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Andrea Maloney-Schara, LCSWA |
IdeasToAction.com Weblog
The Impact of Focusing Your Life Energy You can read below or click over to my NEW web site www.ideastoaction.wordpress.com Here you will find a picture of some very focused flowers growing in between rocks. The Impact of Focusing Your Life Energy The core approaches of Buddhist psychology are: meditative contemplation, observations of motivation, manifested by emotion, and thought patterns and behaviors, all of which are subject to critical philosophical analysis. The goal is to overcome suffering, especially psychological and emotional sufferings. Psychiatry in particular and the mental heath field in general, have both long shared this goal. Only since the advent of fast computers, beginning in the seventies, has mental health been able to investigate the usefulness of various types of Neurofeedback and EEG readings in general, to learn more about the advantages of four thousand plus years of meditative states. As those of you who have explored my site know, Neurofeedback has long been of interest. You can find two interesting articles at http://ideastoaction.wordpress.com/consulting/neurofeedback-for-leaders/ Or my current view Or one version of the history of Neurofeedback It is possible that this western technological advance will be a way to introduce the benefits of being present, to the western mind. Technology may enable building a knowledge bridge with the Buddhist focus on healthy practices to alter suffering in our everyday lives. Two questions the Dali Lama poses are; how do we know what is useful, and has our capacity for moral reasoning kept pace with knowledge? Clearly humanity in general is in need of what he describes as a moral compass, to preserve our human sensitivity, and to retain in our minds our fundamental human values. He urges us to hold compassion as the key motivation for all our endeavors. Loving kindness is the key to compassionate interactions with others but it is often blocked by emotional reactive states which are often laid down in the uterus on or even in past lives. One way to look at the impact of loving kindness is in our relationship with people, the other is our relationship with the earth and even with the food we consume. In a world attuned to scientific facts we need to understand in a rational way the long term consequences of our actions. The methods of science can enable us to measure the impact of loving kindness on the earth and its inhabitants. Since my years of experience are in the filed of mental heath I can only give my perspective on the struggle metal heath has had in find ways to speak with those who represent the more spiritual worlds. These separated knowledge compartments can only be opened by the correct attitude towards all. Psychiatry has long had ways of understanding man's attempts to struggle with his dark side and to enhance his or her functioning in relationships. At its base psychiatry has as long of a way to go as religions in making the pathways towards more mature functioning a knowable and scientific fact. Murray Bowen, the originator of Family Systems Theory, thought there was a way to see how beliefs of all kinds functioned as gateways to change one's life. There is no way to put a belief, be it in Jesus, God or emptiness, to a rational fact based test. But as the Dali Lama noted we can look at the behaviors generated by the energy of these beliefs. The fact that life energy may be transmitted in interpersonal relationships may be harder to measure than when this energy is transmitted into a substance like food. There are so many factors that can impact on one's relationships that they are harder to measure. We may know and or believe that motivation and perception are the keys to being able to experience and to stay in a state of loving kindness, but how do we measure this? Humans and the human brain are non linear systems, which refuse to be controlled by the laws of cause and effect. Francisco J. Varela, Ethical Know-How: Action Wisdom and Cognition, was one of the early founders of the Mind Life Institute. He was also one of the earliest neurobiologist to gives us profound evidence of the lack of causal relationships in network driven closed loop systems. There is no A in and B out in the perceptual system. Humans are also not A in and B out systems. We are non linear systems. Changes occur in very unpredictable ways. The end result of altering behavior can still be measured as a flow towards more maturity or better heath or more acceptances of what is. It is the central nervous system which regulates our ability to pay attention and to self regulate. In the book Personal Transformation: An Executive's Experience of Grief, Loss and Renewal by Kiril Sokoloff describes how both the relationship with the Dali Lama and the grounded ideas of Buddhism enabled a complete transformation and relief from suffering in one man's life. This family story is a perfect example of emotional blindness in family dynamics. My heart went out to him, as he described not knowing how fusion between two people works in intense relationships. People do things out of love that ends up with one person becoming erased or divorced. Clearly we are a network of interconnected beings and when we get over controlled, confused or cut off, troubles magnify in the brain and in our lives. The inability to separate out a self when someone we "love" makes