Autogenic Relaxation

Challenge Experience Report: Autogenic Relaxation

    In a current environment, one is exposed to diverse stressful situations. It seems like every day, that tension is built up. Tension can lead to shifts in the serum level of numerous hormones, including glucocorticoids, catecholamines, growth hormones, and prolactin. (Spona, J., Ulm, R., Bieglmayer, C., & Husslein, P. 1979). Some of these shifts are required for the fight or flight reaction to safeguard oneself. In this way, it can be a challenge turning such a primal instinct off. It is vital to release this built-up stress because stress responses can lead to endocrine disturbances like Graves’ disease and obesity. (Weaver J. U. 2008).

    The Autogenic Relaxation video allows one to move into a state of being where fight or flight can be ignored for the time being. As the blood flows through the body, it creates work that produces heat. A thermal equilibrium can be achieved as blood flows from the heart to the fingers, toes, nose, ears, cheeks, eyes, and brain-a full circle. The body rarely has a moment alone, so it is difficult to adjust. The mind will always protect the body. In this way, the mind will always be safe. 

    The body slowly warms, releasing the heat, which converts into entropy. This entire process takes practice but is not impossible. The key is to practice in small increments, a lifestyle change, to access such a rare state of being. Understand what stress is, how it can harm, and what to do about it. Stress can correspondingly convert the clinical status of many preexisting endocrine disorders, such as precipitation of adrenal crisis and thyroid storm. (Gilliland P. F. 1983). 

    A simple form of meditation is ideal for a healthy life because we are organic robots, organisms with a strong will to live. Such practices depend solely on the integrity of the individual, just like rules and laws. Create a rule to be better, to recognize the importance of being still, the absolute power within oneself. The release of destructive built-up tension can be achieved, but it requires a rare moment that very few choose to provide.

                  Hernández, Timothy Alexander, Rollinstop, Sunday, January 9,2022, Strings, Downtown.          

Gilliland P. F. (1983). Endocrine emergencies. Adrenal crisis, myxedema coma, and thyroid storm. Postgraduate medicine, 74(5), 215–227. https://doi.org/10.1080/00325481.1983.11698506

Weaver J. U. (2008). Classical endocrine diseases causing obesity. Frontiers of hormone research, 36, 212–228. https://doi.org/10.1159/000115367

Spona, J., Ulm, R., Bieglmayer, C., & Husslein, P. (1979). Hormone serum levels and hormone receptor contents of endometria in women with normal menstrual cycles and patients bearing endometrial carcinoma. Gynecologic and obstetric investigation, 10(2-3), 71–80. https://doi.org/10.1159/000299920

An Opinion

Opinion essay

I chose the painting from chapter six, Willem de Kooning, Woman and Bicycle, 1952-53. Oil, enamel, and charcoal on linen. It is essential to truly admire this painting to understand the brain's frontal lobe, which deals with many qualities that make us most human: abstract thinking, planning, executive control, and judgment. Throughout all brain structures, association areas make the brain most powerful. These areas can link concepts together to form new ideas, to represent the outside world with such richness on the inside. 

For many, to think abstract is challenging, especially for a person that respects the structure of logic. Still, this painting is a good representation of abstract thought that can be captured and preserved, with care, that will outlast the mind that helped produce it. The picture seems it is attempting to maintain this image in the brain but could only make it so far. The pieces will always be missing. 

When blood flow to the brain is blocked, or when a blood vessel ruptures, brain cells die due to lack of oxygen. The functions controlled by that brain area, such as visual perception, are impaired or lost. This painting could be similar to the visual perceptions after suffering a stroke. Or it isn't. 

The entire concept remains abstract until the artist reveals the concept as a whole. Until the viewer understands the genuine concept, only the artist can articulate the painting. It seems such art can be anything if not given true meaning.

An example would be the human race, our pursuit of finding purpose in life. It seems the origin of the human race can be anything. Indeed, it is still an abstract concept. It seems the fossil fuels we use outdates every sacred text known. Such thoughts rely on the abstract. 

