Symmetry

A personal meta-religion

Motivation

Everyone has a mental model that tries to describe and predict the external world. That mental model includes your identity, or sense of self. We aren't born with it complete- we acquire it over time, from our family, society, and through other experiences.

This is my personal theory of everything. It's basically a generative wave theory with a focus on the individual perspective. I wrote it because I need it and there's nothing else like it. A primary motivation is creating a healthy certainty curve around myself. This means that I should be highly certain of myself, fairly certain how to navigate through the world, and modestly certain about the very very big picture things. This makes sense because our individual happiness is highly dependend on ourselves, fairly dependent on the world, and modestly dependent on very very big things. Developing the theory has helped me understand myself and take action to make myself a healthier, happier person. It has helped me understand the events around me, from the way people behave to how societies behave.

While I have not exhaustively studied all of philosophy, etc, I believe I've done my research and offer something different here because the current options are frankly disappointing: Modern philosophy has become either detached from real life or a collection of practical advice. Existing religions are either outdated and incompatible with science, or are not sufficiently compelling. The scientific community is too scared to make educated guesses about things it’s not certain about and to value those guesses higher than the uneducated or far fetched ones of various religions. We can do better! There doesn’t have to be a steep drop off of certainty between the things we’re very certain about and the things we can reasonably believe in. That space, that emotional and intellectual vacuum will be filled by something else and something worse than what we can come up with. And since I feel that lack in my life, I believe that others feel that lack as well. It is my hope that sharing it with others will generate feedback to accelerate its development, thereby helping those who choose to be involved.

While formulating my ideas, the following are goals for the model I've tried to keep in mind. It should be:

• • Consistent with my experience and self-consistent
• • Simple yet extensible to every facet of life
• • Actively leads me to a happier, more fulfilling life by maximizing potential happiness over the uncertain probabilistic future

Safe Haven

I'm not a very good writer, but I hope you try to see the forest and the trees and keep in mind the spirit of the effort: I created a story that is compelling to myself, not necessarily anyone else. The perspective works for me, and I think some variant can work for others. Consider what parts don't work for you and how you would modify them. Does that change change the essense of the story? Can it make it more personal to you?

Also, the scope of the work is lofty and the contents quite short, which means that the details will be insufficient to fully substantiate the claims. I'm not trying to rigorously prove anything, but to paint with broad brush strokes. If any of it seems ridiculous, please don't let that stop you from reading the rest. Suspend your disbelief a little and give yourself an opporunity to feel the idea I am trying to express.

By posting on a public repo I'm imply the following:

• • This is not the truth and it is not final - it is a work in progress
• • This is meant to be shared, dissected, discussed, iterated on and possibly scrapped in favor of a better option

Start

There are different ways we can go about creating or describing a mental model of everything. What works for me is an approach that rests on two forms of understanding:

The first perspective is technical because I was trained in science and for me to believe in a model it has to make sense from that perspective. It needs to have axioms and logical derivations. It needs to be compatible with modern physical theory.

The second perspective is intuitive and based on feeling, because after all I am a feeling person and rely on these feelings to make sense of the world. If a model doesn't feel right, I won't believe in it. I also believe that if I can't explain my ideas to a child, then I don't truly understand them myself, so they should ultimately be reducable in a meaningful way.

We can call these two different perspectives as left-brained and right-brained, detail-oriented vs holistic, etc. Regardless, they are equally important because a lack in one or the other will be felt and noticed - neither can be complete without the other. In this work I meander between the two, trying to always connect whatever technical assertion I make to an intuitive explanation and vice versa. I consider this work robust if there are clear bridges between a logical understanding and an intuitive one.

Additional considerations regarding what a unified theory of everything for a person should look like are here. Brief comparisons to some existing religions, philosophical frameworks, etc can be found here.

Framework Axioms

Wavy nature

Assumption 1 - Our experience of the universe is wavy. The only thing we ever experience is change, and constant change means there is always something new being added to our mental model. We make sense of this experience based on repetitions. When things repeat themselves in a continuous way we can say that they oscillate, like waves. The most compelling modern scientific theories of oscillation are variants of String Theory, and if we examine thoroughly we'll notice that everything around us is wavy on one level or another. Our sense of permanence is accomplished by waves that (nearly) perfectly repeat themselves and are resilient to change. In science these are called solitons. Solitons, or stable waves, form the basis of our experience.