an incredulous demand on us, leads to a dark and confused road. To see this and know what to do, I think is one of the ways Bowen Family System Theory connects with Buddhism. There is a beautiful piece on Swarm behavior in July 2007's National Geographic. http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0707/feature5/ How do we explain, then, the success of Earth's 12,000 or so known ant species? They must have learned something in 140 million years. The authors depict how easy it is to get caught up in signals from local interactions. It is a beautiful adaptation for bees, birds and even locust when they are really hungry. But in some case becoming part of the swarm is very dangerous to our heath. A group won't be smart if its members imitate one another, slavishly follow fads, or wait for someone to tell them what to do. When a group is being intelligent, whether it's made up of ants or attorneys, it relies on its members to do their own part. For those of us who sometimes wonder if it's really worth recycling that extra bottle to lighten our impact on the planet, the bottom line is that our actions matter, even if we don't see how. The Lemmings are good example of how local signals build and result in destruction, as are stock market crashes. When one person can separate out and be different, then the love and even the wisdom of the crowd are much likely to predominate. We also know that mediation and prayers have enabled people to be focused on organizing their mental energy to be more autonomous and responsible and that this has a tremendous impact on one's health. Those who are able to self regulate live in a world with less anxiety and blame. Some people have describe feeling great compassion or profound love, which has enabled them to find a deep way to connect with others as who they are, and to stand apart from the confusing signals of others. There are many new ways of knowing that science has brought into awareness, which deeply connect with ancient Buddhist texts. There are also many areas of investigation which can enable people to use a compass that guides the individual to a healthy road. One is the use of Neurofeedback to increase the ability to both pay attention and to become profoundly relaxed. More of this kind of technological inventiveness will be coming your way. I think scientific research will enable us to find many roads which can enhance our strengths and alerts us to our human weakness. Here is a short summery of my overly brief and somewhat humorous thoughts on the field of mental heath. The Four States of Revolution within Mental Health and Hopes for the Future 1- Freud unearthed the feeling system. There is not much left of repression, after the internet and the media in general. People are still addicted to keeping secrets and unaware of forces impinging on them in all groups. People still learn from dreams. (12 years to do a psychoanalytic stint or a life time.) 2 - The interpersonal family interactions over the generations, Bowen family theory, has used the intellect and cognitive reframing if you will, to enable people to function better, make more authentic contact with others by being less cut off over the generations. People talk biology but are still blind to the deeper process in the hive or the swarms or the group. (6 to 9 years for serious students of the family as a system or a life time.) 3 – Drugs have been the answer to serious symptoms for almost sixty years. Food has been ignored as way to alter one's health status. Talking and altering relationships has not been able to address problems deep in the CNS. 4 – Hope for the future take mental heath back to contemplative practice: The useful direction of metal energy can be enhanced by 1) greater ability to be present in life and 2) the ability to see the consequences of what we do, be it eating or relating. Neurofeedback and mediation offer transformational possibilities as they both alter the functioning of the central nervous system. The discipline of training enables the CNS to reorganize. Specific types of Neurofeedback such as www.zengar.com target the process of giving the brain itself adequate feedback on the current state of the brain. Any new product that offers greater ability to be aware will run up against the automatic resistance in the brain. Clearly the group process in society can enhance or inhibit awareness. All each of can do is move in the direction of compassion. It begins with the self, radiates out to the family, to the community and then to the planet and is always in the empty universe. posted on 7.28.07 A dream comes true! With kindness and talent Agatha Golonkiewicz http://www.studio-upstairs.com has enabled a new and easily updatable website. The new address is- http://ideastoaction.wordpress.com/2007/05/02/121/ Please click on or paste into your browser to check out my new weblog - Fun and Facts - How Do We Know What We Claim to Know? Then you are free to explore the rest of the site. Comments appreciated as this site is designed to be interactive. Next piece of news - I will be holding a seminar in A Seminar for Leaders - May 19, 2007 Seeing the The relationship between the forest (the system) and the trees (the people) is one way to consider how any organization influences its members. By looking at small parts of the picture (the trees) to learn about the big picture (the forest), we can more easily see impersonal forces at work. The goals of the series are to better