Hello there,
Wow, it has been a while since my last blog, almost one year. Crazy! How is that possible? Well, a lot changed....again. I no longer distribute compostable food service containers to the local food service industry. All noble intentions aside, I never really got it to the point where I could make a living of it. So much for my attempt to regain a new sense of (my)self during the economic crash that started in 2008 and all the while trying to save the world from styrofoam and plastic pollution. Well, it’s not that I was actively seeking to re-invent myself. It’s just that I wasn’t really sure who I was after I got laid off from “my corporate and social identity”. Let’s call it a corporate or career dis-identification process. In retrospect, I entered a new cycle of experience, one that gave me a new sense of awareness, not only in the context of my personal vulnerability on the “market place”. But also it led to a cycle of acceptance, surrender and submission to my ego as I will explain in the second half of today’s blog. Basically, today’s writing is an attempt to make sense of the happenings of the last 3 years. So as usually, my blog takes a bit time to read and process, so grab that cup of coffee, make yourself comfortable and let’s go for a ride:
It all began in 2008, as I was going through a company mass lay-off while in the midst of building our first home. I got hit the second time in 2009. Seems like we are rather disposable as employees. To top it off my hubby left his employer at the beginning of 2010, to give birth to his authentic self, or in other words, pursue his dreams.
So, given the circumstances I had to come up with an action plan, as I really didn’t know how long it would take to get another job. To be honest though, I really didn’t want just another job that would totally disregard a work-life with meaning, energizing my spirit. You know, I’m talking about something I could do with full authenticity, passion, excitement, well, bottom line...purpose. A culture of purpose can impact profitability, but for some reason our corporations, our employers, just don’t seem to get that. People work different when working for a purpose, they bring passion to the table, they care what they do, they work more deeply, thoroughly, effectively, with authentic energy. I have been struggling to find this authenticity within the system that in practical terms will also pay my bills. How then do you execute that transition, or at least contribute to a new structure, a new culture of meaning and purpose while facing the grim necessities of economic survival? Will we ever evolve into creating a structure that supports our material existence yet also provides fulfillment on the inside? Or are we damned to work in a dull, mindless, robotic, mundane fashion ‘til the day we die?
As Malcom McLaren points out in his TED Talk it seems that we “creative” people are struggling with how to authenticate an inauthentic culture. Yeah, no sh#%$! I like that one.....how to authenticate an inauthentic culture..... He talked about his declaration of war against in-authenticity. He pointed out that the struggle to find something authentic is actually part of our individual, personal evolution...at least for those of us who choose to embrace that challenge. It’s not that I am even seeking that challenge. It seems that this question for greater meaning and fulfillment at work, or general in life, is consistently crossing my mind, involuntarily, regardless if I like it or not, it’s just there...all the time!
Maybe because I have not found a work environment yet that values the GNH versus the GDP. GNH meaning Gross National Happiness factor...at work. McLaren compared it to having a choice between a life of authenticity, or one of a reality that is free of the responsibility to contribute to one’s own evolution and growth. McLaren talked about that the best eduction being experience itself. And that to fully live your life you want to aim for becoming a magnificent, flamboyant failure versus settling for ordinary success. Failure at least shows you are trying to aim for something more then the ordinary. To fully experience life authentically and autonomously you gotta become fearless and go beyond today’s definition of success. To find your own authenticity you ought to go out there and embrace the unknown without having a clear map. That’s taking responsibility and aiming for what you can become, versus adhering to the reasonable voices of a conditioned culture. Okay, I hear you Malcolm, I can relate to most of what you say. But somehow I feel I need a bit more of a context here. Who or what is behind that motivation to go beyond?
Well, either way, the past 3 years did feel like an adventure with no clear map. There was no financial security. Each one of us who experienced layoff’s and didn’t get back into another job right away had to become comfortable with not knowing what tomorrow would be like. Will I be able to pay the rent, or the mortgage? Will I be able to pay my bills? Will I be able to bring home food? Everyone has a different story, but what remains the same is how humbling this experience has been. I had to learn to think more short term, and not to worry so much what the future will bring. Feelings of financial, personal, or emotional security became all a tail of the past, or maybe they were illusions all along? Out of all of this I became way more present and grateful...to my husband, and his love, present to myself, well present to life itself, and what the two of us as a team were capable of doing. Loss and attachment seem to be the price of abundance (James Hollis, PH. D., Finding Meaning In The Second Half Of Your Life - How To Finally Grow Up). It made me realize that every day is a gift, a treasure...in a world of fleetingness... regardless the circumstances. As a result, I find myself living every day with a much deeper sense of appreciation, and grace, one I didn’t have before.
Also, it’s as if the time off from the system gave me an opportunity to take a step back. It allowed me to become an observer watching from the outside in. But who or what was watching? I no longer was part of playing the expected corporate and social games, at least for a while. Inch by inch I moved a bit closer towards my own unique, independent, autonomous voice and power. It was as if something got set free. What part of me was it that felt freer, and happier? I also got healthier, I got to take care of my self and attended health issues I have not had time to nurture before. I got more sleep, I ate smarter, I exercised more, was overall way less stressed, and found myself in better shape then I was in my Twenties!
However, the fact was I was unemployed, and I really didn’t know what the future would bring. I took my share of responsibility of what was, and set out foot to craft a new reality for my self. I took another shot at becoming an entrepreneur. This time however, I was serious about becoming a catalyst for generating a structure that would somehow contribute to a new environmental consciousness or nurture social responsibility, with the hopes that this would take my life into a new direction that would actually make an impact. That’s how Afford Eco came about.
Yet, as I was working on growing Afford Eco, my passion and energy seemed to take a dive as I was facing financial and economic survival challenges, and therefore old doubts re-surfaced. My newly found serenity was overhauled by economic necessities. I realized, it would take a long time before I would become financially stable. Here it was again, financial survival was jeopardizing my vision, my idealism. Vision of what? Whose ideals were crushed? Regardless, I saw no other solution, but was forced to find another 8-5 job. Yikes, really? It seemed that I just went through full circle, forced to repeat the same vicious cycle again, but this time it was much harder to re-enter the work force for as now I have tasted the freedom, happiness and health working from the comforts of my home.