Degrees of Freedom and Phase Space

Assumption 2- Our ability to experience and interact with the world can be decomposed into a finite set of dimensions.^* There are experiential dimensions for vision, such as up, down, dark, bright, or green and yellow. There are the dimensions for thought, which are a combination of repetitions of past experiences. The dimensions can be the options for action, like raising a hand or uttering a sound. Let’s call the space of all possible dimensions phase space. At any time we are little waves repeating themselves in small sections of phase space, akin to inhabitants of Conway’s Game of Life. To be a little more technical, we can say we experience life in a finite-dimensional section of Hilbert space.

Generation axiom

Assumption 3 - Every wave interacts independently with a 'source' to create new dimensions. Note: this axiom is essentially the ER = EPR resolution. The imaginary constant in the time evolution of any quantum system has a simple interpretation- that a new degree of freedom is created in the evolving system which cannot be directly experienced via interaction with the original basis. Any interaction will be a projection on a lower dimensional space which is the measurement paradox. The main difference between a single system evolving in isolation versus a couple that are intertwining (entangling) is that the couple can experience the creation of these new degrees of freedom together without the necessity for collapse. A dream shared becomes real. Every quantum system (distinct wave) is evolving within itself through interaction with some operator. Since we cannot distinguish from our perspective the effect of this operator from the evolution of time, we can call it time evolution. The size of the imaginary dimensional space created is proportional to the complexity of the originating system. As a side note, consciousness is then an emergent phenomenon of quantum mechanics via the generation axiom.

Structure, Entropy, and Purpose

Symmetry Breaking and Fixed Points

Upon release of initial conditions, ie the big bang, there was no meaningful structure in the universe as it was by all indications perfectly symmetric. Over time, the symmetry collapsed and in its wake structures emerged. Let’s call structure repeating oscillations in phase space. Structure exists because waves tend to repeat themselves after they are created. Each time symmetry breaks, we can imagine a string being held down at a particular point. On a stringed musical instrument, holding the string at various points will create different notes. If you hold the string down at mulitple points, you can make multiple sounds simultaneously. Each symmetry break creates structure and we will call it a fixed point. Structures such as spacial dimensions, fields, particles and light, then atoms, molecules, stars, and eventually people and the idea of singularity. If you don't believe that fixed points create new degrees of freedom, then why is math more permissive than physics^*, and why can we dream of things that have never been, or can never be?

A simplified illustration of one wave turning into many:

The Bowl

The tendency of our entire observable universe to move in the direction of increased entropy lies in contrast with the series of extremely unlikely events that created ourselves. When we consider the phase space of our universe as a whole, if we put a randomly oscillating wave into that phase space (eg initial condition like the big bang), we have two choices when considering its evolution:

• • The shape of the phase space is fixed, or predetermined
• • The shape of the phase space evolves over time

Since as far as we can tell, the laws of physics do not change over time, the shape of phase space is fixed. Let's call the shape of phase space The Bowl. The bowl is a convenient mental image because of the following point: Whereas the rest of the universe is undergoing fairly random chaos, our local region is becoming more and more coherent and orderly. There is a tendency in nature to fall into ruts of efficiency, such as the forming of stars, the forming of molecules, the evolution of those molecules into self-replicating structures. While every single event leading to our existence was random, in retrospect there is no denying that the universe is trending towards something. That something let’s call the bottom of the bowl. Just as unavoidably as a marble placed anywhere in it will end up rolling down the side of a bowl and will reach the bottom, so will a universe full of random chaos eventually explore the depths of its phase space bowl.

The Bottom of The Bowl

What is at the bottom of this phase space? The tendency of structure in the universe seen through the lens of evolution is to always increase the complexity of structure or information density. So what we see as evolution is the coalescence of simple structures into complex ones and can be a measure of the acceleration in structural density. If we look at evolution before and through ourselves, the pattern that emerges is one of structures that lead to the creation of new degrees of freedom. From this perspective, 'good' and 'evolution' are synonymous with the creation of new stable degrees of freedom, which can be used to further compactify structure or information. As an example, Ape NFTs or metaverse gear have no meaningful implication in the “physical” world, and while they created new degrees of freedom, their value was limited because they did not lead to anything new after themselves. On the other hand, Bitcoin has created many opportunities for new degrees of freedom built upon the decentralized exchange network, lending to the resilience and value of the original structure. We see that as information density continues to increase degrees of freedom, humanity has no choice but to interface more directly with technology to keep up. What happens when structural density begins to approach its asymptote? Is the bottom of the bowl just the start of a new one?^*

