Brene's Atlas

Mary-Anne Wielinga • February 19, 2023

Atlas of the Heart

Hi. I wanted to start my book reviews with what I consider a "legend " book.

Imagine you set out your front door one day with a plan to go adventuring and you have a map with you. What happens if you can't read the map? What happens if the squiggles, lines, and colours on the map mean nothing to you? How do you navigate? Do you just wander around lost? A map needs a legend – a code to tell you what all the special symbols are.

Brene Brown of the Shame and Vulnerability Ted Talk fame (+ Netflix show) has written a lot of books. A very recent one is Atlas of the Heart, this is the map’s legend. The Atlas of the Heart describes the emotions that Brene's research says are critical to expressing yourself in life and connecting with others. They are distilled down to 87!

Why would it be worthwhile listing emotions and their descriptions? On a simple level, imagine a 2 year old having a tantrum. Often a tantrum can be because the little person does not know what is wrong, or why they are tantruming. They can't say," it's not fair!" or "I'm embarrassed", because they don't have the words for it. If you can't label a feeling, it can be hard to recognise it. How do you resolve problems that can't be described?

Emotional growth and maturity depend on recognition of how you feel.

I really enjoyed this book especially the emotions ‘awe & wonderment’ and I was surprised by the true descriptions of pride, hubris and humility. It seems that we get the description of pride all wrong; it makes it worth the read just for this. I also found Brene's grouping of the emotions super instructive.

I hope you can guess why a book like this would be valuable to me. It describes fundamental emotions clearly and groups them, which helps me with my map making. I hope many of you go and check this incredible woman out. She is bold, honest, and vulnerable in her strong Texan way.

xx Mary-Anne


“Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Healing as a whole person

By Mary-Anne Wielinga • January 29, 2024
One concept of health is wholeness in body, mind and spirit. Yet what I consider 'health’ as is not a ‘perfect’ whole body, mind and spirit. Perfect is not really achievable for many (and is the top athlete ever truly happy with their health? I don't know!). We need to look at health in a living state of our body, mind and spirit. The World Health organisation describes health as; "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity".

Emotional brain

By Mary-Anne Wielinga • January 15, 2024
Are you left or right brain dominant?

Beyond Butterflies

By Mary-Anne Wielinga • December 23, 2023
Transitioning to school can manifest in bodily symptoms

seeing the whole body

By Mary-Anne Wielinga • December 4, 2023
We have been looking at the links between our body, mind and spirit. The question remains: how are they linked when we are unwell? The idea that what we think and feel can make us sick has been around for a long time. On the flipside, it is very clear that sometimes we are sick independent of thoughts and feelings. Yet the emotions appear to be there anyway. How does that work? They seem to be impossible to unravel. In fact, I suspect it is simultaneous; it happens together. It may appear that one precedes the other, and perhaps that is true. My theory is that the WHOLE self changes its function and it manifests in one form, most visibly in the body. Yet, body, mind and spirit are damaged at the same time. I know this appears to be different to the comment I wrote in my last blog - that a ‘broken’ body can be whole and healthy. Perhaps the examples in my mind are people that have grown as a result of their injuries? An accident ends with a body becoming paraplegic; however, the person’s mind and spirit grow in strength and stamina. Spiritual and emotional well-being can be independent of physical health. Perhaps this is the exception? Or a goal? If we are blessed to age, we have changes in our body, markers of our life, such as arthritis in the fingers, bellies that sag, and wrinkles. These are normal. For example, corrosive thinking wears down the body, which aligns with basic histology that shows cells can take decades to change their form. The cells are eventually worn down. They function differently for a while, then change shape and become functionally different. Specific example: type two diabetes doesn't come out of nowhere; the body is attempting to cope for a long time before it can no longer work its insulin magic. Change means that time is a key factor. My limited understanding of physics suggests that the answer will eventually come from there. Give it another 50 years. There is some very cool information on simultaneous time (time appears to flow forwards and backwards) as well as quantum entanglement. We are peeking at a problem in another room through a little keyhole! In my practice, I have seen how the WHOLE self changes its function and sickness manifests in one form, most visibly in the body. However, with an ill body, the mind and spirit are damaged in a linked timeframe. We have so much more to learn. In my next post I talk about this with concrete examples.

Shifting my world view

By Mary-Anne Wielinga • November 15, 2023
My world changed

Onto the Orient

By Mary-Anne Wielinga • October 30, 2023
Digging into the details

Balance

September 6, 2023
I have used this term ‘balance’ quite a lot in my blogs, but the meaning may at times be elusive to its actual function in our bodies.

Tell me a story

August 27, 2023
All stories are part of one big story. And there are a range of story tellers.

Update

August 20, 2023
Hello my friends! A little update to let you know how my project is progressing. I now have a sight on when I will finish getting the last 10% of my "scribbles" into confluence. 10th of September! thats the plan ! keep me accountable, ok? I have hit a few snags in this last bit. Firstly when I started writing down my arms work several years ago, I muddled up the drawings of the arms. It turns out if you don't draw enough land marks it is quite easy to mix the orientation of the arms.. don't ask, its a painful, irritating mistake. The result is I will need to remap the arms again. As well as being almost finished with digitising, I would say I am close to having mapped the body "completely" the first time around. Perhaps 80-90% ? ( hmmm maybe that estimate is a bit high..) As I have said earlier I expect to need to travel to other communities to complete the work fully, as well as needing about 10-20 years to finish it to a satisfactory level. What do I mean by that? Each Body point is its own story and journey within it and will need many, many datapoints over time to round it out and make it complete. Time is the only remedy for that one! I've decided to have an open day on the 10th of September (2023) if you are local and can pop in, I would love to see you. I am planning to have all my work out, with Tracy's gorgeous illustrations to be seen! I have a few hundred pages by the way! I plan to show everyone a little of how it works on the day. If you are curious, this is the day for you! xx Mary-Anne

Madness

August 17, 2023
I thought I was going mad. I have been feeling like an old typewriter... following a trail of ideas and attempting to go back to the beginning... over and over again. Do you remember the typewriters that have the lever so you can use "return" and start the next row? But rows flow? "ting!" My madness was in thinking that the way I have been creating was "wonky" or "wrong". The weird idea was that I was supposed to follow one path of ideas to completion and then start the next idea. WRONG! Instead I have been working on multiple threads of projects all at once… like a mad busy lady. I realise now, if I followed that way, I would lose so many leads of information and lose an immense amount of time (I'm guessing years, people!). Sigh. Relief. I am what I am. Those of you that know me well would be fully aware that I am a sensitive creature that tends to not care and also fret - all at the same time. I feel a sense of relief that this way of working, my way, is indeed perfect for my job. At the moment I am attempting to create a cohesive picture of the Chest. It involves about 11 paired lung points, the 6 heart points, an undetermined number of intercostal points, possibly 9 paired breast points, as well as the rib margin points. Also, did I mention the points around the collarbone? Many of these are very close to each other and may overlap. What makes it extra tricky is that mapping and recording one point this morning resulted in me working on a left foot point, in an entirely different system (wait what.. another system? Yes, I am creating 3 different systems at once… that info can just remain hidden for a few more years). Chest, breast, foot, now… where was I? So now you can see why I feel like a typewriter... I must continually return my little brain to the beginning.... "ting!". But I also need to acknowledge the threads and links… and that is where more knowledge and insights may lie.  My darling cousin R said years ago I was like a Rosella... noisy, colourful, messy and creative, and just to be myself. Slowly, slowly, I see that this insane, haphazard way of creating is just fine, thanks ! Thanks for listening! xx Mary-Anne
More Posts
Share by: