the web of life: inner, world, material, immaterial

from an ongoing reflection on visions

this diagram started some months ago, as a sketch in my journal - when I realized that I was spending too much time in my head, or on the internet, or at home — and, no matter how much I’m deeply intertwined with work, I felt… out of balance with the rest of life.

I asked myself what I was craving. when work feels like everything, what else is there in life? oh yes, I wanted to visit places. talk to a friend. take a walk. but also: I wanted to read a book. watch a movie. cook an elaborate meal. take a long nap.

I was craving a visual model to map the aspects of my life that felt missing.

and, somehow, the Wheel of Life (a coaching exercise I’ve done a few times, where you divide your life into 8 equal slices) didn’t feel right. It felt like it was made for someone with clear, discrete compartments for each aspect of their life. Someone with clear divides between their Job. Family. Friends. Hobbies. Spiritual Life.

…obviously, not me.

a tangled web of nodes, not a wheel

I realized that my map of life is not a wheel, but a tangled web, composed of nodes. each node is always deeply intertwined with the others. there's constant flow between one node and the other. nourishing or depleting one node will ALWAYS affect the others.

my ten nodes (and personal distillations)

MIND — the thinking, discerning self
BODY — the felt, sensing, embodied self
SPIRIT - the intuitive, contemplative self
ART — as a creative alchemy-digestion of life
WORK (business) — as the flow of inner/outer resources
RESOURCES — as the flow of giving & recieving
HOME - the physical vessel for holding inner life
TRAVEL/PLACE/ENVIRONMENT - in meeting the outside world
RELATIONSHIPS — the people in our lives
CULTURAL/INTELLECTUAL — the ideas, culture, and art we interact with

in asking myself how I want to map the distinctions between the nodes, I came up with two axis: inner life vs. world, and material vs. immaterial.

inner life vs. world

the inner life (mind, body, spirit, home)

the inner life is where I spend the vast majority of my time. it’s deliberately tending to and being with — the mind and spirit. it is the life of a home body: a body, at home. but not… scrolling nonstop on social media, or binge watching TV shows. those things are (to some extent) about escaping the inner life. the inner life is about being with the sensations, feelings, and experiences within the vessel of the self.

the world (travel/places, relationships, culture)

the world is the environment and things outside the self — the city in which you live in, the places you travel to, the people you build relationships with. the culture you absorb or consume (even if you do it from your couch). to be in the world is to be in relationship with something external to you.

the in between: (art, work, resources)

Art, Work, and Resources, for me, exist in the meeting point of inner life + world.

Art is created from my tension and digestions of The World, as it meets my Inner Life.
Work is how I flow my internal resources (including art and everything from the inner life) with the World.
Resources is the immaterial and material flow between Art, Work, and World.

so, so much more to be explored here, but I’ll leave it here for now,

immaterial vs. material

immaterial — is anything you cannot touch and hold. the subtle life: mind, spirit, ideas, art (if not tactile), as well as digital work, culture, and the internet. even when those things have material bodies (digital screens), their cumluative experience is immaterial. you cannot literally touch or hold onto a song, a dance performance, a movie, a book — even if you experience it live, or as bound paper. relationships are both material (we have all have bodies) and immaterial (you can’t pin it down).

material — things that you can physically touch.

resources, actually, are a strange thing because numbers in a bank account can’t really be touched — but you can take them out as cash. and: houses are also resources.
a home is definitely material — (though the energy that fills it is not)
bodies - in that we exist as cells and atoms, in space. our bodies are vessels, moving through time.
places/travel - as material environment that we interact with.
relationships — both material (taking place in between bodies) and immaterial (existing in an unseen dimension).

focus on flow, not balance

I return to my original intention:

(a) create more “balance” in my life
(b) to clarify my Big Picture Visions.

I realize that word “balance” doesn’t even make sense here. balance suggests that you take weights (time, energy, attention) from ONE scale and put it on the other. this assumes disconnection. compartmentalized sections.

in the ecosystem-web model of life, there aren’t scales or compartments to balance, but nodes to flow into, and through. if you simply gave more energy to one node — that will always ripple out and affect the flow of other nodes. everything is interconnected

and: I have a sense that everything begins with the inner life and the immaterial — it’s through these arenas that all meetings with the world take place, and all material things are born.

the questions I then ask myself, then, are:

which nodes are feeling blocked?
which nodes want my attention/energy/nourishment?
which nodes feel most open, alive, and generative?

💌 I write a weekly newsletter on creative alchemy & world-building called guide.notes. I also have a weekly podcast, botanical studies.

notes on the journey, wellbeing, creative practiceKening ZhuMarch 7, 2024visions, energy studies