#512 Complex Reality & Simplistic Certainty

     When we observe highly energized people "on a mission", they're absolutely certain that what they're about to do, or are doing, is 100% right, must be done, and immediately. Even infamous people, who create tremendous suffering, can remain steadfastly certain that what they did was right & reasonable. See: Burton RA. “On being certain. Believing you are right even when you’re not.” St. Martin’s Griffin, NY, 2008.
     Rigid, black-or-white, dichotomous thinking like this is characteristic of teens, people under great stress, or adults whose psychosocial development has arrested. It's very attractive (yet deluded) to be certain about things in a very complex, constantly changing world, filled with ambiguity. This is what attracts people to dictators, hellfire & brimstone religious groups, cults, gangs etc. The overriding fear of complexity will keep many such folks staunchly ignoring mounting evidence that their dogmas are irrational.
     After sufficient life experience, most of us prefer to employ freedom of choice based on mature judgment. Constantly gathering up-to-date information about what's most appropriate in the present moment is just sensible, iterative learning. We need to be aware, flexible, & humble enough to keep learning from, adapting to, & growing with, reality.

tr4driver   www.dpreview.com

#443 Our Self-concepts & Worldviews Must Mature

     Normal human psychological maturation or development is an iterative stepwise process of learning - an evolution of consciousness. We always have a self-concept & a worldview. Regardless how conscious or unaware we may be of these basic personal models of reality - these paradigms - they powerfully guide & shape our lives. Our life experiences in turn gradually modify - and at times, traumatically destroy - the current working paradigms, and so we must gradually erect a more reasonably accurate, more workable model. Then further life experiences gradually or suddenly force further renos, and on it goes, in repeated cycles.
     Life transitions are not rare, but occur constantly. Even normal transitions - eg puberty, menopause, retirement - are variably traumatic. Death of loved ones, though also a "normal" part of life, can be very traumatic - a veritable "shipwreck." How well we manage the constant upgrading of our self-concept & worldview paradigms is of fundamental importance - it determines the quality & direction of our lives. We can accomplish this work intentionally, wisely, mindfully.

     See "Beyond 'Stress Management' - Resilience for Real Life": http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/07/361-beyond-stress-management-resilience.html
     "Adult Psychosocial Development & Maturation": http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2012/08/adult-psychosocial-development.html
     "Readiness for Change": http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/11/436-readiness-for-change-is-pivotal.html
     "Stories of Me, Myself, & I": http://www.johnlovas.com/2012/05/stories-of-me-myself-and-i.html 

 

Two Hands   www.dpreview.com

#392 BOTH Anxious, Confused, Reactive - AND - Calm, Clear-minded, Wise

     We gradually let go of rigid black-or-white dualistic thinking as we become aware of infinite shades between extremes. As we broaden our intellectual & emotional horizons (gain psychological flexibility), we increasingly appreciate our own & others' weaknesses AND strengths.
     Seeing another's weakness opens our hearts to fellow human beings who, like all of us, are carrying heavy burdens.
     Seeing another's strength inspires us, knowing that we ourselves also have at least some of that very same capacity.

     Wisdom involves clearly seeing & compassionately accepting imperfection, while at the same time, resting in awareness & nurturing inherent wholeness. See: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/09/393-awareness-acceptance-dwelling-in.html

     "Therapeutic presence is the atmosphere for attending to the person's pain and vulnerability, while engaging their inner resiliency and wholeness."
       Palmer PJ, Zajonc A. The heart of higher education: A call to renewal. Transforming the academy through collegial conversation. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2010.

  Muck AND Beauty

#356 The World Mirrors our Individual & Collective Level of Consciousness

     “The great experiment in consciousness, human evolution, now stands at a precipice of its own making. That same consciousness which struggled for millions of years to ensure human survival is now on the verge of depleting its planet’s resources, rendering its environment uninhabitable, and fashioning the instruments of its own self-annihilation. Can this consciousness (we) develop the wisdom not to do these things? Can we foster sufficient self-understanding to reduce our destructiveness, and mature rapidly enough to carry us through this evolutionary crisis? …  
     … the crucial fact about these global crises is that all of them have psychological origins. Our own behavior has created these threats, and, thus, psychological approaches may be essential to understanding and reversing them. And to the extent that these threats are determined by psychological forces within us and between us, they are actually symptoms – symptoms of our individual and collective state of mind. These global symptoms reflect and express faulty beliefs and perceptions, fears and fantasies, defences and denials, that shape and misshape our individual and collective behavior. The state of the world reflects our state of mind; our collective crises mirror our collective consciousness. … 
     We have clearly created a world situation that demands unprecedented psychological and social maturation if we are to survive. Until now, we have been able to cover or compensate for our psychological shortcomings. We have been able to consume without fear of depletion, discard wastes without fear of pollution, bear children without fear of overpopulation, and fight without fear of extinction. We have been able to act out our psychological immaturities rather than having to understand and outgrow them, to indulge our addictions rather than resolve them, and to revolve through the same neurotic patterns rather than evolve out of them. But if the world is a stage, it is now no longer big enough for us to continue playing out our psychological immaturities. It is time for us to grow up, and we ourselves have created the situation which may force us to do so.”           Roger Walsh MD

       Walsh R. Human survival: A psychoevolutionary analysis. ReVision 1985; 8: 7-10. (available free as pdf on the web) 

                       AND IN

       Grof S ed. Human Survival and Consciousness Evolution. State University of New York Press, Albany, 1988.

Elizabeth Jameson   http://www.jamesonfineart.com