Elements of Holistic Psychology

 

The following is excerpted from the book,

Sing Your Own Song, Dance Your Own Dance

 

 

Elements of Holistic Psychology:

Journey Into the Real Self

       With holistic psychology, we take a journey into the real Self. The elements of holistic psychology provide us the means to plan the journey and to carry it through                  * The Holistic Paradigm is our map to the territory. It reveals to us our true goal.          * The holistic principles flow directly from the Holistic Paradigm. They guide us              along the path.                                                                                                                                               * The transformational processes and techniques take us step by step to                      personal unfoldment and fulfillment.

The Holistic Paradigm
       The Holistic Paradigm reframes the terms of our existence and helps us to understand our multidimensional nature. It has four facets.

1. Our Multidimensional Nature
We are unitary yet multidimensional beings, with physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects, manifesting in a physical, social, and cultural context.
Material manifestation is but one aspect of reality, one aspect of our multidimensional nature. Figure 5 depicts the multiple levels of manifestation: Spirit/Soul, Thought/Mind, Energy Body, and Physical Form. At each level there are specific effects that correspond to personal goals.

2. Connection With Spirit
We encounter Spirit within ourselves, and in all creation.
Our powers of thought, concentration, and consciousness give us the ability to go beyond material awareness and experience transcendent levels of reality. Figure 5 suggests the pre-eminence of Spirit, the source of our being.

3. The Flow of Manifestation
We manifest Spirit as thought, as energy, as activity, and as material form, in that sequence.
Each of us creates things in the world. We also create our own self. This personal creation follows the same laws and patterns as the cosmic creation described in the Bible. In the beginning was thought (Logos, the Word), then came energy ("Let there be light"), and then finally the material universe took form. Nothing comes into manifestation without this three-step process.
Thought is the starting point of all manifestation. Thought can generate any condition — misery or bliss, love or indifference, poverty or prosperity, illness or health. Thought determines the form and nature of any object — face or figure, script or statue, train or toaster. When thought has formed the blueprint, the stage is set for energy to flow, and then finally the material form takes shape.

       All methods of health and healing — physical, mental, and spiritual — rely on the flow of life force.
       Life force is the essence of all health and healing — as it is of life itself. It maintains and restores all bodily functioning and physiological processes. Imbued with the intelligence and the power, it knows just what to do, and goes about doing it.
To allow life force to flow freely, we overcome or remove physical, emotional, and mental obstacles. To enhance its flow, we focus conscious awareness and will.
       Various methods of healing address different aspects of manifestation. Figure 5 shows the four levels of manifestation and the corresponding approaches to health and healing.
       The closer it comes to the apex of the pyramid, the more effective an approach to healing is likely to be. Physical methods can be helpful, but they cannot go to the source of a deep-seated problem. The results are often superficial, transient, and characterized by untoward "side effects." Methods that act on the level of energy are still limited in scope and duration, and may require repeated application. For healing that is fundamental and long-lasting, you must change the patterns of thought.

Holistic Principles
       The Holistic Paradigm not only sets the basic direction for holistic psychology and holistic health, but also gives rise to the holistic principles, which provide form and substance.
       The holistic principles guide us in our search for the Self. They illuminate our path to holistic health and healing— beacons to both seeker and guide
1. Wholeness. I am a whole person, one body-mind-spirit, existing in dynamic relationship to others, to my family, social, and cultural context, and to my physical environment.
2. Uniqueness. My unique way of being is the key to my authenticity, my transformation, and my healing.
3. Causality/Meaning. I attain true healing and freedom from disease by discovering the sources of illness and by changing the patterns of body, mind, and spirit which produce it.
4. Empowerment/Responsibility. I have the power to overcome illness and difficulties of every kind, and to realize higher levels of potential. I accept responsibility for my health and for my life.
5. Working With Nature. I support my healing with methods that are natural, non-toxic, and non-invasive.

Holistic Principles vs. Medical Myths
       Holistic psychology affirms the integrity of the person as a multidimensional being embedded within larger wholes — the family, the community, the planet, the cosmos. Thus, health is not just a matter of tissues and organs, but reflects the functioning of the whole person, in context. True health means that Spirit flows freely through all aspects of our being, and we freely exchange energy with the world around us. When this flow is blocked or impaired, we experience alienation, powerlessness, depression, even despair and mental imbalance. And we succumb to physical disease.
       Western medicine takes a very different approach to health and illness. Its materialistic mindset is narrowly focused on our physical aspect. Its professional ethos emphasizes "medical necessity" — applying medical technology to the physical circumstances.
       Modern medical practice is a complex socio-cultural system. It is informed by biological science and other relevant technologies, and it is governed by laws, regulations, and formal codes of conduct. But its dynamics primarily reflect the history and the economics of the profession, and the belief systems of practitioners and public. These belief systems feature a number of cultural icons and myths. These medical myths, and the practices that flow from them, contrast sharply with the holistic principles and with holistic practice.

