We try our best to conceptualize our experiences, but nature has rendered this difficult when considering the busyness we constantly find ourselves in. Selective attention & habituation of sensory adaptation are great evolutionary tools, inherited over generations, allowing us to focus our neural processes on given tasks. However, ignoring aspects of our environment, hinders our ability to full understand (and later recall) certain experiences.

I believe it is a build up of “half-understood” experiences that later brings forth uncontrollable emotions, whether they be positive or negative.

Our consciousness tries it’s best to put (this insanity of a) reality into laymen’s, but that is a burden in the very slightest. ‘Creation’ or ‘art’ is a way we articulate our cognitive experiences through a medium that differs from traditional linguistic communication. Many emotional experiences are better expressed in a matter as such.

Simply understanding the function of a neural network depicts this perfectly. Every input, results in an output. The thing is, the format that the output data is restricted to, depends entirely on the format of the input & the processes that said information underwent while propagating through the network.

Having an understanding of the biological brain and being introspective by nature; I commonly find myself “feeling” the regions of my brain. I feel when they are working, I feel when they are tired, but most importantly, I feel when they need to be used.

The first thing that embarked me onto the journey of biological metacognitivity was my awe of neuromuscular junction (the act of a neuron firing a muscle). Months of meditation and (an almost narcissistic obsession with) working out shirtless (in front of a mirror) allowed me to form an understanding of the connection between my consciousness and muscular tissue.

Conscious reflection further articulated physical cerebral sensations, making these sensations increasingly cognizant. Strangely, I began to notice the front of my brain would ache after a long day of class, the middle of my brain would feel drained after a day of switching between multiple languages, the back of my brain would hurt after a long day of driving etc. This insane-yet-fully-Compos-Mentis grasp of the biological functioning of the brain brought forth further comprehension of my unconscious & it’s needs.

I began noting changes in my habits. Suddenly, I knew exactly what to work on; at any given time. A lot less writer’s or coder’s block. No more not knowing ‘what to do next’

Digression aside, I feel it when I have to create something. Anything.

Sometimes it may be a tune that has been in my head all day. Maybe, a newly conceptualized thought that is begging to be pooped into our three dimensional reality. “Stuck in my head-isms” are a common trigger for creators to create, but there are others.

Regardless of the cause, the human need for creation is real. My Computational view of Neuroscience proves this idiosyncratically. If sensory input > conscious output, input data either accumulates or disappears. These are not good things when regarding the aforementioned “half-understood experiences”.

This is why I hold the belief that: when your priorities are taken care of, go jam out on that guitar. Go edit together those clips from last month’s vacation. Start working on that amazing app you came up with. Design that T-Shirt you thought of. Write that lengthy blog post about your philosophies. Create. It heals the soul.