1 ½ years into it, and approximately 500 job applications later I found myself back in the corporate world as a design, branding and communications professional. It happened all overnight. I was re-employed as fast as I got laid off. Like I said, overnight. And honestly, it had absolutely nothing to do with any of my networking efforts, referrals or friends. It was pure luck. It was one out of many emails I received on a weekly basis from my creative employment agency. I responded, with the usual expectation that it will not lead to anything, just like all the other 499 jobs I applied for over the past year. To my surprise, they thought I was a match, and therefore submitted my resume. I got called for an interview. After 10 minutes of 6 eyeballs starring at me, I was asked if I could start the very same afternoon. Here I was after 3 years of going through two lay-offs’s, recruiting my own clients, building a house with my husband, establishing an environmentally conscious business, well, somewhat, and attending weekly green business networking events, joining the local chamber of commerce, actively hosting and organizing events that promoted a sense of community, nurtured social responsibility and environmental consciousness, training for and competing in International Latin Ballroom dancing, and all the while trying to search my soul so as what to make out of all of these changes and challenges of the last 3 years!
So, McLaren would probably shake my hand as I have failed, magnificently, flamboyantly failed....after all I went for it, I gave it my all, once again (I’ll spare you my prior entrepreneurial adventures). So shouldn’t I be congratulating myself? How then do you explain those feelings of a potential midlife depression I currently seem to be experiencing? I feel tired, lazy, bored, headaches, and constantly longing for something else in the arena of my work life. I feel like my idealism got greatly crushed.
Then, I came across a book by psychologist James Hollis, PH. D., Finding Meaning In The Second Half Of Your Life - How To Finally Grow Up. Hollis says that these feelings are part of the process of one’s individual evolution, one’s growth. He suggest that the development of one’s personality goes hand in hand with the suffering experienced for passively complying to familial, societal and cultural values. In his book, he talks about a sense of restlessness and depression after the achievement, or the failure to achieve, one’s ambitions, driving powers, or in short, facing the world...as all of those are in the service of building one’s ego. In fact, according to Hollis, the main task of the first half of life is to actually build ego-strength so as to engage in relationships, social roles and expectations, and to support oneself economically, basically to face the world. But then, at some point we over-identify with those very same ego roles that provided the initial success and survival (well, in the ordinary sense from an ego’s perspective). What initially served us in the first half of life will betray us in the second half of life, as to be witnessed in the depressed business man, abandoned spouse, or frustrated homemaker, he says. So in other words the very same strongsuits that made us successful in the first place seem to be responsible for the misery experienced in the second half of our lives. Hollis says that the ambitions, and goals of the first half of life were fueled and energized by our past conditioned images and complexes, as he calls it. Complexes meaning the choices we made in reaction to early observations, conditioning, and or family or socioeconomic or cultural expectations...which are not related at all to one’s own personal destiny...or the fulfillment of one’s soul. Or expressed differently, all those choices, ambitions, etc were not ours. So, in order to make sense of one’s life, we need to factor in another element...the human soul. The source of origin, that other energy that just is... prior to being conditioning.
Over the last couple years I've become aware of something called the consciousness, awareness, soul, God, Buddha, etc, or whatever you want to call it, by reading books and watching documentaries. But somehow I was missing that larger context as what to make out of this thing called consciousness. Also, I guess you could say I've been living with the belief that the self consisted only of one energy. The ego, and that it needed to be tamed, controlled, perhaps destroyed and replaced with something else, after all it seemed to be the source of all my suffering. Now, that I was reading Hollis's book, I'm coming to the conclusion that I am consisting of at least two energies that are trying to get my attention simultaneously. That in turn then explains the struggles I feel from within, between the wants and demands of my ego, and the yearning of my soul. Going forward, I might conclude there are additional energies at play, but for now to coop with the current process of my journey, let's just keep it at two :-), the ego and the soul (or the heart and the head, or God and you, whatever terms work for you).
As I was coming to this new conclusions, I felt like all the missing pieces of the puzzle were suddenly falling into its place, providing a bigger picture of the human journey. I concluding that I’m going through some sort of transition known as “the mid-life crisis” in my career. Thinking that having kids could fill the void is just another foul play by the ego. Hollis was able to verbalize an aspect of myself and provide a perspective of what I have been feeling but didn’t really understand. I highly recommend his book. He says that those feelings of restlessness, doubt or depression are actually part of “growing up”, it’s a letting go of childhood complexes, it’s the process of “letting go” of what comforts, validates, reinforces, strengthen one thing, the ego. Or in other words, those feelings of suffrage are experienced by the ego which is now being forced to , finally, grow up. In fact, he is saying that these feelings stem from the process of the ego dis-identifying with those goals, ambitions, as we are becoming aware that we are more than economic animals. He says, what we are experiencing as a sense of depression is simply another call to serve. It’s a call to serve in the service of our soul, to serve the individuation of our soul, the fulfillment of our own personal destiny (versus a life serving the values and expectations of mom, dad, society, tradition or our culture). It’s about becoming autonomous and authentic. It’s still a cry from within, however this cry is rooted in the depth of our soul asking us to wake up, to grow up, to let go, and become ourselves. This takes quiet a bit of awareness, and the ability to distinguish between the demands of the Ego, and what he categorizes as the calling of the soul.
