Important   → What are the various aspects (dimensions) of our lives (the environmental influences) and our brains (the physiological influences) that make up The Cognitive Me? ←   Important

Note: Most of the dimensions mentioned below influencing the "The Me" as "me" are human examples. Why? I have no ability to understand what "The Me" of another species may show up as from that other species' perspective. Our brains have developed differently. However, I think I might comprehend better where "The Human Me" might be coming from. While we are all made differently, my "Me" is more similar to another person's "Me" than it is to a horse's "Me" or a salmon's "Me" or a fruit fly's "Me."

• 
  Magnetic resonance imaging of areas of the brain
  in the default mode network.
  The Default mode network (DMN) - shown to be active when a person is not focused on the outside world and the brain is at wakeful rest (e.g. daydreaming, mind-wandering.) It is active when thinking about others, thinking about oneself (the neurological basis for "Self"?,) remembering the past, and planning for the future. The network activates "by default" when a person is not involved in a task.
  
  Though the DMN was originally noticed to be deactivated in certain goal-oriented tasks, it can be active in other goal-oriented tasks such as social working memory or autobiographical tasks. The DMN has been shown to be negatively correlated with other networks in the brain such as attention networks.
  
  The DMN may be relevant to disorders including Alzheimer's disease, autism, schizophrenia, depression, chronic pain and others (e.g. dysfunctional attachment patterns, long term trauma experience, posttraumatic stress disorder.)
  
  In addition, reduced blood flow to the DMN by use of the psychedelic drugs psilocybin or LSD have been shown both to desynchronize brain activity within the DMN, potentially initiating a cognitive reboot that can be quite helpful for breaking addictions and habits that have been otherwise difficult to kick.
  
  ConserveLiberty wonders whether or not The Cognitive Me is anchored by the DMN. Of course, The Me is impacted by much of the rest of the behavior influencing neurophysiology surrounding it. Perhaps we might someday refer to it as "The DMN Me!"
  
  
• Relationships, Memories, and the manifestation of "Me"
  • 
    Relationships, of all types, that last and last and last
    Relationships
    • Parent / child
    • Sibling
    • Friends
    • Romance
    • Coach / Guidance
    • Team
    • Competitive
    • Exploit / Enabler
    • Enemies
    • Other
    
    
    
    
    
    "All my kids are gone.
     They have all matured.
     Each unfolded as they were built to be -
     'Themselves. Independent.'
     Just like I did.
    
     I miss my kids." - David Apollo
    
    
  • Memories via recordings and collectibles (essentially, mnemonics)
    • The anxiety of losing the non-replaceable.
      
      Note: The History or Temporal Fact of "The Significant" is actually not changeable. Only the mnemonic is at risk. The "Cognitive Me" is brain and memory-based. Loss of mnemonics impacts "The Me".
      
      
    • The desire to reacquire what You (The Cognitive Me) had become accustomed (habituated, addicted) to before.
      
      Nostalgia.
    
    
  • 
    The original Herbie in a scene from the 1968 film.
    Photo: Walt Disney Pictures/Everett Collection
    Things (that get personified) - Cars, Motorcycles, Ships, etc., all get personified with pronouns such as "she", "them", etc. Entire cultures (e.g. Latin, Spanish, etc.) name their objects with "masculine or feminine" forms of words, even though objects have no gender. Languages evolve to reflect the perspective of the "Cognitive Me." Example:
    
    
    • Fan Homage to a Favored VW Has One Glaring Flaw: Speed
    
    
  • Location (e.g. home), culture (e.g. religion, work-view), history (e.g. who I was is who I am), "spirituality" manifestations with "The Me."
    
    
  • Burial Plots, Urns, Mummification, Monuments, Memorials, Tributes, etc.
    • Who or what actually cares about preserving what? (Hint - the active "Cognitive Me")
    
    
  • others, to be added
  
  
• Military examples:
  
  
  
  The Amazing Life of Ulysses S. Grant (5:34)
  • The Resilient DO NOT GIVE UP, and DO NOT ACCEPT LOSS ... all the way to their end. They keep on keepin on all the way to the end.
  
  
  
• "Cognitive Me" Persistence - "The Me" is instinctively Resilient (survival):
  
  
  
  Hand prints in Pettakere Cave, Leang-Leang, Maros.
  estimated to be about 39,900 years old
  • Communication, transaction, relationship
    • Cave drawings
    • Stone art
    • Pyramids
    • The printing press
    • Advances from smoke signals to the telegraph to the telephone to the television ...
    • The Internet
    • Electronic Social Media (essentially ... "Hey, look at Me!")
    
    
    
  • "Resurrection"
    The catastrophe that awaits everyone from
    from a single false move, wrong turn,
    encounter ... every life has such a moment.
    
    What distinguishes us is
    whether and how we ever come back.
    
    - Charles Krauthammer, 1950 - 2018
    
    
    
  • Music. Binds people together.
    • The "relationship" can extend from one person listening to the music, to two listening or dancing together, to an entire auditorium listening, chanting, singing. Anthems are a uniting example.
      
      
    • Note the importance of music within the military, during training, during conflict, at the start and the end of the day. Music has similar importance for uniting and motivating teams during competitive sporting events. Similarly so during religious and celebratory gatherings.
      