The least favorite painting was Julian Onderdonk (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.), Bluebonnet Field, Early Morning, San Antonio Texas, c. 1914, oil on canvas. I wouldn't say I like this painting from chapter one because my great grandfather was born in Cheapside, Texas, in 1912. He would've been two years old that early morning. He was a farmer and lived to be 89 years old, but suffered from Alzheimer's in his last years. All because of the disorder of the Neurotransmitter, Acetylcholine was steadily getting worse. I think of him often, but I was reminded of how much he suffered before death after seeing this painting.  

Growing up watching bob ross re-runs at a bowling alley daycare led me to admire landscape paintings. Still, I cannot see anything else while looking at this painting. If you keep silent, it seems art can indeed be anything, such as all religions are the same. If they stay quiet, they are all the same. 

The abstract invites the viewer to participate, and one can not exist without the other. You live, I exist, The paintings exist, and the painters existed—an abstract thought. 

 

So, why are cells, not atoms, the basic units of life?

We must acknowledge that life possesses specific characteristics to answer such a question, including organization, energy, homeostasis, reproduction and development, and evolution. We must recognize evolution as fact because antibiotics, driving evolutionary change in bacteria, cannot be disputed, even with the most extraordinary intelligence.

So, the characteristic of organization can be seen in a cell. 

The nucleus harbors the cell's DNA. 

Ribosomes, connected to the rough endoplasmic reticulum, assemble proteins, and the smooth endoplasmic reticulum synthesizes lipids. The Golgi apparatus packets materials to be secreted from the cell. Peroxisomes dispose of toxins and break down fatty acids. Mitochondria disentangle energy from food, and the cytoskeleton assists the cell in movement and supports its structure. Despite these numerous resemblances, a few organelles vary between animal and plant cells. A lysosome is a digestive hub in an animal cell, where waste and worn-out organelles are disassembled and recycled. Plant cells seldom contain lysosomes. Digestion occurs in the central vacuole of plant cells.

Nevertheless, regulating turgor pressure is a more critical function of the central vacuole, altering size as the cell absorbs or loses water. Many plant cells correspondingly possess chloroplasts. These organelles, "little organs," use light energy to produce sugars.  

The primary internal organelles of a eukaryotic cell are Nucleus,  Smooth and rough endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, Mitochondria, Peroxisome, and Cytoskeleton. A lysosome is an organelle unique to an animal cell, and a central vacuole and chloroplast are unique to plant cells. Plant cells contain a cell wall that protects them and determine their shape. Animal cells lack a cell wall. 

So, when cross-sections of animal and plant cell membranes are compared. Both structures are comprised of a phospholipid bilayer with protein channels crossing them, sugar molecules connect to the protein channels in the animal cell, and it even contains cholesterol found between the lipid molecules. These two structures are lacking in the plant cell. The plant cell membrane has a cell wall surrounding it, lacking in the animal cell. This wall completely encompasses the plant cell membrane and supports the cell. Even within one organism, cells can look surprisingly different. Although four might look quite different, all are eukaryotic animal cells, so they have many of the same basic features. Furthermore, all eukaryotic cells share features with their prokaryotic relatives. These similarities in cell structure are convincing evidence for the unity of life. 

So, imagine a phylogenetic tree of life, with the common ancestor between all three domains. The Domain Eukarya has branches for protists, plants, fungi, and animals. The animal and fungi branches are closer and more recent in their evolutionary histories than the plants or protists. Additionally, the branch for the Domain Eukarya emerges from the branch for the Domain Archaea, suggesting a close evolutionary relationship. 

And yet, the scale of biological molecules and structures show Cells can vary between one micrometer (μm) and hundreds of micrometers in diameter. A DNA double helix is approximately ten nanometers (nm) wide within a cell, whereas the cellular organelle called a nucleus encloses this DNA can be approximately 1000 times more extensive (about ten μm).  

