I’ve also heard of something similar where if you focus on your tongue you feel like there isn’t a comfortable place for it in your mouth, is there an explanation for that too?
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Because it’s a subconscious reflex from the CNS but as soon as you think about it you make it conscious by getting your brain involved intentionally/unintentionally. It’s like insomnia, if you find a way to stop thinking about sleep it comes – if you stop thinking about breathing or blinking, they come
Yeah I used to have trouble sleeping because I would think about breathing and as soon as I start to drift off to sleep I stop breathing and have to be jolted back awake
There is a part of the brain that is unconscious, and then conscious. We already understand these. But there’s a part of the brain even lower than subcon.
It pretty much runs everything. Even subconscious processes don’t interfere with it. But actively thinking of those things and drawing attention to it is like a switch. The light is either on or off. You can’t have both at the same time or you’ll break the switch. You can’t be thinking of breathing while trying to naturally breathe or you’ll do both and then blow something.
So the brain let’s you think about it right up until you forget. Then the light goes off.
If you were aware of everything being processed, you would be overwhelmed. Your retinas are full of blood vessels, have gaps in the vision and only have color receptors in the center, but you perceive the world as if it’s all in colour and being seen through a perfect camera. You aren’t aware of the processing involved.
If you stand up from your chair and pick up a ball, you’re consciously thinking about standing up and picking up the ball. You aren’t thinking about the thousands of muscle contractions, correcting for gravity, the processing required to not be a mess on the floor, your heart beat, your eye blinks, your bowels pushing food through, your liver…
Some functions it is necessary to take control of to ensure you don’t go blind, don’t drown etc. You can blink at will but you will find that you can’t keep your eyes open indefinitely, they will blink without your control. You can hold your breath at will, but eventually after starving yourself of oxygen you will end up gasping involuntarily.
“You” can seemingly take conscious executive control of certain bodily functions, but don’t be fooled into thinking your body and mind aren’t a load of independent and interdependent systems. Your consciousness emerges from these systems, it’s not a case of a single conscious you making decisions and driving your body around like a car.
There isn’t really a single “you” either. You will have had a conversation with yourself, should you have another cookie, no you shouldn’t, yes you should. Which one is you? If you scan the brain of someone making a decision to do something, the conscious brain will perceive thinking about it and making the decision, but the brain scan will show that the decision had already been made a second or two earlier by the unconscious brain.
Which begs the question, what’s the purpose of consciousness? Why do we need the illusion of control?
It drives me crazy that i can not let go off my breathing after i notice it. Maybe practicing meditation can help.
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