A Map of Human Experience

We’ve been evolving for a very long time. Approximately 3 billion years in the making.

Not just physically… but psychologically.

The following chart points to something profound:

What if our struggles today aren’t personal failures,
but the natural result of an outdated system still running?

Let’s walk through this together, and I will try not to complicate it too much.

1. The Merger: Where It All Begins

Biologically, two cells came together to create life. Sure, why not name them Adam and Eve?

Energy met energy.

Something intelligent began organizing itself. That which cannot be named, as pointed out in the Tao Te Ching.

Yet somewhere along the way, we developed the feeling that we are separate from that intelligence. Like being kicked out of the Garden of Eden. (Yes, I know I am stretching here.)

That we are on our own.

That life is happening to us instead of through us.

This is the first “glitch.”

Not a mistake…

just an innocent misunderstanding.

Because from the inside-out perspective:

We are still being powered by the same intelligence that creates everything.

Nothing has been lost.

It only looks that way from within thought.

2. The Limbic Era: When Survival Took the Lead

Then came the survival brain. This two-celled animal became a human with a thought system to survive.

It was fast, reactive, and brilliant for its time.

Its job was simple: keep us alive.

It only needed to answer three basic questions:

• Will it kill me?
• Can I eat it?
• Can I have sex with it?

And it did that very well.

The biggest challenge it had was that this system doesn’t distinguish between a real threat and a thought about a threat.

So today:

• A conversation can feel like danger
• A memory can trigger fear
• A future idea can create anxiety

And we respond as if something is wrong out there.

This is where the “outside-in” misunderstanding deepens.

We begin to treat our thoughts like predators.

We react to them.

Fight them. Avoid them and then try to manage them.

But from the inside-out view:

That feeling of fear is just a “ping” from old survival wiring.

Not a big problem.

Not a sign that something is wrong.

Just activity in a system doing what it was designed to do.

Like the rumble strips on the side of the road. They are there as reminders not to tell you how bad a driver you are.

3. The Cortex: The Age of Thinking About Thinking

Then evolution gave us something even more powerful:

The ability to think, imagine, plan…

and unfortunately…

to think about our thinking. (Danger Will Robinson, danger)

This is where things get interesting.

Because now we can create entire realities in our minds:

• Replay the past
• Predict the future
• Analyze ourselves endlessly

And here’s the key insight from the chart:

We get caught in “thought-storms” and believe they are real.

“Then there is the further question of what is the relationship of thinking to reality. As careful attention shows, thought itself is in an actual process of movement.”
~ David Bohm, scientist – quatum theory, neuropsychology and philosophy of the mind

This is the Cortex doing its job… a little too well.

It’s like the weather.

Thoughts come and go.

Storms roll in.

But we forget something essential:

We are not the weather.

We are the space in which the weather appears.

Or in other words:

Thought is the weather. Consciousness is the sun.

Where Most of Us Get Stuck

This is the sweet spot of struggle.

Right between the Limbic system and the Cortex.

• The Limbic system fires a feeling (fear, stress, urgency)
• The Cortex jumps in to explain, analyze, and solve it

And suddenly we are:

• Overthinking
• Overanalyzing
• Trying to fix something that isn’t actually broken

We are stuck in a Thinkiverse we created.

The feeling says, “Something’s wrong.”

The intellect says, “Let me figure it out.”

And together, they create a loop.

This is what we often feel and call stress, anxiety, or overwhelm.

But seen differently:

It’s just two brilliant systems trying to help… without understanding the source of experience.

4. The Awakening: Discovering the “Internal Sun.”

Then something shifts.

Not through effort.

Not through technique.

But through seeing, by becoming aware of.

We begin to notice:

“I’m aware of this thought.”

“I’m noticing this feeling.”

And in that moment, we are no longer lost inside the storm.

We are the observer.

This is the turning point. We can no longer see the world as flat.

Because once this is glimpsed, even slightly:

• We stop trying to fix the weather
• We stop chasing better thoughts
• We stop solving clouds

And we begin to recognize something that was always there:

The sun.

Our clarity.
Our presence.
Our innate wellbeing.

Not something to build.

Not something to earn.

Just something that becomes visible when the clouds aren’t taken so seriously.

The Quiet Revolution of Principles-Based Coaching

For years, we’ve been taught to:

• Manage thoughts
• Control emotions
• Fix ourselves

But my chart points to something much simpler:

There may be nothing to fix.

Just something to see, to become aware of.

Because when we understand how experience is being created:

The Limbic system can settle.

The Cortex can relax.

And what’s left is something far more intelligent than either of them.

A Reflection

Where do you recognize yourself in this map?

Are you caught in the storm?

Are you trying to fix the weather?

Or are you beginning to notice that something deeper has always been there?

Last Thought (If that was really the case with me)

We’ve spent generations evolving how to survive and continue to do so.

More recently, we are learning how to think and navigate our Thinkiverse.

Maybe the next evolution is realizing we are not our thinking at all.

AND, if that is true, what is next in this evolutionary journey we are on?

Much Love,

Hey, love to hear your thoughts and ideas on this. Feel free to share, email, and comment.

If you’re still trying to fix your thinking after reading this… these might help.
Or they might gently ruin that idea altogether.

Sydney Banks – The Power of Thought

Letting Go of Overthinking: Alan Watts’ Profound Wisdom

Your brain creates your reality. This neuroscientist explains how – Scientific American

Your Brain is Wired to Think “Negatively”