Altogether, brain, body, and our outer landscapes are responsible for the rise and fall of Interest and Participation levels. It is as if our Interest and Participation levels are the combined voice of all three landscapes, speaking to us.
In our addictive landscape, the three voices raise our Interest levels ever-higher, and our Participation can never keep up. Addiction focuses the senses, narrows our perspective to the most important landmarks and pathways. When Interest and Participation levels are out of synch, your energy is forced into concentration, as if you were trying to balance oneself in the middle of a see-saw. You can’t afford to look around at anything else.
When Interest and Participation levels are in sync, matched in the middle, neither too high nor too low — as if you have found balance on the see-saw — you does not have to concentrate so hard. The mind can look around. The landmarks and pathways in our landscape can constellate themselves into patterns. You make connections you never made before.