Navigating the Complex by Connecting with Our Environment
Except from Our Fractal Nature A Journey of Self-Discovery and Connection
“Fractal design validates the premise of artificial life: that beauty and life can spring from iteration of simple mechanical rules. That you can get out more than what you put in. The intent of my work is to show that creation does not require control, and in fact, giving up control is the primary creative.”
– Scott Draves, Artist
“It is easy to get the impression that progress in science depends on discovering the ever finer details of the world. This is a false impression. The most important progress in science involves changes in the basic way we see the world.”
– Larry S. Leibovitch, from Complexity, Two Lessons from Fractals and Chaos
Navigating the Complex by Connecting with Our Environment
We can navigate the complex motifs and patterns of life easily by looking for that with which we feel congruent or harmonious.
Illustrated by the trunk and branches of the fruit-bearing Lucama tree found in Peru, fractals are described as self-similar structures. Each branch resembles a smaller version of the trunk. Even the leaves have tiny, branching veins which are self-similar to the branching trunk. A tree is visually complex even though it is made up of one simple branching pattern.
Our bodies also have many self-similar patterns. The structures, patterns, processes, and information both inside and outside our bodies share similarities with nature.
Even though tiny blood vessels are like the aorta, which is the largest artery in our body, no part of our circulatory system is exactly the same as any other part. There are variations in size, color, and vibration. How these blood vessels strengthen our happiness, comfort, and health depends on their relationship to the community in which they contribute.
What are We Contributing To?
The self-similar design of our brains protects us as we grow and develop efficiently using the resources, building blocks, and energy with which we provide them. There are infinite fractal layers in the brain, influencing our ability to communicate and perceive the world around and inside us.
The communities in the brain “talk” with other areas in the body and with the external environment. Each nested layer contributes, including the DNA’s spiraled double helix, the retina’s tiny nervous system trees, and the thalamic neurons’ branching patterns. These neurons influence our perception of pain and pleasure while interpreting many of the sensations coming from our environment.
The fractal geometry of the balance-related neurons displays a self-similar design and provides maximal function for a fixed cost per nerve fiber. Anyone who lives on a budget can appreciate this aspect of fractals: getting maximal function from limited space and resources.
Fractal shapes and processes in the brain explain how a huge number of interconnected neurons produce a range of behaviors in a flexible and self-organized way. As information moves through the nervous system, it is like water in a river, flowing and changing shape wherever it goes. Each time we appreciate the quality of our lives and the functioning of our being, we are evaluating or measuring something different.
Our healthy brain is able to process information in a way that “fits” a personal landscape shaped by attitudes, previous knowledge, and experience. Each time we encounter something new we change the contours of our nervous systems.
Do we notice differences or changes each time we reevaluate and interpret the experiences in our lives?
A defining feature of a healthy mind, body, and spirit is adaptability — the capacity to respond to unpredictable situations, feelings, and stress. When systems in our bodies become less complex, the complexity of the information they can process is also degraded, and we become less adaptable. Functional plasticity, or the ability to adapt and respond, is best served by the high complexity in our nervous systems, a surplus of readily available information, and a variety of options from which to choose our best way forward.
The fractals in our bodies and brains are rich, complex patterns, and they suggest that we are perfectly designed to comfortably and safely enjoy life and all the complex relationships in this universe.
Connect to Your Fractal Health
Find a picture of blood vessels or the nervous system. Notice the self-similar branching. Ask yourself how efficient these structures are and how they serve you.
Think of a goal you have. If zero means you will never achieve it, and ten means you already achieved it perfectly, which number would you assign the goal? Consider what resources you have that would make the goal easier to achieve.
List 20 or more ways that you can imagine accomplishing a goal. Whether they seem realistic or hilariously fantastical, notice how many choices you have as you write them down.
As the Queen in Alice in Wonderland suggests, “believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
Ten Insights on Fractal Health
Here are ten insights to appreciate about our lives and our fractal nature.
We are beautifully designed.
Seeing fractals calms us and intrigues us with infinite choices.
We can navigate the complex motifs and patterns of life simply and naturally by connecting with what is similar and familiar to us.
Our fractal nature eases the process of searching for what is meaningful.
While our brains are memory-storing and information-gathering devices, our minds interpret the perceived information.
Like your life, the final shape of a fractal depends on the information blueprint stored in the original “seed,” or start of the trajectory.
There are many doorways to healing.
We can connect with the energy and rhythms of life’s flow.
We are a unique part of a community with nested layers and boundaries.
Fractal layers in the brain create a quantum environment available for expanded consciousness.
Connect to Your Fractal Health
Ask someone to pick a number between 0 and 9. Then ask them how many choices they had. Explain that they have infinite choices.
Write down something true — something indisputably true. Consider how much information we need to make a choice. How much more information do we need to make a judgment?
Originally Published at Our Fractal Nature A Journey of Self-Discovery and Connection by Kimberly Burnham, PhD (Integrative Medicine). A Messenger Mini Book, 2011.
