Coffee at the ready! A piece of toast? English Muffin? I think so today. A bit of jelly. I’ll be good. As I wait I wonder if there will be sun today?
No books in the mail today, I have a lot coming. Many are for research. How can one resist books under $5 as reference books? Love Alibris. I found Ink Heart, Ink Spell, and Ink Death for Emma for Valentine’s Day.
Today’s research, the topic is consciousness.
What is the mind all about? First, we need to break things down into what the brain does. The Conscious mind is where our memories are, and our feelings come from the conscious part of the brain. This is also where we work out what we want out of life. We call upon awareness here to sort out what we plan to do. All of our thoughts are a part of our mental ability to “think”, and talk rationally. Memories however differ. They are different in one aspect and that is that they are not always a part of our consciousness. Memories can be brought into our awareness.
Then, there is what we call the Preconscious mind which consists of anything that could potentially be brought into the conscious mind.
Last, of all we have the Unconscious mind also called the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is like a big filing cabinet. It is full of feelings, thoughts, urges, even more memories. These memories are outside of our conscious awareness. A lot of what has been filed away as content is deemed unpleasant, unacceptable feelings like pain anxiety, and conflict. All of which when called up, reminds the body of its experience, messages are sent forth.
What I plan to get to is the creative mind. After all, what we do as artists are filed away as well, and called upon repeatedly. It’s added to. The mind’s predictive nature calls up choices.
Learning just where things happen in the brain is important to my research when it comes to learning where healing happens. What we do know is that the brain has what we call the pleasure center. The longer we stay in the pleasure center the better we feel. How to stay there is the objective.
The brain sets to work. This begins with Neuronal Firing. This process is one of communication between neurons. This happens through electrical impulses and neurotransmitters. This process involves the soma, dendrites, and axons, all parts of the neuron.
A brain is a fascinating place. I am interested in how it generates the healing process specific to damage or neurological issues. What gets triggered in there? Just how does the body respond? In time the brain can heal damaged nerves, and we know that another part of the brain will take over for a damaged area.
So what exactly happens when someone uses art therapy? What triggers the healing? Are there actions we can take by being creative or is it what we see that matters, what is the role of the process and healing? There is existing proof of how art heals. But I plan to learn just how that I can understand it. What do we know? And who knows what I want to know?
There is more than one train of thought when it comes to art therapy. And there are conflicts with these trains of thought.
This is of interest. Neuroplasticity appears to have the information I want. https://www.neuroskills.com/brain-injury/neuroplasticity/what-is-neuroplasticity/
Anisette Studios & Shibui Fine Arts 