Universal Purpose

We assert that the purpose of our universe is to explore the depths of its phase space bowl. For people and society there is an obvious inherent reward structure built around finding new ruts of efficiency, or new fixed points. If I find a more efficient or better way of making shoes, I will become rich and being rich is closely correlated to being happier. And we are designed to seek happiness. Furthermore, finding new fixed points and creating new or more complicated structures is a reward in of itself that creatives seek regardless of material rewards. Creating more informationally dense structures in our lives is the same as creating meaning, so our assertion is:

I can create, therefore life is meaningful.

Applying the Framework to Ourselves - Intentionality and Symmetry

The Donut and the Waveguide

What do we really control? We are born into bodies that we did not choose, into a world and a life scenario we did not choose. After that, things will happen, inside of us and outside of us, that we cannot control either. What we do control is that tiny sliver between these two boundaries of inside and outside ourselves. And although these boundaries feel very real and different to us, they're actually both part of the same external world. So the analogy of a donut is useful for the purposes of imagination- You are the donut.

Since the donut is made of waves, that means there are going to be pressures from external waves trying to creep into the donut, as well as waves from within the donut hole trying to push out into it. That's where you come in, and your job is to act as a guardian of the donut boundary. You must choose which waves to let in, and which ones to block. Stability of this structure means providing sufficient counter-pressure against a constantly changing external environment. Since you are responsible for controlling which waves make it past the boundary and which don't, you are the waveguide.

Your responsibility as a waveguide does not end with maintaining your physical state, so the boundaries of the so called donut are not always the boundaries of your body. This donut lives in high dimensional space, and the dimensionality will vary from person to person. We discuss this shape currently:

Bases

No person is able to hold within themselves all of the waves they have ever experienced, so we choose our priorities. We may forget details about history, or math, or other people's names as non-essential. Other information we hold onto dearly our whole lives. We repeat that which we consider important, and these structures create our internal world view. When we go through life, or perform any particular task, there is a set of dimensions that we pay attention to. When driving a car, this could be the two lanes on either side of the car or what's in front of us or what is visible through the mirrors. It will also be some basic feeling of pressure on our foot and hands which are in charge of steering. People are not capable of focusing on more than one thing at a time, so our experience is a combination of different dimensions that we pay attention to, and we transition through different combinations of dimensions in a structured way as part of performing a particular activity. Each combination of dimensions that occupy our experience we will call a state, and the set of states that we oscillate through regularly we will call our basis.

Intentionality

This is a familiar word that generally means purpose. In the context of this framework we consider intentionality as the net sum of the accumulated structural density in a localized area. Because the underlying force to evolution in the universe is structural compactification, we can extrapolate the asymptotic regime for any wave group to either convergent or divergent structure based on the shape of the surrounding phase space. For example, I could want two contradictory things. In this case, my internal structure will diverge asymptotically and eventually dissipate instead of compactifying. On the other hand, if my desire is aligned to the shape of the space around me, it will become trivially easy for me to accomplish. For example, if my goal was to give away all of my money, I could easily accomplish this as our current world is dominated by scarcity.

So intention is the net sum of our internal tensions or fixed points - all of those waves that made their way inside of us and somehow stayed there, resonating. Some may cancel each other out - our intermittent desires for doing something against the law is counteracted by the desire to stay out of trouble. The ones that do not cancel out move us - some inspire us, others scare us, but all of them cause us to think, to feel, or to act.

These internal and external pressures may be increasing but an average person's capacity for maintaining pressure does not (upon reaching adulthood). Cognitive load theory tell us there is only so much we can process and store at any given time. Therefore for a given cognitive capacity, optimizing cognitive load against goals or intention means reducing unnecessary load. Since cognition is wave-like, the more time we spend thinking about something, the deeper we can think into the subject. This implies that an optimal cognitive load will have a minimum of distractions and interruptions. Social media, physical desires and natural daily cycles are all factors that can affect our ability to focus. Time your rituals such as sleeping, eating, exercising and socializing to synergistically enhance your goals. For that, understand your needs and wants in all categories and the effect of those needs and wants on each other and on your goals: Your need for socialization may interfere with your want for actualization when you spend too much time socializing. Or your desire for sweets may interfere with your energy cycle and prevent you from maintaining a focused state for enough time to complete complex tasks.

