I like this photo of me so figured I should write some sort of meaningful post to accompany it. What follows here is the most important message I can think of to put out to the world…
It is clear to me that people, in general, are not well. Every symptom, whether physical or psychological, carries a message. Although we each have our own unique experiences, we are all reacting to unhealthy environments.
I believe it was Thomas Berry who said something along the lines of “we cannot have healthy individuals in an unhealthy system” or something along those lines.
We are not separate from our environment. We are intimately connected to one another and the natural world too. We are nature.
I remembered learning in sociology 101 that individuals are most well when they are integrated with their culture and environment. When people feel disconnected or isolated from their environment, depression and suicide rates rise dramatically.
The problem is, our world is sick. Its core values are centered around social status and individual importance and success.
Integrating in our world, as it is now, means adopting an individualistic and materialistic value system.
As Krishnamurti said “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”.
We are in this weird paradox; to integrate in the world and feel a sense of validation and belonging, we actually isolate ourselves simply through the value system that we adopt.
If we choose to be true to a deeper set of values around caring for others and our planet, we again isolate ourselves from the larger culture.
This problem is compounded by the fact that to connect to ourselves and our environment in a deeper, more meaningful way, we need to confront our collective and individual trauma. We have inherited a painful past, and pain doesn’t just go away, it’s handed down, generation to generation, until it is confronted, felt, integrated, and transmuted.
Our default is to integrate into a superficial life, aligned with the values of a superficial culture, and avoid all the pain and trauma we’ve inherited, doing our best to repress, numb, and avoid the presenting symptoms.
Or we can choose to explore deeper, more meaningful values and take responsibility for the pain and trauma we’ve inherited, and do the healing work so we can connect with nature and one another in a more meaningful way.
I don’t blame anyone who chooses the first option. As confronting our repressed pain is difficult, and we need a lot of support and resources, and these are scarce.
But for those of us that do have resources, we are the lucky ones. And those of us that can share and offer the resources, well we are doubly lucky, as we get to have viscerally meaningful lives.
Doing the healing work isn’t easy, and the only way I see it happening on the necessary mass scale is through the formation of healing communities. We need the support from one another. But in a materialistic world, healing is mostly commodified, making it mostly a luxury for the privileged class.
This is why I try to offer free resources, and also why I generally try to keep my private practice rates affordable and offer help where I can. I have the luxury to do so because I have a relatively low cost of living, possible only because I do my work online and live in places more affordable than where I’m from.
I can say that I am much happier now, doing work that is helping people, than when I was making more money. Focusing on helping others as opposed to investing in financial security or social status has been the single most significant shift of values in my life, and has increased my overall sense of wellbeing more than anything else I’ve done.
This is simply an invitation to those who are as lucky as I am to contemplate how you can prioritize the impact you have on others, and the natural world. I know many of you are already doing so, but this is what we need more of in the world. More move towards caring for the collective wellbeing. And the beauty is that, more than anything, will impact our individual wellbeing.
Being Integrated
I like this photo of me so figured I should write some sort of meaningful post to accompany it. What follows here is the most important message I can think of to put out to the world…
It is clear to me that people, in general, are not well. Every symptom, whether physical or psychological, carries a message. Although we each have our own unique experiences, we are all reacting to unhealthy environments.
I believe it was Thomas Berry who said something along the lines of “we cannot have healthy individuals in an unhealthy system” or something along those lines.
We are not separate from our environment. We are intimately connected to one another and the natural world too. We are nature.
I remembered learning in sociology 101 that individuals are most well when they are integrated with their culture and environment. When people feel disconnected or isolated from their environment, depression and suicide rates rise dramatically.
The problem is, our world is sick. Its core values are centered around social status and individual importance and success.
Integrating in our world, as it is now, means adopting an individualistic and materialistic value system.
As Krishnamurti said “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”.
We are in this weird paradox; to integrate in the world and feel a sense of validation and belonging, we actually isolate ourselves simply through the value system that we adopt.
If we choose to be true to a deeper set of values around caring for others and our planet, we again isolate ourselves from the larger culture.
This problem is compounded by the fact that to connect to ourselves and our environment in a deeper, more meaningful way, we need to confront our collective and individual trauma. We have inherited a painful past, and pain doesn’t just go away, it’s handed down, generation to generation, until it is confronted, felt, integrated, and transmuted.
Our default is to integrate into a superficial life, aligned with the values of a superficial culture, and avoid all the pain and trauma we’ve inherited, doing our best to repress, numb, and avoid the presenting symptoms.
Or we can choose to explore deeper, more meaningful values and take responsibility for the pain and trauma we’ve inherited, and do the healing work so we can connect with nature and one another in a more meaningful way.
I don’t blame anyone who chooses the first option. As confronting our repressed pain is difficult, and we need a lot of support and resources, and these are scarce.
But for those of us that do have resources, we are the lucky ones. And those of us that can share and offer the resources, well we are doubly lucky, as we get to have viscerally meaningful lives.
Doing the healing work isn’t easy, and the only way I see it happening on the necessary mass scale is through the formation of healing communities. We need the support from one another. But in a materialistic world, healing is mostly commodified, making it mostly a luxury for the privileged class.
This is why I try to offer free resources, and also why I generally try to keep my private practice rates affordable and offer help where I can. I have the luxury to do so because I have a relatively low cost of living, possible only because I do my work online and live in places more affordable than where I’m from.
I can say that I am much happier now, doing work that is helping people, than when I was making more money. Focusing on helping others as opposed to investing in financial security or social status has been the single most significant shift of values in my life, and has increased my overall sense of wellbeing more than anything else I’ve done.
This is simply an invitation to those who are as lucky as I am to contemplate how you can prioritize the impact you have on others, and the natural world. I know many of you are already doing so, but this is what we need more of in the world. More move towards caring for the collective wellbeing. And the beauty is that, more than anything, will impact our individual wellbeing.
2 years ago | [YT] | 45