Hollis says that during the second half of life, the Ego will be asked “to accept the absurdities of existence....” Yep, I agree, it feels as if I just went through a cycle of surrender and acceptance. Initially I was not sure what surrendered. Now I can see it may have been the ambitions, ideologies, aspirations, goals and dreams deriving from my Ego (after all who doesn’t want the 15 minute fame), versus the calls in the service of my soul that constitutes my “individuation”. Hollis says that ultimately our vocation (not conditioned carreerism) is to become ourselves....”becoming ourselves actually requires repeated submissions of the Ego”. However, he says, it takes quiet a bit of awareness to distinguish when we are serving the soul (individuation) versus the needs for ego reinforcements, as ego constantly seeks comfort, control, dominance, security, approval of others, etc. “It’s challenging to distinguish our rebellion against social norms believing this is individuation, when it is merely self-indulgence masking our difference. The seduction is so easily achieved because the ego wishes to serve itself and avoid service to the soul. What pulls us out of false rebellion or the easy torpor of the familiar is that the soul’s protest has grown painful to ignore”. “In the end, the meaning of our life will be judged not by our peers or their collective expectations, but by our experience of it...”. If we don’t make that distinction between ego and soul we will eventually betray ourselves, resulting in a life of misery, lack of fulfillment and meaning, well, depression. I don’t know if we can ever control our ego, as it seems to be as important and essential to our survival, at least initially....in the first half of life. Yet, Hollis says, we can reposition our ego in the second half of life, and use its strength in the service and fulfillment of our soul. The solution might just be found in the set up of an empowered relationship, between ego and soul, between masculine traits and feminine ones.
So maybe that’s what McLaren was talking about. The driving motivator behind a life that goes beyond ordinary success is the soul, or consciousness, or whatever you wanna’ call it. The observer that was watching from the outside in trying to make sense of the system, may after all have been my soul. Initially, I simply couldn’t distinguish if the motivation, vision, dreams and despair I experienced were part of the narcissistic demands of my ego, or arising from the land of my soul knocking at my door...asking to wake up. Now, the next question is how do you bring forth, how do you nurture, cultivate, fuel that energy called the soul in the second part of your life?
So long......
Tatjana
Showing posts with label Mind. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mind. Show all posts
Friday, July 8, 2011
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Social Controls: Booby Traps from Corporate America
I’m extremely disturbed about the most recent events that have been happening at the office of a person I’m very close to, affecting him and his entire team.
I will use Mihaly Csikszentmihaly’s book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
as his writings provide a great backdrop for understanding how societal systems interact with ours, the human system.
Sigmund Freud states: “Civilization is built on the repression of individual desires”.
As per Mihaly, to establish and maintain social order members of a society are forced to learn the skills and habits that the culture requires. Sounds like we all became a yellow duck in a long row of other yellow ducks marching blind and mindless behind our fellow in front of us. In other words “shut up and get in row”. Mihaly continues that a socialized person is someone who successfully functions and operates within a particular social system. I guess it depends on how you define success. What if that social system is not based on integrity? I’m placing this question in the light of what my friend and his team is currently experiencing at his position with his current employer of the past 12 years. Perhaps originally the culture at the corporation was designed with authenticity and integrity in mind, but somewhere along the line its original constitution and essence got corrupted.
It’s hard to oppose the habits and values of an environment that’s corrupted. It takes a strong man to stay authentic, keep clarity and an objective perspective to carry on and execute in the interest of what’s most efficient and beneficial for the company versus its individual players. It takes someone deeply rooted to operate from a space of integrity in a corporate environment that values moral perversion. It takes a man of autonomy to not get sidetracked and blinded by the corporate rewards rooted in dishonesty. What’s a man to do when his corporate environment has deviated away from its original intention and essence? Patience and hard work won’t be rewarded into promotions and executive titles. So then what’s the point in continuing the hard work?
Mihaly says that the essence of socialization is to make people dependent on social controls, have them respond predictably to rewards and punishment. Well, in this case the corporate rewards and punishment have been redesigned to benefit upper management’s goals. If the players don’t respond and behave as expected by the new intentions and rules established, consequences will be put in place. They have. The rug has been pulled. What for? My friend and his team chose not to play the game of “sucking up to management”, but rather staying true to one’s integrity. I congratulate all of you. I am proud to know men of such characteristics.
Mihaly points out that in making us work for society’s goals, in this case for the corporation’s goals, social systems are exploiting us at the source of our biological needs and our genetic conditioning (I guess you could call that social conditioning). Social controls are based on a threat of survival instinct. Reflecting upon my friend’s employer, how is their current corporate system exploiting their employees to work for goals and strategies of upper management? In this case the consequences imposed caused a great sense of distress and demoralization, followed by a fear of potential:
Loss of job
Loss of Income
Loss of Insurance
Loss of House, Car, etc
Loss of identity, in other words sense of self (that is, if you identify yourself through such matters).
To understand the happenings of the current events we’d have to question beyond the context of consequences that have been put in place. We have to question the underlying intention and strategy behind these consequences. To go one level deeper, what’s the underlying system that gives rise and directions to such a strategy? What are the characteristics and motivation of the current corporate system influencing upper managements behavior and actions? Is it integrity? Authenticity? Transparency? Not so much. All we see is a motivation that seems to devise a plan that divides employees into two categories:
1) the ones who suck up to upper management
2) the ones who don’t sell out but rather operate from integrity and autonomy
This is a perfect example that exemplifies my belief that livelihood and meaning cannot be separated. If employment is purely sought for a “comfortable” life, for achieving wealth, power and status we will remain being a puppet of our environment and its social controls, as those values are stressed in the promise of the “good life”. We will continuously be plagued by unhappiness and discontent because we built the basis for our happiness outside of ourselves. As a result we try to make up for the void by finding relieve in other piecemeal solutions, driven by the same pleasure principles built into our genetic programming that we fell bribe to in the first place. Mihaly notes that we have to achieve a level of autonomy that provides the rewards from within so that we won’t fall victim of our biological reflex responses exploited by the social systems (corporate systems). Well, that takes understanding and awareness of how we function as a human system. For a broader context please see my last post from Friday, September 18, 2009 “The Pursuit of Happiness – Becoming Free and In Control of One’s Life.”