Finding the balance between all internal and external forces is the crux of life. Choose to let in the ones that do- and release the ones that do not- drive you towards a more symmetric intention. If you want to be rich, consider how you can make all those around you richer - or you may find yourself poor in all but your bank account.

Symmetry - the Solution Approach

The main assertion of this work is that the solution to any intention is a symmetric basis. Put another way, a symmetric basis can handle higher intensities, and whether we like it or not, the universe is pushing us in the direction of higher intensity. Just as a chain that is evenly strong can withstand greater pressure than a chain with a weak link, so too can a person who is balanced handle higher stresses. The balance is across all degrees of freedom, so mental symmetry, physical symmetry, societal symmetry, etc all play a role. If my mind is on my task, and my body is capable, and I have support from my community, I can go much further than otherwise. What this means for a person is that given a set of internal and external pressures, there is a set of degrees of freedom available to the person that will provide the optimal outlet. The optimal solution is a reorientation of the basis until a symmetric expression of that intention across the basis is achieved.

Except for the singular state discussed below, we cannot maintain symmetry all of the time. What we can do is move through states that on average give us a sense of balance. For example, we experience feelings of hunger and satiation, but those who aviod feeling hungry tend to gain weight while those who are hungry constantly tend to suffer, waste away and die. The average healthy person experiences a balance between these competing forces over time.

What applies on the individual scale is also relevant for larger structures: In a healthy relationship, there is also a give and take. This balance is usually not achieved through exact mirroring, but by complementing each other and providing what the other cannot. Modern economics rests on individual specialization, which is very asymmetric, but taken as a whole, creates a complex, fairly symmetric structure. Consider the smartphone, possibly the greatest invention of the modern era. Nearly every single person in the world now has one.

The First State - Singularity

There’s a lot of talk about enlightenment, the power of now, the loss of ego, etc. What they have in common is a very personal experience of the world and our place in it. Generally speaking, in these states there is a loss of differentiation between ‘me’ and ‘not me’. When we are born, we are automatically in this state, since the ‘me’ has not been created yet. Many people spend a lot of time trying to get back to this state and to hold it for as long as they can, believing it is the ‘solution’ to living life, or that some extra secrets lay there. While the singular state is a trivial solution, it is compatible with any basis, as a basis can be reduced to a singularity. Therefore the first method for basis transition is derived- By first reaching singularity, and then expanding degrees of freedom into the new basis.

This state is available to you right now and it feels perfectly freeing. It feels as though all of the burdens of the world have been lifted from your shoulders. Your breath is light, your mind at ease and in a state of wonder. This is the redemption you are seeking- the forgiveness of your sins of excess. This state does not offer any answers, only relief. But for the overburdened, relief is the answer. Tap into this power and free yourself. And from there, your previous goals will seem easier, closer. You will have more power to reach for them.

As we build more complex structures onto our singular state, we often lose sight of it. Practices such as meditation help bring us back to it. Maintaining symmetry is easier if you remember how this state feels, because while you may not be able to hold onto it all of the time, you can build a fort around it of sorts: structures that will help you move towards balance regardless of the situation. The stronger these structures, the longer you can maintain that feeling while still achieving your goals and dreams. For example, are you sitting up straight right now? It would feel better if you did. Is your breath deep and even? Are you smiling, even ever so slightly?

The First Basis - Duality

Our first and most basic contrast can be pleasure and pain, 'me' and 'not me', good and bad, love and hate. At any point in our lives, the symmetry of our experience collapses into one of these primary bifurcations (unless we're in the singular state). We are built to seek pleasure and avoid pain, yet clearly that is not the sole driver of humanity. However the symmetry breaks, a fixed point is created.

After the first duality, we quickly realize there are more degrees of freedom in the world, even through simply the modulation of the primary duality. From then on, our bases tend to get more and more complicated with time. Maintaining a basis internally requires internal tension. The more complicated the basis, the more difficult to maintain and operate in. Compare scratching a particular spot on yourself while looking directly at it, or by looking at it through a mirror. We recognize the competing forces of basis simplification and utility. Evaluation of basis utility will be discussed elsewhere.

