Ways to communicate with your Primal Being

In the previous blog 'What is your Primal Being' we talked about what your Primal Being actually encompasses and the importance of good communication. In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at the different options both sides have for communicating with each other.

What ways do we have?

For this, we need to dive a tiny bit into the way the brain works. The below diagram focusses completely on what effect the senses have on flavour. A thing of beauty on its own. And as clear as it becomes. So take a moment to really appreciate what parts of your senses really help you enjoy your food and drinks.

The human brain flavour system:

Neurogastronomy by Gordon M. Shepard

Although being focussed on the effect of our senses on flavour the diagram gives a really good idea of how our senses are connected to our perception of the world and perhaps more importantly how they are connected to each other. And on the other side how our emotions, motivations, and cravings are positioned.

Of course, this diagram is a simplified version of the complete truth. But I am not a neuroscientist and if you had hoped to be one at the end of this blog, I’m afraid that I have to disappoint you. But with this diagram, we will get a clear(er) insight into what ways our consciousness and Primal Being have to communicate with each other.

In the diagram we can see three major ways that connect the consciousness (red) and the subconsciousness (green): the Direct Way (in the middle) the Emotional Way (on the right) and the Taste Way (on the left)

The Direct Way This way of communicating should always have the preference. Just listen to what your subconscious is trying to tell you and work with it. However, very few of us have the actual skill, inner peace, and/or time to do this every single day, let alone the majority of the day. Most of us recognize these moments of clarity during travel, walking through nature, or sitting enjoying themselves. But reaching that peace in our daily life often seems impossible. Especially when we are tested on a day to day basis. There are many different activities that can help you to use the Direct Way. There are some good tips on what to look for and look out for that work for everyone. However, there is no “one-size fits all” solution. What works for me doesn’t need to work for you. We all have different personalities, possibilities, convictions, and needs. We would love to start sharing right now, but in these blogs we are still looking at the basics. As you can also imagine the options are (almost) endless and finding what suits you is a challenge that deserves a separate blog (series?) The Emotional Way When we are too busy, distracted, or unwilling to follow the Direct Way this way of communicating comes into play. Emotions start popping up in hopes of forcing us to deal with the signals our Primal Being is trying to give us. We might become overwhelmed with sadness, fear, happiness, or love. But smaller emotions count just as much. Feeling annoyed, anxious, amused, or excited are also signals with which your Primal Being is trying to help. Dealing with emotions (big or small), really feeling them, and processing them in a positive way is challenging and something many of us are not taught correctly (or at all). Combine this with a busy and demanding society where emotions have no place and things become difficult. So when offered an escape option into an easy distraction (like television or social media) we will often grab it. So we harnessed the power to ignore our emotions and are getting better at it over the centuries. And in doing so we ignore the secondary signals our Primal Being uses to communicate our subconscious needs to us. It will be no surprise that dealing with your emotions in a positive way really helps to keep you happy and healthy in the (semi-)long run. The Taste Way Luckily for us, the Primal Being has another way to communicate with our consciousness when these first two ways are ignored: our taste. As you can see within our senses there is only one that directly communicates with both our consciousness and our subconsciousness. But it is a one-way street. So how can our Primal Being signal us through taste? The answer is twofold: first of our Primal Being uses our Craving Circuits to motivate us to fulfill its needs. One of these ways is by feeding us the right or even necessary foods to cancel out or help us deal with the effects of ignoring our Primal Being. Secondly, we will choose the food that makes us feel good. Our experience with the food (taste, memories, the effect on our body, etc) all weighs in on what foods we choose when given an opportunity. These signs and choices may be subtle but are nonetheless effective. Most of us don’t make conscious food choices and follow our day to day preference when we need to choose what to eat (even when we choose healthy). Because of this irrational choosing, the Taste Way is a way many of us follow daily. Using it to temporarily ease our emotional needs, by fulfilling the craving signal send out by our Primal Being and convincing it we are actually tending its needs. The only problem with this way of communicating is that even fewer of us have been taught how to use it to deal with our subconscious needs. This results in the even more dangerous fact that the lack of understanding means we aren’t actually solving anything in the long run, just relieving symptoms temporarily. And in a world where we have the luxury to be able to fulfill all our cravings at a whim, we really have the choice to keep temporarily postponing our needs indefinitely. Ignoring your Primal Being With all these ways to listen it seems almost impossible to ignore your Primal Being. However, it is easier than you might think and happens on a daily basis. It is so ingrained in our day to day lives we do it without thinking. Eating what you really want (almost) never actually solves your subconscious problems, emotions can’t always be dealt with directly, and how many people really take time every day to consciously wind down and reflect on their subconscious needs at the end of the day? (and know how to deal with the outcome) This results in all kinds of undesirable build-up, from problems due to our eating habits, unprocessed emotions to living in a state of endless distraction. The general term we as a society love to use for this phenomenon is stress. There are many forms of stress possible between all this build-up but one thing is sure: stress is extremely bad for your health. So what do you do to prevent the damage this stress does? “You just need to relax!” Most people don’t actually mean to relax when they say this. They mean to say “You need a distraction from what you are stressing about”. Instead of dealing with the cause, we get the advice to ignore it some more and just treat the symptoms. Never actually solving anything. Let me end this blog by saying we are here to help you stop only treating the symptoms and to find your personal best way to listen to and work with your Primal Being. Helping you to live a happier and healthier life by understanding and acting upon your own needs.