I think the current times of the economic downfall are providing us with an opportunity to re-evaluate what we really stand for. Initially, it may not appear as an opportunity but more so as a threat of our existence. First, we are tested within the current system. If we can understand and withstand the booby traps we’re probably more likely to make a change in the fundamental states of our mind, leading to a path of autonomy, and eventually happiness and fulfillment. It causes us to re-evaluate our values and recreate and reinvent new ways of our livelihoods. I find that a mission that makes a contribution to the greater good going beyond the benefit of oneself automatically brings about passion, energy and dynamic. It brings about meaning, it’s worthwhile the effort and dedication. It’s when you feel at one with life, completely involved and immersed in it. Call me naïve, but I still believe in the essence of goodness residing deep within the chore of each one of us. Having said that, how would you now answer the question of “what’s the point in continuing the hard work, dedication and commitment?”
I know, I didn’t provide much of a solution here, my blog today is merely driven by philosophical mutters. I will make it a point in my next blog to delve into Mohaly’s book, where he reflects his ideas on how to “reclaim your experience” or create “optimal experience”.
So long…..
Tatjana Luethi
I will use Mihaly Csikszentmihaly’s book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
as his writings provide a great backdrop for understanding how societal systems interact with ours, the human system.Sigmund Freud states: “Civilization is built on the repression of individual desires”.
As per Mihaly, to establish and maintain social order members of a society are forced to learn the skills and habits that the culture requires. Sounds like we all became a yellow duck in a long row of other yellow ducks marching blind and mindless behind our fellow in front of us. In other words “shut up and get in row”. Mihaly continues that a socialized person is someone who successfully functions and operates within a particular social system. I guess it depends on how you define success. What if that social system is not based on integrity? I’m placing this question in the light of what my friend and his team is currently experiencing at his position with his current employer of the past 12 years. Perhaps originally the culture at the corporation was designed with authenticity and integrity in mind, but somewhere along the line its original constitution and essence got corrupted.
It’s hard to oppose the habits and values of an environment that’s corrupted. It takes a strong man to stay authentic, keep clarity and an objective perspective to carry on and execute in the interest of what’s most efficient and beneficial for the company versus its individual players. It takes someone deeply rooted to operate from a space of integrity in a corporate environment that values moral perversion. It takes a man of autonomy to not get sidetracked and blinded by the corporate rewards rooted in dishonesty. What’s a man to do when his corporate environment has deviated away from its original intention and essence? Patience and hard work won’t be rewarded into promotions and executive titles. So then what’s the point in continuing the hard work?
Mihaly says that the essence of socialization is to make people dependent on social controls, have them respond predictably to rewards and punishment. Well, in this case the corporate rewards and punishment have been redesigned to benefit upper management’s goals. If the players don’t respond and behave as expected by the new intentions and rules established, consequences will be put in place. They have. The rug has been pulled. What for? My friend and his team chose not to play the game of “sucking up to management”, but rather staying true to one’s integrity. I congratulate all of you. I am proud to know men of such characteristics.
Mihaly points out that in making us work for society’s goals, in this case for the corporation’s goals, social systems are exploiting us at the source of our biological needs and our genetic conditioning (I guess you could call that social conditioning). Social controls are based on a threat of survival instinct. Reflecting upon my friend’s employer, how is their current corporate system exploiting their employees to work for goals and strategies of upper management? In this case the consequences imposed caused a great sense of distress and demoralization, followed by a fear of potential:
Loss of job
Loss of Income
Loss of Insurance
Loss of House, Car, etc
Loss of identity, in other words sense of self (that is, if you identify yourself through such matters).
To understand the happenings of the current events we’d have to question beyond the context of consequences that have been put in place. We have to question the underlying intention and strategy behind these consequences. To go one level deeper, what’s the underlying system that gives rise and directions to such a strategy? What are the characteristics and motivation of the current corporate system influencing upper managements behavior and actions? Is it integrity? Authenticity? Transparency? Not so much. All we see is a motivation that seems to devise a plan that divides employees into two categories:
1) the ones who suck up to upper management
2) the ones who don’t sell out but rather operate from integrity and autonomy
This is a perfect example that exemplifies my belief that livelihood and meaning cannot be separated. If employment is purely sought for a “comfortable” life, for achieving wealth, power and status we will remain being a puppet of our environment and its social controls, as those values are stressed in the promise of the “good life”. We will continuously be plagued by unhappiness and discontent because we built the basis for our happiness outside of ourselves. As a result we try to make up for the void by finding relieve in other piecemeal solutions, driven by the same pleasure principles built into our genetic programming that we fell bribe to in the first place. Mihaly notes that we have to achieve a level of autonomy that provides the rewards from within so that we won’t fall victim of our biological reflex responses exploited by the social systems (corporate systems). Well, that takes understanding and awareness of how we function as a human system. For a broader context please see my last post from Friday, September 18, 2009 “The Pursuit of Happiness – Becoming Free and In Control of One’s Life.”
I think the current times of the economic downfall are providing us with an opportunity to re-evaluate what we really stand for. Initially, it may not appear as an opportunity but more so as a threat of our existence. First, we are tested within the current system. If we can understand and withstand the booby traps we’re probably more likely to make a change in the fundamental states of our mind, leading to a path of autonomy, and eventually happiness and fulfillment. It causes us to re-evaluate our values and recreate and reinvent new ways of our livelihoods. I find that a mission that makes a contribution to the greater good going beyond the benefit of oneself automatically brings about passion, energy and dynamic. It brings about meaning, it’s worthwhile the effort and dedication. It’s when you feel at one with life, completely involved and immersed in it. Call me naïve, but I still believe in the essence of goodness residing deep within the chore of each one of us. Having said that, how would you now answer the question of “what’s the point in continuing the hard work, dedication and commitment?”
I know, I didn’t provide much of a solution here, my blog today is merely driven by philosophical mutters. I will make it a point in my next blog to delve into Mohaly’s book, where he reflects his ideas on how to “reclaim your experience” or create “optimal experience”.
So long…..
Tatjana Luethi
Friday, September 18, 2009
The Pursuit of Happiness - Becoming Free And In Control of One's Life
Hey everyone, so here we go, continuing the journey of exploring life.