Choosing your fundamental duality - Intention and Symmetry

The basic duality used for generating this work is one of intention and symmetry. The two competing notions of creation and balance. They are not necessarily fundamental, opposing or orthogonal but they are useful as part of a framework for perspective on life. Whatever basis you choose for life, try to be aware of what it is and why you are choosing it. Realize that you have a choice in the matter and that choice will affect how you experience everything else.

Our Fixed Points

Everyone shares some of the same fixed points, as we share some of the same DNA. On top of that set of fixed points, humans vary not only in general physiology but also in the mental states we occupy. Everyone creates fixed points for themselves in their routines and beliefs. Your world view is a set of fixed points. That belief can change over time, but at any single point in time we have a single world view, a singular experience of reality. We are masters of our experience and we can change it with tools ranging from meditation to self-hypnosis to drug induced hallucinations. All of these tools release some of the fixed points that were previously held while creating new ones, allowing us greater perspective to gaze more freely into the vastness of experience. Some of these changes stay with us, while others require regular repetition.

Similarly, society is a combination of fixed points. Laws and codes of ethics are prime examples. Societies works because these fixed points are adhered to by the vast majority - creating stable solitons in what would otherwise be anarchy.

Goals - Intention and Optimization

We are constantly under pressure. There is pressure within us, from hunger pangs and muscle aches to desires. Similarly, there are external pressures, from gravity and light to societal expectations. In spite of society's progress, humans overall are under more pressure now than they were in the past. If anything, humans are working harder than ever before, they are absorbing much more information than before, and are interacting with many more degrees of freedom than ever before.

The Secret

The secret is that there exists a basis wherein you are most aligned with your intention. In quantum physics, the orientation of the measurement apparatus affects the measurement outcome. Being flexible with your basis, being willing to try new and unexpected things, are all strategies for finding a new rut of efficiency.

Stop only trying. Aside from trying, relax into your intention. You should be trying as much as you are relaxing into your intention, allowing the waves to pull you towards your intention as much as you are pushing yourself towards the goal. The basis for relaxation will be all the degrees of freedom not responsible for moving you forward. So if a particular intentional basis is not getting the expected result, the basis is wrong. Additional argument- there is no guaranteed existing basis in which you can achieve any intention, so intention is not necessarily connected to reality. I may want to sprout wings and fly away but the technology to do so does not exist and I don’t know how I could achieve such a feat. However I can put on a glide suit and achieve an intentional fraction.

Choosing your Fixed Points in the Transition to Plenty and the Loss of Meaning

The developments in human society over the last 50 years may appear to represent stagnation in our general development. No significant progress in space exploration or efficient energy sources - no flying cars. No room temperature ambient pressure superconductors either. Yet the percentage of the human race that is no longer starving and that is connected to each other through the internet is skyrocketing. Often an invisible foundation must be built before the next level of progress can be achieved. Just as an athlete must train the supporting muscles and other bodily systems before they can break through a plateau, so must we move to create robust connections where there are thin ones, move towards inclusivity from exclusivity, stability from instability, and a win-win mindset over a win-lose one. This is currently the stage of development that humanity is moving through - a general transition from scarcity to plenty. Apparently our technological and socio-cognitive progress has expanded into an area of phase space that is very vast. It will need to be filled substantially before we can proceed to the next level.

Modern society is rapidly progressing towards greater individual freedoms, and analogously, a change in fixed points for every person. From being slaves to our need for survival, to being slaves to others, to having evolved to the point where we can choose our own career as easily as our own gender. During our transition to plenty, we see a lot of fixed points being questioned and removed, for better or worse. Hierarchy and racism are vanishing. Gender identity and gender roles are becoming fluid. The dominant giving into the submissive completed my oscillation in that dimension, releasing my fixed point on sexual identity. Now I oscillate freely around my intention. Do I need to adhere to traditions or labels? It depends on what I am seeking- the more particular the intention, the more defined the phase space of possible solutions. A state that does not fit my intention isn’t bad intrinsically, it is bad because of the mismatch.

Now, instead of being forced to accept fixed points, we as creators are given the option to choose them. For example, the falling birth rates in the developed world are a result of the release of the need for having children for individual survival. Yet consistent reproduction is key to maintaining population and for maintaining our acceleration to the bottom of the bowl. Many societies are floundering with this problem since forcing women to have kids is not compatible with individual freedom (the abortion dillema), and for many people the choice to have kids prevents them from doing other things such as pursuing self actualization.