understand emotional forces, to predict outcome of events on the behavior of individuals, and to manage self in all emotional systems. Organizer of the series, Andrea Schara will weave her idea of the mindfulness compass presented in her soon-to-be-published book For Leaders Only: Navigating in the Social World. With insight and clarity, For Leaders Only provides a way in which to think about personal and organizational relationships in a broader context and to create a compass by which one can navigate through those relationships in a more effective and self-generated manner. The seminars will take on the third Saturday of every other month. The schedule is arranged with an initial one-hour presentation. Along with a working lunch, the remainder of the day will be devoted to exchanging practical and theoretical questions with other participants. The first seminar will be ____________________________________________________________________ Place - The Learning Space www.livingoptimally.com Questions - Call 703-598-5953 or e mail arms711@aol.com Cost: $150.00 for therapist $350.00 business executives Checks to Leaders for Tomorrow, Inc. a 501-C a non profit
posted on 5.2.07 Weblog 61 The book is done! The book is done! Yes, I am happy but not celebrating until it is sold. Next will be the excitement of the chase—how to find a publisher. No matter the outcome, all in all I am very grateful to have had this opportunity to think and write. Deb Schwab, my editor, has to go over all 400 pages one more time. Brave woman! I am grateful to her and to Judy Ball. They are two thoughtful women willing and able to help edit all the ideas I have into a readable book. In the last four months the three of us have been working on the last chapter, part of which you will find below. Called “The Forest and the Trees,” this chapter introduces you to an Organizational Compass. If you want to read more, click on the link to the chapter. http://ideastoaction.com/latestnewsletter.html Before I introduce you to my last chapter I would like to say that it was written as I thought about and prepared for the impending death of Jacques Mauboussin, my son in law’s father, who died on March 11th. I first met Jacques in 1989 when he was the father of the groom. Even then I was struck by how genuinely kind and thoughtful he was, both to his wife and to his family. I knew my daughter was fortunate to be marrying into such a family. I enjoyed talking to him about what new car I should buy. (He owned an extremely well organized car dealership). When I traded in my old car for a new one, he sold my old one to a person who worked for him. Over time Jacques would let me know how my old van was doing. I love that kind of respect for past affiliations. Overall the feeling that I got from his family and friends was that he made a difference in people’s lives just by his way of being there consistently for each person. Jacques had the rare ability to let important people be mostly free so that each could find his or her own way. I had fun trying to ask him about his life without bugging him. Eventually he and his wife recorded their story, which is a fabulous gift for the next generations. When he died there was no big emotional upheaval but rather a great respect for a profound transition. Jacques seemed very happy to have lived his life the way he had, and was pleased to tell his view of things, but he did not impose his views on others. How fortunate for him and for us. He will be missed and be an inspiration. CHAPTER EIGHT The Know thyself. Inscribed on the lintel at the entrance to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, this statement has been attributed to Socrates and other Greek sages. How the past perishes is how the future becomes. Alfred North Whitehead Seeing the Big Picture and Thinking for Self In our physical nature we are simply flowing particles—star stuff, if you will. Pulled together for what seems a moment, we are soon to be scattered about the universe, star stuff again. Because we are carbon-based material matter, that may be the end of the story. Yet because we are conscious and enjoy learning and creating, many of us wonder what our legacy will be. Each of us, after all, leaves a mark, however slight, on the past and a footprint, however tentative, on the future. I believe that if we can be true to our deeper selves, we will leave this planet a bit better than it was before we arrived. But before we can be true, we have to learn about our somewhat glorified human nature. It is this knowledge that will help us make better decisions as we walk our path, finding our way in the complex social systems that make up our world. Throughout this book, I have talked about the Mindful Compass as a method for discovering better ways to lead in the complex jungle of social systems. I have suggested that readers create their own personalized versions of a compass to facilitate more thoughtful, more aware actions. To complement this focus on you, the individual, I will ask you (later in this chapter) to take a look at an Organizational Compass, just to give you some ideas about what happens in any of the organizational jungles you may enter. To influence or to be influenced, to put a slightly different spin on a famous quote, one has to know where one is and where one is headed. The four directions of the Organizational Compass will help you see both more clearly. Those directions are * North: Principles, Laws, Rules, Regulations, Values