After my last blog a friend suggested that I check out Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (P.S.) by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi as the content relates to a similar topic from Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind
which was the topic of my last blog.
I am half way through the book; it truly is phenomenal, thought provoking, well, challenging me to digest new knowledge, hopefully pushing the limits of my current “box”. Unawareness of alternatives keeps you captive in your comfort zone, therefore, our actions and behavior can only draw from what is within that box. So, here we go! Welcome back to the journey of the Swiss mind!
Last time I explored the world of our “genetic machine”. Each one of us is born with a specific genetic make-up that we inherit from our parents and our prior ancestors. I guess you could call it our compounded genetic blueprint that we start out with when we enter this world. However, over time we contribute and are responsible for new neural connections through the repetitive exposure of millions and billions of raw information that we “allow” to enter our mind, which the self interprets within the context of its own interest. The internalization of the information, respectively, our interpretation of it, if repeated consistently over a long period of time leads to eventual “hardwiring” of those new connections – forming our attitude, or state of mind. The totality of your neural network, a compilation of biological and societal instructions, makes up our operating system. It is what makes us operationally distinct and unique from others. It gives us our personality.
The ability of our neural network to adjust and rewire itself is called “plasticity”, think of it as “experience-impacted brain remodeling”. It seems to be under “on-going construction” as our brains are exposed to experiences on an everyday basis. So if I get this right nothing is really set in stone, as to some extend deeper experiences and social conditioning have modified the original genetic blueprint we originally started out with. Seems like we unconsciously have “allowed” for parental, societal and cultural systems to imprint itself into the deepest core of our being. Confusing? It is, literally, after all look at how many of us are trying to make sense of who we are?
It might be more appropriate to ask “who are we not”? If you remove all the layers of genetic (biological) and social instructions, what is there left? Psychoanalyst Freud notes that there is a constant battle between our “biological impulses” (the id) and the “social instructions” (the Superego). The battle between the two of them creates a split in our sense of self. So then, what the heck is the (Ego)? Reading through Wikipedia, I guess you could say that (Ego) is the modified version of the (Id), or (Ego) is the graduated version of the (Id) after it has been modified and influenced by the external world, by societal instructions. So Ego is somehow still related to our biological nature, maybe a little bit more trained, controlled and emancipated, but still driven by the pleasure principle that is built into our genetic programming. Some of us execute more control over that aspect of ourselves; others are at the complete mercy of their basic instincts and drive.
Mihaly notes, “Submission to genetic programming can become quite dangerous, because it leaves us helpless. A person who cannot override genetic instructions when necessary is always vulnerable. Instead of deciding how to act in terms of personal goals, he has to surrender to the things that his body has been programmed (or missprogrammed) to be. One must particularly achieve control over instinctual drives to achieve a healthy independence of society, for as long as we respond predictably to what feels good and what feels bad, it is easy for others to exploit our preferences for their own ends.” We can reflect on this by looking at our daily individual interactions, or on a grander picture in the light of interactions with social systems.
Okay, so how do we free consciousness from external forces – 1) biological or 2) social in nature? It’s already complicated enough trying to understand and control your instinctual, biological impulses, while meeting the societal goals. But imagine what happens when both of them team up and collaborate with each other, biological forces with social systems? Let me back up a little bit and lay down a context for you. Mihaly points out that the pleasure principles (for example the craving for sex or food) are built in to our invisible genetic machine – the human body. It is nature’s way of guaranteeing the survival of our species. “The pleasure we take in eating is an efficient way to ensure that the body will get the nourishment it needs. The pleasure of sexual intercourse is an equally practical method for the genes to program the body to reproduce and thereby to ensure the continuity of the genes”. Hm, efficient and practical, yep, we are a machine! So, Mihaly says, seeking pleasure is a “reflex response” from the body (basic biological impulse) and your own conscious plan of “sex” or “feeding” yourself may not have much to do with your own “intention” after all”. Fantastic!
The challenge arises, he notes, when we confuse those reflex responses as our “own” feelings, and call it the inner voice, the self, my instinct, etc. “If it feels good then it must be right”. But when we respond (or react) to these biological or social instructions without examining them we become puppets of those “external forces”. As long as we rely on what feels good it is easy for others to exploit us for their own benefits. So, without this distinction and self-awareness it is easy for social systems (and individuals) to execute control with a language that is specifically designed to target your “pleasure gene” (or how to avoid pain): Vive le politicians, corporations, churches and advertisers! Smart cookies, aren’t they? “As long as we obey the socially conditioned stimulus-response patterns that exploit our biological inclinations, we are controlled from the outside”. In that light, TV and commercials are not “bad”, just know what’s happening, it’s called awareness, understanding the systems. The same insight can be applied to individual interactions. The next time a conflict arises examine the source of it. Are you acting and behaving from a source of biological reflex responses? Or are your words and behavior consciously formulated from a space of clarity and awareness? That my dear takes effort!
Okay, I think we are getting somewhere. Awareness is one step, but how do we go about become consistently independent of the dictates of the body, and the imprinted social instructions of our environment? Mihaly says, “Optimal experience depends on the ability to control what happens in consciousness moment by moment, each person has to achieve it on the basis of his own individual efforts and creativity.” In other words there is no recipe out there. The responsibility for living lies in you living it, exploring it and experiencing it with all its facets. Now, we are back to knowledge, exposing oneself to new knowledge that pushes the limits of our current “box”. Many of us are drawn to the scriptures and philosophies of ancient times that supposedly teach us on how to control our mind. But Mihaly emphasizes that the knowledge and wisdom from ancient times may need to be “reformulated every time the cultural context changes”. It may have been effective in that time and culture, but looses its power and original context when put into the light of our contemporary time. That might explain why some of the ancient texts seem meaningless and make little sense. We try to make order and sense of it by projecting our own interpretation in the context of our own contemporary interests.
So, what do we have to do to calm and control the chaos of our mind? What are the conditions that allow us to create an experience, a new Self, where we do feel in control and become the masters of our reality?