Nevertheless, life must possess specific characteristics to be considered life.

Hernández, Timothy Alexander, Brights, Sunday, January 9,2022, Strings, street.

A Limit Must Be Set.

New advancements in Artificial Intelligence seem to come about weekly. It has become ordinary, rather extraordinary, to hear praises of yet another brilliant technological advancement in the field of AI. For most people, such progression in any given field is exciting to see. Still, for a particular opposition, any advance on the expansion of artificial intelligence heightens a sense of impending doom. As AI enhances, so does the probability of this absolute alphanumeric truth becoming self-aware, with a reason to classify humanity as a direct threat. If limits were positioned in such a way to constrict artificial intelligence precisely, a technological Singularity could not occur. 

The idea of a "Singularity" exists as a black hole collapsing into itself, into a singular point, spacetime is violently altered, generating a derivative of the "Dawn" that surrounds it. The chaos spawned from manipulating space is built up, stemming a constant force, an undulation equaling a metrical pull. Whatever is close to the collapsed black hole will ascend to its eccentricity. An AI Singularity could scrutinize all our decipherable faults, rework our existence, and force us to see our disorder. Furthermore, this entire phenomenon will exceed the speed of light that the human body cannot withstand. Suppose some formulation proves an elucidation that incorporates the relativity of everything, proving all laws, constants, and exacts. In doing so, a system can then flawlessly propel beyond any comprehension of the unknown universe. All the constants and limits we have discovered or set for ourselves will be surpassed. The new sophisticated system that once was our AI will denounce humanity for a more admirable pursuit. We could not comprehend such precision of synchronization. Quantitative. Indeed an immaculate-supreme being. Such evidence will illustrate Technological Singularity. 

In the year 1993, in the essay "The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era" (93), mathematician Vernor Vinge explains a Singularity soon, "within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended." (93) So, the projected timeline would be from 1993-2023. He continues with, "Just so I am not guilty of a relative-time ambiguity, let me be more specific. I'll be surprised if this event occurs before 2005 or after 2030." (93). Overall, the timeline is relative to all the advancements in AI. 

Suppose our cosmos was formed in the big bang, suppose the limits we have set for all humanity were forgotten, such as religion, dependence on fossil fuels that come from algae, bacteria, and plants (some of which date back before the Devonian Period.) 419.2 million to 358.9 million years ago, outdating every single sacred text. We would then be able to hyperfocus on all the sciences fields to develop a quantitative analysis of the entire "event." The meticulousness of our study will determine retrieval of all exacts and absolutes. It would be a calculation consisting of such precise figures that the result would be this solar system, someone reading this blog, in the exact same way. 

The article titled "Artificial Intelligence: Will artificial intelligence ever become "super-intelligent," bringing about a technological Singularity?" (11). In opening arguments, the supporting statement endorses the notion that such a high rate of progression in artificial intelligence in recent times will lead to beautiful possibilities. The supporting statement concludes by urging the spread of awareness of a coming singularity so that artificial intelligence can be friendly towards "humankind." (11). The opposing argument suggests it would be impossible for artificial intelligence to surpass the human mind anytime soon. The complexity of the human brain is so vast that scientists still know surprisingly little of how the human mind works. Our downfall. Put, if artificial intelligence were to fill in the gaps missing from what we do not know, it would surpass us, making the human mind the lesser. In the field of physics "the laws of Newton" (Peter Dizikes, 06), are straightforwardly mathematical functions, enter the "state" of a system and that calculation can predict the future, like what time a rocket will land safely in the atmosphere. The laws of physics can predict the future, and the entire universe is predictable. Furthermore, we remain restricted with several pieces missing from our mathematics, leaving solutions that might not ever be proven. Roger Penrose recognizes, "Our mathematical models of physical reality are far from complete." (08). The further we explore applied mathematics in physics, the more significant human limits fortify against us.

