Enriching Our Inner Maps

by Gopal Ramasammy-Cook (Career-Creative Coach, ZestWare)

A metaphor that has significantly influenced my thinking about the value of a creative personal philosophy is the notion of an inner map. I'm not exactly sure where I first encountered it, but I have come to value the perspective it brings.

The idea is based on the now commonly understood notion that our inner subjective reality does not exactly mirror an "objective" reality. The reason I put the word "objective" in quotes, is that I believe it to be a somewhat slippery and fuzzy term. Don't misunderstand me - I'm not one of those extreme virtual-illusionists who believe that there is no real world out there, and that the entire thing is a Matrix-style fabrication of the blob of gray matter between our ears.

But having said that, I also do not believe that we have "direct access" to that "objective" outer world. All we can experience is the world of our experiences. OK, so duh. But I still find it quite fascinating that our senses filter incoming information in a specific way, and that this information is further filtered by our brains and then combined with memories, beliefs, emotional states, prejudices, media propaganda, and probably a whole bunch of other stuff to create the pictures, stories, metaphors, and symbols we fondly refer to as "objective reality". Objective? Methinks not.

So all we have access to is a map, not the territory itself. Now I used to think of this state of affairs as a great deficiency. But a bit of reflection reveals the tremendous potential here. If the reality we have access to is largely subjective, this leaves great room for creatively crafting that reality. The realization that what we perceive and believe might have more to do with how our senses, brains, and nervous systems have evolved than anything objective is nothing short of a breakthrough in creative personal philosophy.

We might, for example, reflect on the possibility that the brain has a natural tendency to be fearfully overprotective (it still believes there are saber-tooth tigers waiting outside the cave ready to pounce), and resistant to change (at least what we did yesterday got us through the day in one piece). We might consider the possibility that it colors all our experiences and paints our inner maps with a brush dipped in this black-and-white of fear and inertia, until the map resembles a bad fax of a bad photocopy of a faded original that was inaccurate to start with.

This awareness might just slowly, over time, and with the right kind of coaching and teaching help us to repaint our maps with a richer palate - one of potential and possibility, of energy, and inspiration, and zest.

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