which we return when experiencing comfort and any stressors have been dealt with. Not being focused on joy, not constantly letting go in order to returning to it, is the measure of how far we are from nature. It is the lack of self-consciousness first experienced in childhood play. Nonetheless, joy still has to be found or remade every day.

Once upon a time our biological ‘social brain’ had an equivalence in culture, a ‘collective mind’ of shared and sharable information, the distance between the two now is one measure of how far we are from nature. Much of what we call nurture in the modern world, is a partially successful attempt at learning to suppress natural instincts. The most successful in society (the most mentally and physically healthy) are those who manage to resist or let go of such learning.

If we could learn mentally healthy behaviour without ever understanding its meaning, or indeed being conscious of learning it – would it matter? For there really is only one mental health problem – chronic stress (physical as well as mental) caused by our learnt inability to behave naturally around others, leading to cognitive and emotional isolation. The entire spectrum of phenomena observed and listed by psychiatry under its numerous categories can be seen as an expression of this basic truth.

A social model of mental health however needs to be set within and be consistent with a broader model of socio-cultural evolution. The rules of Darwinian evolution by natural selection hold - individual behaviour (action) is the subject (not personal meanings or explanation) and we should always look first at adaptation in specific environments (social situations). Situations change rapidly, within them there is always individual variation and selection from minute to minute, where a ‘personality’ only persists in so far as an individual acts today to try and reproduce their world as it was yesterday - a collection of routines, habits and addictions (skills learnt through repeated practice) which will be daily frustrated to the extent that they fail to be flexible in the face of change. The winners (those who forever return to the human default emotion - happiness) are those who can learn new (better) habits and allow existing ones to whither through lack of use. Such learning is socially neuroscientific insofar as an individual’s mental maps (made up of established, reinforced and discrete neural pathways) can add new connections imitated from other brains, and let go of existing habits, slowly allowing them to become dormant. Change usually comes uninvited, but we are pattern making machines. However, the healthy (successful) are those who are most willing to observe and adopt new habits (of thinking and emotional response through action) in new situations. The level of an ‘outcome’ for anyone in mental distress is directly proportional to their ability to undertake new learning.