Well, the journey shall continue…see you next time!
After my last blog a friend suggested that I check out Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (P.S.)
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi as the content relates to a similar topic from Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind which was the topic of my last blog.I am half way through the book; it truly is phenomenal, thought provoking, well, challenging me to digest new knowledge, hopefully pushing the limits of my current “box”. Unawareness of alternatives keeps you captive in your comfort zone, therefore, our actions and behavior can only draw from what is within that box. So, here we go! Welcome back to the journey of the Swiss mind!
Last time I explored the world of our “genetic machine”. Each one of us is born with a specific genetic make-up that we inherit from our parents and our prior ancestors. I guess you could call it our compounded genetic blueprint that we start out with when we enter this world. However, over time we contribute and are responsible for new neural connections through the repetitive exposure of millions and billions of raw information that we “allow” to enter our mind, which the self interprets within the context of its own interest. The internalization of the information, respectively, our interpretation of it, if repeated consistently over a long period of time leads to eventual “hardwiring” of those new connections – forming our attitude, or state of mind. The totality of your neural network, a compilation of biological and societal instructions, makes up our operating system. It is what makes us operationally distinct and unique from others. It gives us our personality.
The ability of our neural network to adjust and rewire itself is called “plasticity”, think of it as “experience-impacted brain remodeling”. It seems to be under “on-going construction” as our brains are exposed to experiences on an everyday basis. So if I get this right nothing is really set in stone, as to some extend deeper experiences and social conditioning have modified the original genetic blueprint we originally started out with. Seems like we unconsciously have “allowed” for parental, societal and cultural systems to imprint itself into the deepest core of our being. Confusing? It is, literally, after all look at how many of us are trying to make sense of who we are?
It might be more appropriate to ask “who are we not”? If you remove all the layers of genetic (biological) and social instructions, what is there left? Psychoanalyst Freud notes that there is a constant battle between our “biological impulses” (the id) and the “social instructions” (the Superego). The battle between the two of them creates a split in our sense of self. So then, what the heck is the (Ego)? Reading through Wikipedia, I guess you could say that (Ego) is the modified version of the (Id), or (Ego) is the graduated version of the (Id) after it has been modified and influenced by the external world, by societal instructions. So Ego is somehow still related to our biological nature, maybe a little bit more trained, controlled and emancipated, but still driven by the pleasure principle that is built into our genetic programming. Some of us execute more control over that aspect of ourselves; others are at the complete mercy of their basic instincts and drive.
Mihaly notes, “Submission to genetic programming can become quite dangerous, because it leaves us helpless. A person who cannot override genetic instructions when necessary is always vulnerable. Instead of deciding how to act in terms of personal goals, he has to surrender to the things that his body has been programmed (or missprogrammed) to be. One must particularly achieve control over instinctual drives to achieve a healthy independence of society, for as long as we respond predictably to what feels good and what feels bad, it is easy for others to exploit our preferences for their own ends.” We can reflect on this by looking at our daily individual interactions, or on a grander picture in the light of interactions with social systems.
Okay, so how do we free consciousness from external forces – 1) biological or 2) social in nature? It’s already complicated enough trying to understand and control your instinctual, biological impulses, while meeting the societal goals. But imagine what happens when both of them team up and collaborate with each other, biological forces with social systems? Let me back up a little bit and lay down a context for you. Mihaly points out that the pleasure principles (for example the craving for sex or food) are built in to our invisible genetic machine – the human body. It is nature’s way of guaranteeing the survival of our species. “The pleasure we take in eating is an efficient way to ensure that the body will get the nourishment it needs. The pleasure of sexual intercourse is an equally practical method for the genes to program the body to reproduce and thereby to ensure the continuity of the genes”. Hm, efficient and practical, yep, we are a machine! So, Mihaly says, seeking pleasure is a “reflex response” from the body (basic biological impulse) and your own conscious plan of “sex” or “feeding” yourself may not have much to do with your own “intention” after all”. Fantastic!
The challenge arises, he notes, when we confuse those reflex responses as our “own” feelings, and call it the inner voice, the self, my instinct, etc. “If it feels good then it must be right”. But when we respond (or react) to these biological or social instructions without examining them we become puppets of those “external forces”. As long as we rely on what feels good it is easy for others to exploit us for their own benefits. So, without this distinction and self-awareness it is easy for social systems (and individuals) to execute control with a language that is specifically designed to target your “pleasure gene” (or how to avoid pain): Vive le politicians, corporations, churches and advertisers! Smart cookies, aren’t they? “As long as we obey the socially conditioned stimulus-response patterns that exploit our biological inclinations, we are controlled from the outside”. In that light, TV and commercials are not “bad”, just know what’s happening, it’s called awareness, understanding the systems. The same insight can be applied to individual interactions. The next time a conflict arises examine the source of it. Are you acting and behaving from a source of biological reflex responses? Or are your words and behavior consciously formulated from a space of clarity and awareness? That my dear takes effort!
Okay, I think we are getting somewhere. Awareness is one step, but how do we go about become consistently independent of the dictates of the body, and the imprinted social instructions of our environment? Mihaly says, “Optimal experience depends on the ability to control what happens in consciousness moment by moment, each person has to achieve it on the basis of his own individual efforts and creativity.” In other words there is no recipe out there. The responsibility for living lies in you living it, exploring it and experiencing it with all its facets. Now, we are back to knowledge, exposing oneself to new knowledge that pushes the limits of our current “box”. Many of us are drawn to the scriptures and philosophies of ancient times that supposedly teach us on how to control our mind. But Mihaly emphasizes that the knowledge and wisdom from ancient times may need to be “reformulated every time the cultural context changes”. It may have been effective in that time and culture, but looses its power and original context when put into the light of our contemporary time. That might explain why some of the ancient texts seem meaningless and make little sense. We try to make order and sense of it by projecting our own interpretation in the context of our own contemporary interests.