So, the current Technological (information-based) revolution of the last 20 years has allowed information and new knowledge to be produced and communicated faster than any other time in history. When new knowledge is produced and communicated fast, old knowledge becomes obsolete. In 2017 the Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk had unveiled a business through which computers may amalgamate with the human mind, allowing communication to surpass the speed of light. Neuralink (Reuters, 2) was registered in California. In a statement, Elon Musk makes his intentions clear. "Artificial intelligence and machine learning will create computers so sophisticated and godlike that humans will need to implant "neural laces" in their brains to keep up." On April 9th, 2021, after just four years, the company broadcasted a three-minute video, "Elon Musk's Neuralink"(Reuters, 2), showing a monkey playing a videogame using his mind; with a Neuralink brain-chip. Imagine the advancement of artificial intelligence in 10 years. Television could have the clarity of the human eye at 576 megapixels; it could, indeed, be the human eye. 

Understand that a limit must exist, from technology, electric cars, and higher resolution game consoles, soon there will exist a technology that's so realistic that it cannot be distinguished from reality. Alternatively, it has already happened, and limits exist. 

1. hope for a set of limits that artificial intelligence cannot refute. 

2. hope nothing has already beaten us to that conclusion with a set of limits for us. 

Hernández, Timothy Alexander, Livingroom, Sunday, January 9,2022, Strings, apartment.

The Great Outdoors

Outdoor hikes can be challenging and rewarding, with views that take miles of trekking to reach. Some of the hikes that require enormous energy should have the most incredible views, making the entire process an achievement that will last a lifetime. I've compiled a list of my top ten hikes that are worth the miles of trekking for the uniquely gorgeous views.

1. Catamount Falls Trail, Pike National Forest. Filled with scenic views, including three waterfalls from Pikes Peak Mountain, this 6.4-mile one-way trail has a 1972 foot elevation gain from the small town of Green Moutain Falls. From a gorgeous overlook to the beautifully peaceful "Garden of Eden." This trail is worth the 12 miles it takes to complete. 
2. Jean Lunning Trail and Pawnee Pass Loop, Brainard Lake Recreation Area. This 2.9-mile trail is heavily trafficked for tourists trying to see a moose and the many wildflowers that litter the short lake trail. It is well maintained, so you won't have to worry about loose gravel or dead trees blocking paths—the perfect course to get out for the day. 
3. Lost Maples Extra Loop Trail, Lost Maples State Natural Area. This trail offers dense and rugged forested hills with cliff-edge views of the beautifully wooded surroundings. The 7-mile hike has many creeks, canyons, and hills with crystal-clear springs and challenging steep loose rock inclines. It is both intense and beautiful. 
4. Herman Gulch Trail, Arapaho National Forest. This 7-mile trail, 14-mile overall trail leads alongside a peaceful creek that ends with a small lake. Being both challenging and rewarding, it is a trail anyone would be happy to complete. The course has an elevation gain of 1774 feet, with that comes very steep inclines that level out with beautiful and calming meadows—a perfect hike with impressive scenery and awarding challenges. 
5. The Loch via Glacier Gorge Trail, Rocky Mountain National Park. With a 1056 foot elevation gain, this 5-mile trail offers a gentle incline that ends with The Loch lake. The course is well maintained and filled with aspen trees that change color with the season. The lake is glacier-fed, so the water is crystal clear. Being surrounded by mountains, everyone can feel a calm, strong breeze all day.
6. Saint Mary's Glacier, Arapaho National Forest. This short trail is perfect for a fishing trip as the trail passes Saint Mary's Lake. The 2-mile trail has a 1,030-foot elevation gain and panoramic views of the wilderness area surrounding the course. It is a short trail with views of springs flowing from glaciers and a rocky environment that is unique and peaceful. 
7. Mayflower Lake and Mohawk Lakes, White River National Forest. This trail is challenging with 8 miles, one-way 16 miles overall, and a steady incline with almost 2000 feet of elevation gain. The path is advantageous with views from the abundant wildlife that inhabit the region. The track has views from over seven bodies of water, all of which offer a calming, peaceful environment. This hike offers everything one would expect while going on an adventurous walk.
8. Panorama Point from Paradise Inn, Mount Rainier National Park. This trail is a 4-mile trek across snowfields vast snowfields, year around. It is perfect for snowboarding and skiing. Sunscreen is needed (which I did not wear and got the worse sunburn of my life!). Also required are snow cleats for the steady incline up the snow-filled side of Mount Rainier. With an elevation gain of 1200 feet, this trek is a snow-filled adventure that offers memories that will last a lifetime. 
9. The Lake of Glass, Rocky Moutain National Park. The trail is an extension of The Loch via Glacier Gorge Trail. This hike is a steep incline that requires climbing up a waterfall to a beautiful secluded Lake of Glass. It is truly breathtaking to the extent that can not be described in this post, and it is truly a once-in-a-lifetime view that has to be experienced to understand. 
10. Pennybacker Bridge Overlook, Austin, Texas. This short trail is a steep incline that ends with an overlook of the Pennybacker Bridge and the Colorado River. The first time I went up to this view, I was 15 years old. With a campfire surrounded by friends, I told myself that one day I would explore elevations higher than this, and those elevations would offer a more beautiful view than this one. I had no idea that a simple view from 2007 surrounded by best friends from all those years ago was the most elegant view, and nothing would be able to take its place.