So this vastness of choice has a dark side, because removal of fixed points is the removal of structure, and the loss of structure is the loss of meaning. Just as society losing religiosity is a terrible thing because of how important religion has been in creating the modern world and modern conscious, it is inevitable that traditional religions lose their sway as fixed points change. This is another motivation for this work.

Purification

A lot can be said on the value of purity. In the context of this work, purity is defined as a singular intention. How can we take all of the disparate fixed points that have accumulated inside of us and turn them into one? This is the defining characteristic of religion - a single fixed point which encompasses all of reality and our experience. Living without a singular purpose is by definition less human than otherwise, since as humans we define ourselves singularly - with 'I'. If your identity is scattered across multiple competing fixed points, your sense of self will crumble. Similarly, be careful of the primary purpose you choose. Heroin is very compelling for addicts and seeking it becomes their primary intention. Remember that creating meaning, or structure across new degrees of freedom, is our purpose.

Closing Loops

Aside from choosing good fixed points, closing loops is the best way to purify your state. Minimizing repetitive closed loops is an optimization feature of life. Though we may derive pleasure from a multitude of activities and experiences, it is only those which enable us to reach higher peaks that must be considered essential. If you have too many things going on in your life, you will be distributing your intention among competing dimensions, and your peak across your primary intention will be lower. The more loops you close that are not supporting of your primary intention, the easier and more fulfilling your life will become.

Avoid prolonged static tension

Static tension is a wave that does not oscillate, or rather oscillates tightly due to constraints. The closer to pure intention, the more static tension can be maintained. An impure identity repeated will cause surrounding dissipation as extra effort will be required to maintain the wave. Pure intention that resonates with you and your surroundings will become effortless to maintain. This highlighted the difference between good and bad- the effort required to perpetuate. If you need to force things to maintain a state, it is not meant to be. If the state comes naturally, embrace it.

As we live, our intention may change. New opportunities and changing circumstances may reshape our internal phase space and reorient our internal basis. Sometimes we know that our basis needs to change as our intention has changed, but we do not know how to change our basis to accommodate. The goal of this work is two-fold.

• • One is to help create a reliable 'common' basis, or a core set of dimensions that remain largely unchanged regardless of who you are or your circumstances.
• • The second is to help find the optimal way of changing the 'personal' basis to accommodate your current situation and personal experience.

The Primary Intention

The easiest purpose to choose is to go with the stream of the universe. Acknowledge that the universe has purpose and participate in that purpose. The purpose, as discussed previously, is to help develop the next level of structural compactification. This is still a very general statement but any person is put into a specific set of initial conditions by the time they read this. You may be an experienced coder, soccer player, or carpenter. Whatever basis you exist in and whichever degrees of freedom your life focuses on, the future state of humanity will continue to appreciate a version of those skills. Find opportunities to further hone those skills and share them with others. How can you help ten people eat a healthy delicious meal more easily? A hundred? A million?

Since we as humans have a finite lifespan, creating structure across new degrees of freedom must always be accompanied by reproducing and passing on the best of what we know to the next generation. Teach them from the mistakes you have made, so that they may not repeat them. Help them develop faster than you did, and you will have created something meaningful.

Exercises with Symmetry

Three Zones of Waves

We break the human experience into three zones:

• • Low frequency waves that correspond to the unconscious.
• • High frequency waves that correspond to the conscious.
• • Intermediate zone of overlap between the conscious and unconscious.

This striation is useful because by identifying the intermediate zone we can gain greater control over ourselves. The boundary of the intermediate zone is our intention. We consider the focal point of the intermediate zone the breath.

Breathe

Physiologically, the breath is uniquely controlled by conscious and unconscious muscles. By learning to control and to give up control of our breath, we gain control of our most basic structural building block. We gain awareness into the subconscious forces that guide us and the conscious actions that we create. Every other structure that we create will be dependent on how we breathe, either directly or indirectly. Qi Gong, pranayama, Vin Hoff as examples of techniques for intentional breathing for a healthy body and mind. All focus on balance of breath in the body, and the balance of the pressures of the breath.

