#474 What is Meaningful Work?

     Work that helps to reduce suffering and promote wisdom & joy can be considered meaningful. 
     Meaningful work can range from cleaning duties (at home, at work, or voluntary) to national politics.
     Clearly it's not precisely what one does, but the intention of mindfully, skillfully helping people, other living beings and the environment.
     This is not a "should" but an intelligent "we must", because the cosmos simply works like one complex organism. Each individual human either promotes harmony & optimal function OR creates chaos & pathology.
     If you live in a one bedroom apartment can a member of your family vandalize & steal from the family OR does each member have to work intelligently to support the family?
     As individuals we simply must understand - down in the marrow of our bones - the fact that we live in a closed system. Our every thought, word & action must be harmonious with our one collective life. Parker Palmer refers to this as "living an undivided life." To do so, we must be AWARE & KIND - MINDFUL moment-to-moment.

Apollo's Chariot by Odilon Redon

#226 Liberative perspective on Adult Development

     “It is difficult to summarize succinctly the liberative perspective (on adult development) because it encompasses such a diversity of developmental pathways, from coping with stress to meditation. However, the function of liberative development is to reduce conditioning (or hyperhabituation or mindlessness, to use different theorists’ terms) derived from external and internal sources. Adult development is thus not merely a product of biology and social adaptation, but also involves individual choice & personal commitment to change. Indeed it should be viewed almost as the antithesis of childhood development. Throughout childhood and adolescence, one develops complex schemes and habituates to specific stimuli, until advanced levels of biological, cognitive, and social / emotional development are reached – physical maturation, abstract thinking, and autonomy. The liberative perspective requires that, for optimal adult development to occur, the individual must deconstruct the existing framework or at least not be constrained by expectations about how one should act or feel. Ideally, one returns to a state of receptivity or child-like openness to experience.”

         Levenson MR, Crumpler CA. Three Models of Adult Development. Human Development 1996; 39: 135-49. 

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