So, what do we have to do to calm and control the chaos of our mind? What are the conditions that allow us to create an experience, a new Self, where we do feel in control and become the masters of our reality?
Well, the journey shall continue…see you next time!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
If you can't change, then what are you addicted to?
Hey Everyone,
So after I posted my last blogg, someone asked me "What do you do when you feel treated unfair, are nervous and about to explode?" Let me remind you that this question was posted in the context of using the power of language/thought, which creates the experience that follows.
Well, I'm not an expert here, but I can give it a shot :-). Like I mentioned in my last blogg, a lot of arguments take place for really no purposeful reason, meaning they are senseless and stupid. They don't contribute to anything. Most of the time it is simply the Ego acting up in "survival mode", and it will do anything to maintain its emotional survival and get the cognitive appraisal it seeks.
So, what are feelings? Where do they come from? Why do we have them? Why do they seem to control so much of our actions, our behavior, well, our life? I'm sure some of you have heard this before, that "we are not our feelings". If you want to find out who you truly are, you have to look beyond your emotions. Emotions are a separate entity, you are not your emotions. To some extend, I get it, but for my own personal purpose, I had to get a little bit more of a scientific explanation.
So here we go. I am almost done reading Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind
by Joe Dispenza. In his book, Joe Dispenza describes the studies he made of the human brain/mind, how it works, how it stores information and why it perpetuates the same behavioral pattern over and over. He talks about how to gain control over your mind and become an active participant in the creation of your life - from a scientific, neurological perspective. I'm going to keep this really short and simple, but I will have to establish a little bit of a context.
Every time we fire a thought in our head, nerve cells called "neurons" carry that message across the neural network, there the message gets translated into a chemical (call it the language of the body), that chemical produces a feeling or other physical reactions in the body (physical symptoms).
So to some extend we are predisposed with this forest of neural network that we inherited from our parents as well as our prior ancestors (we all know about our embedded fight or flight responses - a physical reaction that is genetically wired into our nervous system, thus ensuring the survival of the species). However, throughout the course of life we ourselves contribute and are responsible for adding new connections of neurons to our neural network, namely through the repetition of the same thought over and over again, until then new connections eventually "hardwire", making up a specific attitude, or state of mind. Your body, or your neurons are now part of an automatic, repetive cycle, constistenly releasing a cascade of chemicals into your body that mirrors your thought pattern. Over time, your body gets addicted to the release of these chemicals as these chemicals create a certain feeling in your body. So we could say that your fight and arguments could be considerate a neurological and chemical response from your body. The body has taken over, it has become the mind and is now doing the thinking for your mind. It is now giving orders to the brain when it needs a chemical fix, dominating and dictating your actions and behavior.
Your responses and your reactions are now becoming predictable, and you seem to remain the same person with the same neural network (thinking inside the box). This cycle is evident in the saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks", as he choses to stay hardwired in his "attitude", well, his neurological make-up. Think of it this way, your neurological physical map is a physical manifestation of your thought pattern. The longer you hold on to the same thoughts/state of mind/attitude/oppinion, the more hardwired you become, the more corresponding chemicals get released, the more addicted your body becomes to these chemicals, which then causes your body to signal back to the brain to manufacture more of the chemicals it needs for its fix so that you can feel better. If you can't change your emotional state, you may want to consider that you may have become addicted to a specific emotion. Have you ever thought about what it is that has you seek out the people and environment you do seek out? So then, does this mean that the people we create, attract, and love are the people that fulfill our bio-chemical/emotional need and addiction of feeling worthy, needed, loved, etc? That makes it sounds so selfish, doesn't it? However, I like Joe's question: "If you can't change, then what are you addicted to? What will you loose that you are chemically addicted to?"
So once we come to understand the way our mind and our body works we can start taking responsibility for bringing about change into our personality. After all it is a choice. You can choose differently once you have established that awareness that you can impact and affect your neurological make-up. You are not the victim of your emotions, emotions are simply a "result" of a chemical cascade taking place in your body, initiated by your thoughts/state of mind, or on a magnified level, by your attitude. In that light we can see that we are not our emotions and feelings. Once you no longer draw your identity from them, you will no longer be dominated by them. Old patterns in your brain will crumbl and give birth to a new self. That's why it is recommended to constantly stimulate your mind with something new, be it trough learning, reading, travelling, etc, anything that pushes your comfort zone, allowing you to expand and establish new neural networks. It just seems that makes for a far more interesting person to hang out with, doesn't it?
Initialy it will be hard to break this cycle, especially if you have been running the same program year after year. Your actions and behavior are dominated by the chemical addiction of your body. It's going to take quiet some conscious effort to rewire yourself. That's where philosophies and methods come in like positive thinking, meditation, visualization or mental rehearsal, praying, etc, essentially all of these methods are doing the same thing, you are using your creative mind to repattern and rewire your neurological make-up, hence create a new reality.
So, maybe we can say that "feeling treated unfair" stems from an emotional victim mentality that somehow accumulated from past experiences and conditioning. The challenge with a vicitim mentality is that we are becoming really good at telling the story and holding on to the mental concept of what's wrong in our life. However, you'll stay a victim as long as you allow for it to happen. Most of the times we can not change the other person, but we can take responsibility and take actions in many forms. I think "being nervous" could be considered the physical reaction of the emotional state that preceds it. So one either ought to change ones mentality and attitude about the person or situation, so not to harm and disrupt ones health and body, or take action and leave the person or sitution if it poses a dangerous thread. "Exploding" sounds like the last resort the Ego turns to as a form of reaction once it realizes it can't get what it wants, in other words, when your body is not getting its chemical fix.
Now, having said that, Ego sounds very much like the bio-chemical/emotional system described in Joe Dispenza's book, doesn't it? The term Ego seems to be the term coined in psychology, where as Joe conveys the same concept from a scientific/biological perspective. At the end of the day we all seem to be talking about the same thing, the only thing that is different is the language and terms that are being used, which is defined by whom is conveying the story, the philosopher, the preacher, the guru, the neuroscientist, etc.