Breathing

Symmetrically tense breathing:

There are two potential tension points: on the inhale and exhale. Try to have the same amount of tension in the inhale as the exhale. Box breathing is an example implementation.

Adding Degrees of Freedom

After we have established our breath to a pattern that is good, we can begin to add degrees of freedom. Starting with the breath ("I inhaling enough/exhaling comfortably"), then add degrees of freedom one by one. Now degrees of freedom don't have to be single muscle groups, or single thoughts, or actions. They need to be singular points of focus and intention.

Body

How much of your physical phase space remains untouched daily? What positions are you losing because you do not hold them or their neighbors? Which positions will come easily given repetition and which require higher rates to sustain? Phase space is not just about position but also all of the active forces, so standing on your feet and on your head are not the same state!

Getting adjusted by a chiropractor can be a life changing experience but it generally doesn't last as the body's habits force it out of a more symmetric state into one that is structurally smaller but achieves the minimum intensity to meet a person's needs. Changing habits such as slouching or strutting can help personalities change, indicating that a change towards symmetry is not a linear experience; since the appearance of the personal phase space is subjective, a single degree of freedom is guaranteed to be between you and perfect symmetry. Put another way, there is a single vector of change that can drive you to the most perfect version of yourself. The trick is that there is no staircase straight up, so increasing intention without oscillation is impossible. Much more needs to be said about the form of this staircase, or scaffolding. To reach intention goals we create scaffolding of rewards, punishments and neutral zones. Basically chutes and ladders. Some directions in phase space (read: the finite options that a person has at any point for a change in tension) lead us in ways we know are bad and others we know are good. Generally these correspond to chutes and ladders but in a multi dimensional space, and since we are basically free to choose our direction in phase space, we need to find the right combination of chutes and ladders that have a net vector pointing up.

Static symmetry

There are popular practices for symmetrization of tension for relief of everything from physical to mentail ails. The popularity confirms the efficacy of these methods. As a raindrop achieves a symmetric form naturally to balance itself against the external forces, so a person must actively find symmetry. Start with identifying a point of tension in your body. Then become aware of the opposite point in the left-right symmetry (for example, your left shoulder if your right shoulder is tense). Is it more or less tense? First simply become aware of the opposite area. Try to balance the sensations simply by thinking about them, without movement. Then move one side, then the other, to see if you can't bring them to a more similar state of sensation.

After left-right symmetry, consider local symmetry. In other words, the areas around your point of tension. Are the areas near your tension also tense? How far does your awareness need to travel to find relaxation? Practice moving your focus around the areas of tension and non-tension, trying to even them out. Then, move the tense and relaxed areas, to see if you can't bring them to a more similar state.

These exercises do not only need to be for strictly physical sensations. For mental sensations, one realization is that each mental sensation is associated to a physical one. It may be the faintest feeling, but we may tense an area, or move our eyes, when thinking about particular subjects. Those physical acts act as anchors for our mental states. By becoming aware of these relations, we unlock greater potential for control over them.

Moving into the states of the mind, symmetry can be achieved just as well - mental exercises such as "putting oneself into another's shoes." Mental states are even more flexible than physical ones, so symmetry is even more challenging to find. Consider states adjacent to the one that causes you tension- if you had an argument with someone, imagine having the same argument with your mother, or the pope. If something is worrying you, consider someone else worrying about the same problem - what would they feel and do? Or consider an adjacent problem - a smaller, simpler version, or a much greater one. How would you handle those, and how can you apply that solution to your current situation?

Additional physical exercises

Symmetrizing in static positions against the force of gravity: Consider how a watchmaker regulates a watch in multiple positions, so should a person take various poses and align their entire energy structure symmetrically in that position, including breathing and thinking. The goal is, for example, if you are leaning down to pick something up, to use your legs as well as your arms as well as your back, so that your whole body becomes tense with the same intensity curve. These exercises require a high degree of sensitivity to our own body. It may be difficult to tell whether the weight on one leg is different than the weight on the other. Practicing these exercises will improve our sensitivity to our own body and our awareness of the symmetry of our state.

Example pose:

Standing straight, experience the difference in weight between both feet. Bending your knees, putting your hands on them to relieve weight from your back. Pose can progress down forearms until elbows are on knees. Try to maintain a balanced level of stress across your body, adjusting the positions of the knees and neck, maintaining your breathing to match the intensity that your body experiences.