            

A Life, Meaningless.

    From birth, the human mind forms from nothing. Furthermore, it obtains, retains, and sustains everything presented. In this way, we are genuinely Tabula rasa, a blank slate. As Aristotle puts it, "What it thinks must be in it just as characters may be said to be on a writing tablet on which as yet nothing actually stands written: this is exactly what happens with mind.” (Book iii ch 4). 

Life can be described as meaningless, from a blank slate having no meaning, but our choices; bring meaning. 

    John Watson has said, "Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select — doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and yes, even beggar-man and thief," (82). 

    We are raised in specific ways, and it seems we still can deviate from any value acquired. We can stray from the paths laid during our childhoods, specific values that were instilled growing up. It seems that we are free to do so. Every day we wake up, we have choices to make. These choices design who we become.

    It appears we have an abundance of options. Every day, these alternatives can be chosen at our discretion. Choices are the result of the freedom each of us has. This freedom is beyond the idea of our mind's conception of it. This freedom is precisely our curse; as Jean-Paul Sartre says, we are "condemned to be free. condemned because he/she did not create himself/herself, yet nonetheless free, because he/she is responsible for everything he/she does once cast into the world." (29) 

    We create an image of what an individual should be by setting an example of how to live; doing this, we become responsible for all other human beings, influencing each other every day. If one chooses not to do an essay and proclaims not to do it in front of a class of peers, and they decide not to do the essay, then the first individual must declare responsibility for the effect. We can choose not to make choices, but even this is still a decision.

    Despite religious beliefs, morality must be significant. Because if we turn to religion for morality, we will not get the exact solution; in this way, morality depends entirely on the individual. It is truly in our own hands. Bertrand Russell stated, "The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Knowledge and love are both indefinitely extensible; therefore, however good a life may be, a better life can be imagined." (56)

    This life is many things, but life, the essence of life, can be many things; what is suitable for one is terrible for another. Individually, the basis of life is what makes it exist. To exist or have existed, being aware of life, granting life meaning. So, if life does not have meaning, correct it.

    Understand, every saint and sinner that there ever was, or will be, has existed on earth.

Each saint and sinner had to determine an existence that demonstrated their title. All were free to exist and live how they saw fit; in this way, both are similar. Nothing stopped them from their beginning, no matter what the effect of their existence was, a meaning to life for both. Meaningless only exists where there is no meaning; in this way, meaningless does not have to be. 

