If our celestial soul is shrouded in the dark smoke produced by the imperious self, our soul will cease to reflect the divine spark within it. – Ostad Elahi Do you ever find yourself caught between opposing ideas when you are about to make a decision? For example, you plan to finish your work in good time, and yet switch your mind to watch a television program that you like. Meanwhile, you find yourself saying that it will not be the end of the…
“ Love is really the only thing we can possess, keep with us and take with us when we depart. ” Dr. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross (1926-2004), in her pioneering work with patients nearing the end of their lives in palliative care, interviewed them on their feelings about life and death, and how they measure the life they lived. The results of her work show that the patients unanimously expressed their emotional state as a “yearning for love, ” a shield needed against the fear of…
Siri Hustvedt, the prizewinning writer and scholar, describes the meaning of life through her work, the joy she finds in the creative impulse and the urgency to write driven by it. Her knowledge of psychoanalysis, art and neuroscience is woven in her stories in which she asks the essential question “Who are we ? ” In an interview about the creative impulse, the intersubjective experience of art and the emotional punch found in art, she discloses her “writing self. ” Märit Aronsson (M) : I’d…
On how dancing boosts morale and revives the soul “ In the dance, one finds the cinema, the comic strips, the Olympic hundred meters and swimming, and what’s more : poetry, love and tenderness,” said Maurice Bejart, the exceptional choreographer, opera director and dancer. Long before neuroscience confirmed that our brains are wired to move along with music, dancing was there. Babies, children, and adults, all instinctively move to the rhythm of the music. Cognitive research states that human beings are universally synchronized with…
One wonders only when he is alone and seeks the truth. – Einstein “Inner dialogue with oneself is an essential human condition ” states psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961). Murmuring, out loud, intuitive, singing, contemplating…in whatever mode, the conversation made with oneself is the characteristic of all human beings. From an early age on, one speaks to himself without any external trigger, relentlessly accommodates and comforts himself … in the form of talking aloud either through objects or directly with oneself. It allows us…
The most difficult thing is to know yourself. – Thales The impact of our perceptual patterns on the way we navigate the “self” has always been a cornerstone in understanding human behavior. Long before neuroscience started thought experiments on the nature of reality, William James (1842-1910), the pioneer American psychologist put forward “ our view of the world is truly shaped by what we decide to perceive ” and that, in effect, shapes the world around us. Carl G. Jung (1875-1961), founder of the analytical…
“ The world is sown with good but unless I turn my glad thoughts into practical living and till my own field, I cannot reap a kernel of the good. The desire and will to work is optimism itself. ” Helen Keller (1880– 1968), the outstanding woman who grew up without sight or hearing, in her quest for knowing she not only became learned in philosophy, history, math, science and world matters, but also became an intellectual activist, a “doer” for the good…
“Resilience across writing is a good way to get out of the fog and light up your life” says Boris Cyrulnik, neuropsychiatrist and writer, having lost both his parents at the age of five, is a living model of how one develops resilience and can overcome the major dramas of life. When the word “resilience” was first used in physics it referred to a body’s ability to absorb an impact. Transformed to the human psyche, it is the capacity to transcend from traumatic experiences.…
Happiness has been a quest for humankind evers since; from ancient greek philosophers to contemporary psychologists, from physicists to ordinary people. Definitions of happiness were constructed and reconstructed. Roadmaps were given as to where one can find it and remedies were suggested for sustaining it. For one, it is to love and be loved, for another, happiness is attainable by social acceptance, status, sucess or material wealth. Some find joy in helping others or seek it in states of gratitude. The moments or states…
The childhood of the human race is far from over. We have a long way to go before most people understand that what they do for others is just as important to their well-being as what they do for themselves. – William T. Powell “Compassion is a practically acquired knowledge, like dancing. You must do it and practice diligently day by day,” says Karen Armstrong, the pioneer of Charter for Compassion. Daniel Goleman, psychologist and author of emotional intelligence, writes that “true compassion…