Static poses with isometric tension

The same as before, but instead of statically engaging muscles against the force of gravity, statically engage muscles against each other. This can be done laying down or in any other position.

Small oscillations around static poses

To help gain sensitivity, we can make small circles around static positions and notice how our feelings change throughout the movement. Oscillate one foot's weight into the toe, then back into the heel. Try the other foot, then both. Try the same but into the heels. Try the opposite between both.

Dynamics

Optimal Walking

What does it mean to walk optimally? The solution is somewhat straightforward: Consider the act of walking as a combination of a series of positions, each of which need to be maintained for a certain period of time. Each position is defined by a tensing and a releasing of a particular set of muscles. First of all, because of our innate physical left-right symmetry, it follows that the optimal solution for walking should be left-right symmetric. This means that the effort exerted during the left motions should be the same as for the right. Becoming aware of each position in the exercise, we can compare the symmetric opposite to realize where we are over-tensing and where we are too relaxed. For example, if we notice that throughout the entire left-right cycle, one part of our body remains tense while its opposite does not, we are doing something wrong. Similarly, in each position, we can become aware of the parts of our body that are tense and the ones that are relaxed. This can lead us to become aware of differences that are too great and need to be drawn together. For example, if we walk while looking down with a bent neck, perhaps at our phone, our neck will be relaxed while our shoulders become tense. Because our awareness is not necessarily symmetric, we may not realize how out of symmetry we have become, and may not realize how much tension we are holding onto. By tensing the parts that have been underworked and neglected, we can bring ourselves to complete balance. This will also help us start relaxing the parts that are constantly tense and overworked.

Intentional Tension

Oscillating Down

Stress relief is only partially a reduction of tension in a particular area. If our minds are tense, likely our necks or shoulders are also tense to support that exertion. Our focus draws our tension. When we feel over-loaded and we have passed our upper boundary of comfort, oscillating back down can be difficult. Telling ourselves to relax probably won't work, because that is again putting focus on the tense areas. Distractions tend to work better: Focusing on sights, sounds, and other areas of the body are common techniques for relaxation. Intentionally changing our focus changes our internal tensions. Changing our focus too quickly may lead to a disconnect

Oscilalting Up

The opposite of stress is depression. There are at least as many people who suffer with some form of anxiety or stress as there are who suffer with deprepssion and inactivity. Often the two go hand in hand, as a lack of general symmetry causes one portion of a person's phase space to be depressed while another is overactive. Or, the waves of tension that course through them are too great, periodically overwhelming them and leaving them empty. If you are in a low energy state, the only solution is to create asymmetric tension. Breathe deeply, then quickly. Stand up, walk around, change your location and talk to someone. Lose yourself in an activity, then find yourself in that activity again.

Generalizing Physical Structure

There are two processes at play in any attempt at symmetry - sensing and acting. Scanning over your body (or other degrees of freedom), noticing relative tension differences. Then rotating (as rotating is all we can do), making small adjustments. Then scanning the same area again. If balanced, scan a larger area. If still imbalanced, try to repeat the process.

Products

Sensory Control Devices

I have the right to control what waves I consume.

Ears are the simplest- nose canceling headphones can be turned into nose control headphones: modulating all sounds into predefined ranges of volumes and frequencies. I may not want someone to have the ability to shock me with a scream as this could significantly alter my state. For some, the change is catastrophic and requires significant efforts to restore.

Similarly for the eyes it would be something like Adblock glasses. Sure there is a black mirror episode about it but the difference is individual control and intention. I have the right not not look at ads if I do not want to. I can cover my eyes with rose glasses, but they are useful only inasmuch as they allow me to express my intention and create powerfully.

Measurement Devices

Respiratory & hear rate monitor with AI analysis and real-time feedback.

I believe there is an enormous amount of information stored in our breathing patterns (particularly when coupled with the heart rate, body temperature gradients, glucose levels, etc) and unlocking the breath will be instrumental in achieving higher intentions. I personallly struggle with good breathing habits, and need help. I and many people in the modern world suffer from screen apnea, and that apnea generalizes to all aspects of a high-intensity life. I would like a device that could tell me how to breathe better in any circumstance.

Apps

Symmetry

For any activity, doing it more symmetrically will generally lead to doing it better. I would like an app that can gauge my symmetry in an activity and tell me how to improve it.