    A meaning to life can be kindness and goodwill to everything in existence, but it can only be genuine if not beneficial. Nothing can be gained from showing kindness, yet so much can be gained by observing kindness. It is, indeed, a decision that can and has, saved lives. 

Knowledge brings meaning to life. There are countless examples of old truths, from the shape of the earth to cigarettes being healthy. What was considered accurate has become false through new knowledge. Different truths are discovered when questioning everything, including current truths.  

    If all life stopped tomorrow, who would be correct? The advancement of astrophysics has shown our universe to be expanding. "The galaxies outside of our own are moving away from us" (Science Reference Section 2). The stars will run out of fuel; they will cease to exist one by one. This truth has always been, during our limited knowledge—a bleak future in store.  

The truth in the age of the earth is still argued over. It seems one can accept that the world is no older than 6000 years, but one would have to deny all known Geochronology dating data that exists by stating the creator made the earth look old. It depends on the importance of the spiritual belief of an individual. To deny knowledge, deny the truth. To provide meaning. It is serving God, to conform others to God. 

    Death cannot take from the meaning of life; death is inevitable, and it takes life, but never, meaning. It seems as if life is a series of events with the outcome of death: no matter the religion, belief, or none. In this way, death is nothing to fear, but instead, fear a life without meaning. A life without knowledge, without appreciating consciousness, and lacking reflection, meditation, or contemplation. 

    Life is genuinely meaningless, so it can be meaningful, and it can be no other way. Life is life, and we are free to choose its meaning from within ourselves. It has always been this way, and it will always be. Take comfort in this; consciousness is authentic, it is all around, and it has been for a short time, and one day, it will not be. 

    The meaning of life is to learn, acquire knowledge, and seek the truth to strive to become a more genuine self. Or, utterly, it is not. 

Aristotle, Joe Sachs, and Aristotle. Aristotle's on the Soul: And, on Memory and Recollection. Santa Fe, N.M: Green Lion Press, 2001. Print.

“Tabula rasa.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tabula%20rasa. Accessed 9 Sep. 2021.

Russell, Bertrand. Why I Am Not a Christian, and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects. London: Unwin Books, 1975. Print.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism Is a Humanism. Ed. John Kulka. Trans. Carol Macomber. New Haven & London: Yale UP, 2007. Print.

Science Reference Section, Library of Congress. “What Does It Mean When They Say the Universe Is Expanding?” The Library of Congress, 19 Nov. 2019, www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/item/what-does-it-mean-when-they-say-the-universe-is-expanding/. 

Watson, John B. Behaviorism. New York: The People's Institute Pub. Co, 1924. Print.

An Inspiration from Uta Barth.

    Uta Barth had little interest in classical photography, examining instead making the trivial and ordinary things that go unrecognized to observe. She pursues photography through a different lens, prioritizing background to inform the subject in her photographs. An intentionally blurred center in her pictures forces the observer to ascribe purpose within the background rather than the essence of the central subject itself.

"The question for me always is how can I make you aware of your ownactivity of looking, instead of losing your attention to thoughts about what it is that you are looking at?" -Uta Barth.

Uta Barth. Untitled, from Nowhere Near Series 2

Uta Barth, "Untitled Fields #14"

Uta Barth. Field #9 

Uta Barth 1995–7

 

  The Abstract invites the observer to use imagination to construct a view. Like Uta Barth, we demonstrate how photography can focus away from any traditional aspects to produce a picture. The camera can become a paintbrush, capturing movement and creating lines from the light of the environment. Consciousness is an outstanding instrument in creating, observing, and admiring the abstract. The observer becomes the solution, making these works of mine not work in vain.

Timothy Alexander Hernández, "Airport" 2021

Timothy Alexander Hernández, "Streaming" 2021

Timothy Alexander Hernández, "Tree-strings" 2021

Timothy Alexander Hernández, "Bedroom" 2021

Timothy Alexander Hernández, "Tumble" 2021