Notes that translate the heart’s breathing between feeling and language.
Prologue: The Structure Behind “Where Words Can’t Reach, You’re Still Truly Alive”
I. The World Before Words
The prologue of the main text begins like this:
“The moment you try to put it into words, what you were feeling quietly loses its form.”
This single sentence expresses the theme of the entire book.
Why does something disappear when we reach for words?
The answer lies in “the pre-linguistic self.”
The Richness of Pre-Verbal Experience
Humans feel the world before acquiring language.
Infants don’t know words. Yet they feel warmth. They feel coldness. They feel safety. They feel anxiety.
These sensations exist before language. And they are richer than language.
The word “warm” cannot express the full experience of warmth.
The softness touching your skin. The sense of being held. The feeling of your chest loosening.
All of these cannot be contained in a single word.
Language Divides the World
Acquiring language means dividing the world.
Continuous experience becomes separated into discrete categories: “happy,” “sad,” “angry.”
But real emotions aren’t that simple.
Happy yet sad. Warm yet bittersweet.
Complex sensations that resist words— that’s the world of the pre-linguistic self.
What Introverts Are Protecting
In the main text, I wrote: “You’re simply protecting something.”
What are you protecting?
The richness of the pre-linguistic self.
Introverts instinctively try to protect the “texture of experience” that’s lost when converted into words.
So they don’t speak. Not because they can’t— because they don’t want to.
Because they know that the moment something becomes words, its richness is stripped away.
II. What the Body Remembers
The pre-linguistic self dwells in the body.
Embodied Knowledge
In psychology and cognitive science, there’s a concept called “embodied knowledge.”
Knowledge that can’t be put into words. Sensations the body remembers.
Like riding a bicycle, for example.
You can’t explain it in words. But your body knows.
Emotions are the same.
You can’t explain in words “why” you’re anxious. But the tightening in your chest is definitely real.
Introverts have strong embodied knowledge.
Somatic Markers
Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio proposed the “somatic marker hypothesis.”
It’s a theory that human decision-making is based not only on logical thought, but also on bodily sensations.
“Something feels off.” “Something feels right.”
That “something” is wisdom your body learned from past experience.
Introverts are sensitive to these somatic markers.
That’s why they often feel: “I don’t know why, but I don’t like this.” “I can’t explain it, but something’s wrong.”
This isn’t just intuition— it’s wisdom the body remembers.
HSP and Sensory Processing Sensitivity
There’s a concept called HSP (Highly Sensitive Person).
Coined by Elaine Aron, it refers to people with high sensory processing sensitivity.
HSPs process stimuli deeply.
Sound, light, smell, emotion— everything is felt more finely, more deeply.
And most of this information is processed before it becomes language.
So they can’t explain “why” they feel something. But they definitely feel it.
The true nature of what I described as “mist” in the main text is this “processing that happens before language.”
III. The Value of the Pre-Linguistic Self
The pre-linguistic self isn’t a deficiency. Rather, it’s a treasure.
The Source of Intuition
Intuition is information processing that happens before language.
You can’t explain it logically, but you “somehow know.”
Introverts have sharp intuition.
Because they’re picking up subtle information before it’s verbalized.
Minute changes in someone’s expression. Slight shifts in tone of voice. Subtle ripples in the atmosphere.
The body senses all of this and “knows” before it becomes words.
That’s intuition.
The Soil of Creativity
Creativity also springs from the pre-linguistic self.
Artists, writers, musicians— they sense something that can’t be put into words and express it as their work.
That “something beyond words” is the pre-linguistic self.
Introverts tend to be creative because this pre-linguistic self is so rich.
The Capacity for Resonance
In Chapter 6, I wrote about “resonance.”
Resonance is connection beyond words. You can touch without explaining.
This capacity for resonance emerges from the pre-linguistic self.
Feeling another’s wavelength not through words, but through the body— this sensitivity creates deep connection.
IV. Introverts and Brain Structure
So why do introverts have such a rich pre-linguistic self?
The brain’s structure holds clues.
Pathways of Stimulus Processing
Introverts and extroverts process stimuli through different brain pathways.
Extroverts: Stimulus → Sensory cortex → Motor cortex → Response
Short pathway. Fast processing. Immediate reaction.
Introverts: Stimulus → Sensory cortex → Prefrontal cortex (thinking) → Hippocampus (memory) → Motor cortex → Response
Long pathway. Deep processing. Takes time.
In this “long pathway,” introverts process stimuli deeply.
And much of this processing happens before language.
That’s why there’s so much “I don’t know why, but…” feeling.
Acetylcholine and Reward Systems
Neuroscientifically speaking, introverts tend to favor the acetylcholine system.
Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter related to introspection, memory, and thought.
Extroverts, on the other hand, tend to favor the dopamine system. Dopamine relates to reward, action, and socializing.
Introverts receive reward from the inner world rather than external stimuli.
So being alone and thinking, reflecting, feeling what can’t be named— these themselves become rewards.
The Possibility of Right-Brain Dominance
This is hypothetical, but introverts may tend toward right-brain dominance.
The right brain is:
- Sensory
- Holistic
- Non-verbal
- Imagistic
The left brain is:
- Logical
- Analytical
- Verbal
- Linear
Why introverts struggle with words may be because what they feel richly in the right brain is difficult to translate into left-brain language.
What I described as “translation” in the main text refers to this right-brain → left-brain conversion process.
V. Bridge to the Main Text
The prologue of the main text spoke poetically: “The moment you reach for words, something disappears.”
These translation notes have unpacked that structure.
Summary of Structure
- The pre-linguistic self is rich
- Experience that precedes words
- Wisdom the body remembers
- Introverts protect this
- Because it’s lost when put into words
- To preserve the texture
- Brain structure differs
- Longer processing pathways
- Acetylcholine dominance
- Possible right-brain preference
- This is valuable
- Source of intuition
- Soil of creativity
- Capacity for resonance
Dialogue with the Main Text
The main text spoke to you: “You are not broken.”
These translation notes explain why.
What you feel as “something beyond words” isn’t a deficiency—it’s richness.
I’ve demonstrated this through the language of neuroscience and psychology.
But proof isn’t necessary.
You already know.
Even without words, you definitely feel it.
Trust that sensation.
To the Next Chapter
In the next chapter, we’ll examine the “mist” as a psychological “defense mechanism.”
Why do we shift from the feeling self to the explaining self? What happens in that moment?
What I called “protective intelligence” in the main text— let’s translate it into psychological language.
Breathe deeply. Exhale slowly. In that breath, left brain and right brain quietly begin their dialogue.
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