Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Self Image -the Acquired You

 
shadows -reminders?
 
Dr Robert Holden  (psychologist) has been on my mind since PBS aired the program -Shift Happens-yesterday at around 3 in the morning and again at 7 (A.M.)

This is an odd time to show what i believe to be a most significant challenge to the "normal state of static and stuff" that is bombarding western culture.

Dr Holden's story -a Tale of Two Teas- illustrates how what was once a simple choice between Assam (bold for morning) and Darjeling (afternoon pick me up ) tea and the simple yes or no answer has now become, "What do you have?"

With hundreds of tea varieties from which to choose, this nicety is now a more demanding and time robbing task for guest and host. Yet all this great variety has not added to human happiness. Researchers have found a happiness static point. More stuff isn't the answer.

Why? Because we are more than physical beings. I have heard it said that we are spritual beings having a human experience, this works- but i think there is a"more."(always!)

So, as we move through experience, our minds collect data and now we know that some of it is good but a lot is not to be trusted. Perhaps then our "hearts" are better aligned with our essence. Maybe our emotions are there to inform our more "rational" but very often deluded brains. What appears as reasonable and rarional is a limited vision and works only in that realm. Since we are taught to uphold that vision it appears to be "the real world" and a "true" belief as so many others adhere and uphold it.( Catch 22.)

"Joy is a guide" says Dr. Holden and this is so simple obvious and yet quite advanced. Scientists, until recently, thought happiness was nice but had no evolutionary relevancy.  Happiness was dissed.

(Emotions have had a rough time of it since the Age of Reason which was a great leap back in the day but by no means the end of leaping!)

I believe we are finding our way to a new collective vision that is beyond group think, tribal loyalty, patriotism and beyond the fiercely independent, the competitor and all that scarcity, fear stuff that ispired the lot. (We have been creating what we fear by focusing on solving problems in a way that will create profits, and as scarcity begets  more $, well and so on, why? because it is the "real world.").

We seem to be  maturing as a species and waking to the abundance that is available in life, we are creative, curious sojourners, wired for a biological life and an imagining, spirt sensing, joy filled one as well.

I suspect we are here to explore the vast potential of who we truly are, in our unique selves, in relationships with other humans and animals, plants even -for we are beings connected to something wonderous and vast. We have a right to be here (Desiderata) We are a juxtapose, a unique i am and an integral part of something more, a whole of life, a living universe.  How joyful is this!

Dr Holden furthers this idea via the Dysfunctional Independent Person (D.I.P.) and the Healthy Independent Person. (H.I.P.) If we are here to appreciate life and we have unique gifts to explore and share, then we need to be joyful givers and receivers. So receiving and asking for help when needed is a beautiful thing. It is the exchange, the sharing and the recipricocity that counts in ecosystems and human systems.

 Thus,  the journey continues, follow your joy it is trying to tell you something..

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