and Beliefs * South: Problems - Cooperation and Openness * West: Paradoxes, Polarization, and Relationship Quagmires * East: The Cost of Seeing and Solving problems Any social system is chock full of people. The proverbial relationship between the forest (the system) and the trees (the people) is a good way to help us understand how an organization influences its members. It’s also a helpful metaphor, a way to shift our thinking between the foreground and the background. By looking at small parts of the picture (the trees) to learn about the big picture (the forest), we can more easily see the influences. In addition, shifting frames from thinking about one individual to thinking about the group, and then back again, gives us more insights into two different dynamics. We also want to think about the root systems of the trees. How is one tree connected to the earth and to other trees? How will these connections influence the growth and development of the tree? This third “view” shift can take us, metaphorically, from one individual’s brain thinking on its own to how that brain is influenced by the surrounding social and multigenerational groups. Different metaphors and analogies can create more thinking spaces that are more open, if we allow it. Metaphorically, from knowing one tree we can know something about the nature of all the trees in the forest. Looking at one tree or one individual, we see the details but miss the pattern. Looking at the forest, we see the big picture but miss the details. Looking at both can help us see different aspects of the brain, the family and the organizational systems. I was motivated to develop an Organizational Compass because I wanted to find a simple way to take a reading on an organization of any type. As a family therapist, I was able to recognize the evidence of families reverting to automatic behavior patterns when under pressure. The family is a system, but not an organization. Even so, I reasoned, systems knowledge could help me understand how other complex systems, such as companies or even nations, function under pressure. In the forest, it is not too difficult to tell if the trees are suffering from blight. But among humans it is often hard to recognize that there are problems until it is too late. Humans are far better than trees at pretending. Question is, what signs do you look for to verify that your organization is running a 104 degree fever? Or, how can you verify evidence that your organization is healthy enough to sustain a major disruption, get the job done well, and survive into the future? Of course, part of the answer has to do with spotting people who are reverting to automatic, emotional behavior in the face of problems, stress or anxiety. If the trees are not doing well, then the forest is in for trouble. Therefore, a focus on people has to be a central part of any organization’s survival tactics. One never knows what will disrupt an organization or a forest. All events that give rise to problems are stressors. But stress is not a big hammer that comes around and knocks people on their heads. In fact, stress is hard to see. But some of the events that cause stress are well documented. Change, real or imagined, is the great stressor. Change happens and people either adapt, or they react and get more uptight. They cannot see the forest (the long term overall gain) for the trees (the short term uncertainty and anxiety). But a reasonably aware leader can make a positive difference to a system under pressure if he or she can be open about changes, deal well with them, and help the individuals affected adjust. Your ability to be a calm presence during stressful times is greatly enhanced by your being able to understand the big, complex picture. My overall suggestion is that being able to observe the forest in a neutral way will enable you to relate well to the trees: You have no agenda; you are open; you just want to see and understand. Then thoughtful action can follow. Carl Sagan has a wonderful chart, which I’ve included at the end of this chapter, which helps us imagine the history of the universe as compressed into one year. Each month represents a little over a billion years, and the final evening of the last day of that year shows the emergence of human life.[1] (Now that is really backing up and getting objective about our place in time!). In this chart, cellular life takes about nine months to appear. This is way before the first forest, but it is the beginning of interaction, when cells had to negotiate and get along with one another in order to survive. Once cells could alter information stored in the genome, things were off and running. Cells could adapt to changing conditions and so can people. Cells just have to be a bit concerned about what the other cells and the environment are doing and then alter their own functioning or genome to adapt. Yes, I have simplified the complex nature of leadership in this analogy. But leaders need the ability to get neutral about events around them in order to think clearly, no matter the problem. They also need to look at the big picture without flinching or compromising. And of course, any leader building their Mindful Compass is motivated to relate well to the other individuals in the neighborhood. http://ideastoaction.com/latestnewsletter.html posted on 4.6.07 |
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Andrea Maloney-Schara, Faculty, Georgetown
Family Center, Suite 103, |