      
    • 
      Bad to the Bone
      Certain types of music are more popular than others, and stay popular longer. (e.g. Rock and Roll), drumming (the beat resonates with the "Emotional Me"), etc. Essentially, music IS the voice of "The Me" communicating what Me is to the rest of "Us."
      
      
    • And, of course, music that becomes absolutely popular by default is the music that speaks to where we are most drawn to be, regardless of what we have been encouraged to be.
      
      
    • Examples - Rock music - To be expanded ...
      
      
    • Use the Tapestry example from Tapestry.
    
    
  • Challenge - Resilience is not simply about staying alive. It is about believing you will surpass your limits and believing you will find a way to do it and having the thrill of your life doing it ... while staying alive, of course.
    • About that Bucket List
      - Uniquely Human
    
    
    
  • 
    Note the primary "change" stressors -
    • death of a close friend,
    • death of a spouse,
    • moving from somewhere,
    • change in job or career or retirement
    
    ... are all things that impact the "Me" as it understands itself to be, the relationship with self, others, location, even things. And then these changes manifest themselves as stress as the "Me" copes or adapts to itself changing.
    
    
  • Food.
    • 
      Da Vinci's "The Last Supper - Celebrated by one of the most
      Resilient ... then crucified, got up, recovered, and left.
      Food often defines much of the "Cognitive Them/Me" or the "Social Us/Me" that the "All/Me" wants to share with others in a relationship. An essential aspect of relationship building to continue developing, growing, and nurturing the "Social Me."
      
      
    • Note that various species often have "preferred" diets that they recognize as "their foods." If other species compete consume with human preferred food, these species may often be seen as "pests". "Pests" want as "Their Foods" the foods we want as "Our Foods."
      
      
    • Many assertions are made regarding food that are intended to sound credible ... but they are not.
      
      The foods that "work for us" become "Home" to us, and many often want to bring their friends "Home" with them. At the very least, many seek validation from others that what they believe to be credible others also believe is credible. Which is why many find "the gullible" preferable to have relationships with.
      
      Check out the vid nearby to view nutritional advice to the gullible.
    
    
  • Children, and the notion of the spark of "Me" catching and growing (spreading) resiliently
    
    
  
  
• "Cognitive Me" Persistence (continued) - "The Me" is instinctively Resilient (survival):
  (Did you forget that we were listing examples of the "Cognitive Me"?)
  
  
  • Note what the Various Dementias (progressive degradation, often degrading the components of "Me") such as Alzheimer's, micro-stroke, or Lewy Body dementia reveal to us about "Me".
    
    
    • Examine what various of the illusionary misidentifications might tell us about how associations are formed and maintained cognitively (what the cognitive memory "database" is composed of) and what happens as these "components" and "subroutines" deteriorate and come offline.
      
      
    • Oftentimes, child-similar behavior is manifested as the "Me" (hypothetically) instinctively protects what it can in order to reignite or reboot (if it can.) ← this is a "Resilient" behavior, and yet in the case of the progressive dementias it will not prevail.
      
      
    • Check out the conversation with Stella Maronne regarding Resilience, Alzheimer's, and her mother.
    
    
  • Death - To the extent that the Cognitive Me is built upon relationships, the death of an Individual creates a wound within both the Cognitive Me manifested by others and the Cognitive We that he/she was a component of. While The Mes that remain are Resilient, their healing takes time.
    
    
    • "There actually is nothing to fear about death. As individuals we all have been dead, now we are alive, and again we'll be dead. You were dead once, remember? ... That is actually my point." - David Apollo
      
      
• 
  In the Napo River Rain Forest. Good resilient stock.
  Resilience Recognized
  
  "Defined by my tough ass mother-in-law. Who at 77 did everything we did in the Cloud Forest as well as the Rain Forest of the Napo River. She stayed up to party and have a glass of wine.
  
  She got up (ready to go) at 4 AM to go spend 12 hours birdwatching, through forests and jungles and in canoes. She climbed 50 meters up the observation tower and across the swinging bridge above the canopy. She is not letting age get her. Good resilient stock.
  
  I think I married well!" - EmAndEm
  
  
• Dog examples
  
  
  
  Eternally optimistic, unabashedly loving, endlessly
  loyal. They live in the can-do moment. Resilient.
  • Relationship - A Hero's Welcome
    
    
  • How Dogs Teach Us About Resilience
    
    
  • The notion of "ownership" or "territory" is often indicated in some way of "marking" as a preference indicator intended to "call the Other Me off."
    
    
  • To Truly Enjoy a Dog
  
  

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  "It's not important for us to know exactly how you arrived here, but it is important for both of us to acknowledge that you ARE here... Acceptance is always the first step.
  
  

  

  Many souls have arrived here at the end of arduous and sometimes difficult journeys and we want you to know that you are welcomed and that we will always be here for you. Your complimentary blanket and bowl of soup will be along in a moment.
  
  So, it is in a genuine spirit of mindful compassion that we will share this time. You are good, you are beautiful, and you are a sentient being on the planet Earth. You may or you may not have lint in your navel.
  
  Therefore make peace with your God, whatever you conceive him to be; and take solace in the knowledge that your dog is finally getting enough bacon."
  
  - Lagunitas Brewery

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• Bear examples
  
  
  
  • The Un-Cuddly Truth About Pandas - In their shrinking natural habitat, the bears are tough, sexually potent survivors, not the hapless bunglers we have created as zoo attractions.
    
    

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→ The Persistence section was last updated 02 Jul 2018 22:45 PDT ←

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