We’ll begin with a set of quotes from one of the books I’m currently re-reading, Our Polyvagal World: How Safety and Trauma Change Us,1 by Stephen Porges and Seth Porges.
On the opening page, are two quotes:
“I think, therefore I am.” ~~ Descartes
AND
“I feel myself, therefore I am.” ~~The Polyvagal Theory
No, I haven’t asked the authors why they chose those quotes.
Yet, I share with you why they have importance to me.
Importance
My entire lifetime has been affected (negatively) by people asserting that thinking/reasoning and sensing are on the opposite ends of a linear scale from each other; and that one is better than the other. Thinking was taught to me as “the way” to be an upright, staunch, sane human being. A slew of biases2.
I struggled heavily with it because I “knew” it wasn’t true — and I couldn’t “prove it”; so, not only wasn’t I taken seriously, I was ridiculed, punitively treated, and labeled pejoratively.
As I read this opening page for the first time with the quotes, I felt — a “phew!” — a sensation in my body that I interpret as “I feel safe”.
As we start exploring, I invite your musing with this question:
What if thinking and sensing are moments on a spectrum, neither better nor worse than the other?
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What is Polyvagal Theory? | Polyvagal Institute, a source online I trust. One of the founding members is Stephen Porges.
Bias. We all have ‘em. We learn ‘em. I believe it’s part-and-parcel of the use of words/verbal languaging.