Your ‘self’ doesn’t stop at the edge of your physical body. Our consciousness which is at the very basis of our being permeates our relationships and entwines and extends beyond our bodies into an invisible volume of space which neuroscientists describe as peripersonal space. This invisible space is commonly referred to as a body map.
When we embark upon a journey into an unknown landscape we generally take a map which shows us the various interconnections of highways and byways. Likewise, our body map represents all aspects of our bodily self, inside and out. Together these invisible maps create our physical and emotional awareness and provide us with a sense of who we are in both physical and emotional relationships. They give us a sense of our presence in both the physical and larger social world. These body maps can be profoundly elastic and extend and contract according to the clothes we wear, the car we drive, the house we live in, the people we love and the social environments in which we move.
These body maps extend beyond our physical form and give us a spatial awareness that is beyond the usual senses of touch, taste, hearing, smell and sight. This allows us to negotiate around obstacles and park the car without mishap! We know to a centimetre or ten how far we are from the vehicles on either side even though our eyes cannot see the bumpers of either vehicle.
When we love someone this body map encompasses us both and provides a map by which we orient ourselves, as one being, to our immediate and larger physical and emotional environment. We don’t lose our sense of ‘self’ but acquire another and larger ‘self’ that encompasses us both.
The enmeshing of consciousness in one another – this love that binds us together – gives us a sense of who we are in relation to our environment, our sense of place and meaning in our lives. We know who we are by the feedback from our emotional and physical environment…