Okay, looking foward to everyones thoughts, comments, feedback, etc.
SwissMiss
So after I posted my last blogg, someone asked me "What do you do when you feel treated unfair, are nervous and about to explode?" Let me remind you that this question was posted in the context of using the power of language/thought, which creates the experience that follows.
Well, I'm not an expert here, but I can give it a shot :-). Like I mentioned in my last blogg, a lot of arguments take place for really no purposeful reason, meaning they are senseless and stupid. They don't contribute to anything. Most of the time it is simply the Ego acting up in "survival mode", and it will do anything to maintain its emotional survival and get the cognitive appraisal it seeks.
So, what are feelings? Where do they come from? Why do we have them? Why do they seem to control so much of our actions, our behavior, well, our life? I'm sure some of you have heard this before, that "we are not our feelings". If you want to find out who you truly are, you have to look beyond your emotions. Emotions are a separate entity, you are not your emotions. To some extend, I get it, but for my own personal purpose, I had to get a little bit more of a scientific explanation.
So here we go. I am almost done reading Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind
by Joe Dispenza. In his book, Joe Dispenza describes the studies he made of the human brain/mind, how it works, how it stores information and why it perpetuates the same behavioral pattern over and over. He talks about how to gain control over your mind and become an active participant in the creation of your life - from a scientific, neurological perspective. I'm going to keep this really short and simple, but I will have to establish a little bit of a context.
Every time we fire a thought in our head, nerve cells called "neurons" carry that message across the neural network, there the message gets translated into a chemical (call it the language of the body), that chemical produces a feeling or other physical reactions in the body (physical symptoms).
So to some extend we are predisposed with this forest of neural network that we inherited from our parents as well as our prior ancestors (we all know about our embedded fight or flight responses - a physical reaction that is genetically wired into our nervous system, thus ensuring the survival of the species). However, throughout the course of life we ourselves contribute and are responsible for adding new connections of neurons to our neural network, namely through the repetition of the same thought over and over again, until then new connections eventually "hardwire", making up a specific attitude, or state of mind. Your body, or your neurons are now part of an automatic, repetive cycle, constistenly releasing a cascade of chemicals into your body that mirrors your thought pattern. Over time, your body gets addicted to the release of these chemicals as these chemicals create a certain feeling in your body. So we could say that your fight and arguments could be considerate a neurological and chemical response from your body. The body has taken over, it has become the mind and is now doing the thinking for your mind. It is now giving orders to the brain when it needs a chemical fix, dominating and dictating your actions and behavior.
Your responses and your reactions are now becoming predictable, and you seem to remain the same person with the same neural network (thinking inside the box). This cycle is evident in the saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks", as he choses to stay hardwired in his "attitude", well, his neurological make-up. Think of it this way, your neurological physical map is a physical manifestation of your thought pattern. The longer you hold on to the same thoughts/state of mind/attitude/oppinion, the more hardwired you become, the more corresponding chemicals get released, the more addicted your body becomes to these chemicals, which then causes your body to signal back to the brain to manufacture more of the chemicals it needs for its fix so that you can feel better. If you can't change your emotional state, you may want to consider that you may have become addicted to a specific emotion. Have you ever thought about what it is that has you seek out the people and environment you do seek out? So then, does this mean that the people we create, attract, and love are the people that fulfill our bio-chemical/emotional need and addiction of feeling worthy, needed, loved, etc? That makes it sounds so selfish, doesn't it? However, I like Joe's question: "If you can't change, then what are you addicted to? What will you loose that you are chemically addicted to?"
So once we come to understand the way our mind and our body works we can start taking responsibility for bringing about change into our personality. After all it is a choice. You can choose differently once you have established that awareness that you can impact and affect your neurological make-up. You are not the victim of your emotions, emotions are simply a "result" of a chemical cascade taking place in your body, initiated by your thoughts/state of mind, or on a magnified level, by your attitude. In that light we can see that we are not our emotions and feelings. Once you no longer draw your identity from them, you will no longer be dominated by them. Old patterns in your brain will crumbl and give birth to a new self. That's why it is recommended to constantly stimulate your mind with something new, be it trough learning, reading, travelling, etc, anything that pushes your comfort zone, allowing you to expand and establish new neural networks. It just seems that makes for a far more interesting person to hang out with, doesn't it?
Initialy it will be hard to break this cycle, especially if you have been running the same program year after year. Your actions and behavior are dominated by the chemical addiction of your body. It's going to take quiet some conscious effort to rewire yourself. That's where philosophies and methods come in like positive thinking, meditation, visualization or mental rehearsal, praying, etc, essentially all of these methods are doing the same thing, you are using your creative mind to repattern and rewire your neurological make-up, hence create a new reality.
So, maybe we can say that "feeling treated unfair" stems from an emotional victim mentality that somehow accumulated from past experiences and conditioning. The challenge with a vicitim mentality is that we are becoming really good at telling the story and holding on to the mental concept of what's wrong in our life. However, you'll stay a victim as long as you allow for it to happen. Most of the times we can not change the other person, but we can take responsibility and take actions in many forms. I think "being nervous" could be considered the physical reaction of the emotional state that preceds it. So one either ought to change ones mentality and attitude about the person or situation, so not to harm and disrupt ones health and body, or take action and leave the person or sitution if it poses a dangerous thread. "Exploding" sounds like the last resort the Ego turns to as a form of reaction once it realizes it can't get what it wants, in other words, when your body is not getting its chemical fix.
Now, having said that, Ego sounds very much like the bio-chemical/emotional system described in Joe Dispenza's book, doesn't it? The term Ego seems to be the term coined in psychology, where as Joe conveys the same concept from a scientific/biological perspective. At the end of the day we all seem to be talking about the same thing, the only thing that is different is the language and terms that are being used, which is defined by whom is conveying the story, the philosopher, the preacher, the guru, the neuroscientist, etc.
Okay, looking foward to everyones thoughts, comments, feedback, etc.
SwissMiss
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