What Is Synesthesia and How to Train Ourselves to Enjoy it?
“We are interesting creatures” was written in a poster at the Natural Museum I visited 5 years ago, on a trip to England.
I remember reading that phrase and thinking: Are we, really? What makes us so remarkable? Is there self-awareness in a lot of the creatures that co-exist on earth with us? And if so, would they ask the same thing?
There are way too many blank spaces for questions humanity has asked over the past hundreds of years. One thing is for sure: we are the complex result of evolution, with a brain that has developed enough to integrate information from all our senses and create memories.
But where do memories come from? A book of human physiology would describe -over several pages- how our daily life is translated into connections in our brain and stored under paths we can re-visit at a later time, when remembering again.
The color of your car, the smell of freshly made coffee by your grandmother -and the way she looked in the kitchen-, how you felt that night during the summer of 2013 in that hotel room in Miami, the texture of cold milk traveling through your teeth, the freedom of skinny-dipping during that trip to the coast.
Our lives are significantly marked by experiences and decisions we made, and the rate in which we keep them with us depends on many things. One of them is the ability to pair feelings with thoughts.
Many therapists teach their patients how to dig as deep as possible into their mind, with the goal of finding triggers and emotions. Freud’s ideas of unconsciousness and locked memories paved the road for many theories about healing from within.
On March 11th of 2007, I last saw my best friend from childhood. She had a red linen dress, flowy and light, full of wrinkles on the tights and back -where it folds when sitting- and black leather shoes. Sometimes I can still hear her heals bouncing back and forth from the garden.
There were flowers in her hair, small yellow gerbera daisies, cut from her backyard and arranged in such way as if she had a crown — a pure, beautiful one.
I can go on for hours on many details I vividly remember from that evening, before a trip she went to, and never came back from. My only hope is to have all these memories with me, for as long as my mind can hold onto them.
Music is another perfect example. Cooking and dancing: name a better pair. From beats that take you to high school and long, dark staircases; to the opera your dad cannot stop playing every time he is in charge of the remote.
Our 5 senses blend together and our main purpose shifts to synchrony. The fight-or-run theory becomes a reality. Your mouth salivates more, your pupils choose to follow instead of leading and your fingers grab for the rival — a beautiful battle.
“One, two, three…” and it goes to ten before it’s time to relax for 2–3mins. A vaginal birth reunites emotions of fear and excitement back again, while allowing our type to procreate, to stay around for another generation, to make amends — or maybe not. The point is — what a moment!
For some reason, we are not all capable of doing it. The pulling sensation dragging down from the womb, becomes unbearable for so many — yet, we choose to do it again.
The most important and painful point of every mother’s life has as many feelings as possible. I cannot put my finger on a broader spectrum, a wider range of emotions. It is all colors together, and none at the same time. It might be taking a deep breath in, for the first time — or maybe your last, with help or without, either way. What a scary moment, isn’t it?
I feel reassured now that my point has come across: we are a network of emotions in constant change. The way we feel is the reason we are here, and the reason we go away. We dominate our fate, and then again no. Our battle is fought at the playground every day, at all times.
We are interesting creatures, now I dare to say some years later. I’ve seen the best and the worst on the same day, by the same person. Our salvation depends on our kind, especially the way we connect with each other; and we are here deciding if the dress is gold or blue. There must be a better way to play this game.