1. The Myth of the Disease-Dragon reflects preoccupation with disease and the attendant disregard of the person. Standard medicine is focused on the body, which it regards as the site and the source of illness. In practice, however, its primary focus is not really even the body, nor any other aspect of the person afflicted, but rather the specific disease process. Holistic psychology focuses on the person as a whole, not on the disease. All aspects of a person — physical, mental, and spiritual — enter into and reflect the state of health or illness. Physical health is not separated from mental or even spiritual health. The specific health issues are of one piece with the person's total existential and environmental situation.

2. The Myth of the Silver Bullet reflects the desperate but forlorn hope that external agents can be found to overcome any given disease. Standard medicine seeks after remedies and protocols specifically tailored to destroy particular maladies, or to palliate their effects. Holistic psychology puts the focus on healing the person rather than on destroying disease. It celebrates health, and even deviations from health, as unique and meaningful manifestations on the life path of a unique person moving toward a unique goal. To bring about healing, you need to understand yourself as a person, know your goals and the obstacles in the way, and find out how a particular manifestation of illness fits into the overall picture.

3. The Myth of Medicine Works Wonders pictures the body as a besieged victim to be defended with sophisticated technology. Standard medicine sees illness as a pointless aberration from the norm, caused by external forces buffeting a system that is inherently weak, unstable, and vulnerable. It seeks to shore up the body with the right wonder drug or procedure. If none exists, it will be, must be, developed forthwith. Holistic psychology sees illness as an individual expression that manifests when means of expression consistent with health are blocked. A true remedy addresses the blockage, not just its consequences.

4. The Myth of Doctor Knows Best invests the medical practitioner with the technical expertise and the responsibility to determine the best response to illness. Only those with proper training and certification may select and apply the appropriate remedies and protocols. The doctor is in the know, and in charge. Holistic psychology guides you and empowers you to use your own knowledge, your own resources, and your own power to heal.

5. The Myth of High-Tech to the Rescue is the notion that all human problems await a technological solution. Standard medicine seeks to apply more and better technology, not just to ill health, but also to normal physiological processes throughout the life cycle, such as birth, death, sexuality, menopause, and aging. It does not even shrink from medicating normal psychological processes, such as grief and mourning, anomie and anxiety, and the emotional fall-out from developmental and existential crises. Holistic psychology sees you as the primary resource for health and healing. Methods that are consistent with Nature, and with your own particular nature, are best suited to potentiate your efforts.

Transformational Processes
       As the Holistic Paradigm gives rise to the holistic principles, the holistic principles in turn give rise to processes for transformation and healing. Three such processes have been developed within the framework of Mindful Repatterning. All three take you in the same direction, but each one picks you up at a different point along the path and takes you a shorter or greater distance further, depending on the process, the specifics of the situation, and your own "travel plans."
       Holistic Inquiry is a person-centered process to overcome specific roadblocks on the path of life. An illness or other life obstacle serves as a starting point, as well as a prime indication of what needs to happen, physically, psychologically, and spiritually. Problems are most readily apparent in the physical dimension. But to identify the causes and remedy them at the source, we go "upstream" along the flow of manifestation — to energy, to mind, and to spirit.
       The Crowd of One is the royal road to personal synthesis. The immediate concern may be health, success, or harmony and intimacy in relationships. But the ultimate prize is personal coherence and transformation.
       The Crowd of One takes up where Holistic Inquiry leaves off. First you identify with, and affirm, the disparate aspects of yourself. Then you harmonize and integrate these subpersonalities around your center of awareness and volition. Thus you clarify your intentions and align your will. You may also explore side-roads, practice holding on and letting go, face your avoidance, and find empowerment.
       As you attain a sense of wholeness and integrity within yourself, you also come to appreciate others as unique, imperfect, yet valued beings, with whom you share a fundamental unity through the Higher Self. This sets the stage for an expansion of consciousness. Thus you move seamlessly, from personal integration and individuation, to the quest for transcendental meaning and spiritual unfoldment.
       Holistic Renewal incorporates both Holistic Inquiry and the Crowd of One in a process of integration and transformation that is at once structured and individualized. You progress to self- mastery, transformation, and healing, over a series of stages, and steps within stages.
First you explore the particulars of your existence:
    Your body: What are its strengths, its vulnerabilities, its ways of coping? How are        the energies balanced?
    Your mind and your feelings: What are your buried traumas, your unmet needs,        your habits, your quirks, your joys, your hopes and aspirations?
    Your spirit: What does your soul yearn to express?
    Your social context: How do you relate to friends, loved ones, family, and                      community?
    Your physical environment: In what ways does it support you? How does it get in        your way?

       As you explore these aspects of yourself, and of your circumstances, definite patterns begin to emerge, then coalesce into an overall theme. Once you "get" your theme, you feel it in your gut. You have no doubt that this is you. When your life theme has crystallized, you begin to see yourself anew. You begin to make sense of all the wayward and seemingly pointless patterns and circumstances of your existence.
       Finding your theme brings a new energy, a new power to follow your bliss — now that you know what it is. You can begin to sing your own song. It was yours to sing from day one, but perhaps you got stuck playing somebody else's tune instead. You may have put on a good show on the outside, while literally dying inside.
       Holistic Renewal helps you to reframe the way you live and experience your life. It reveals your true destination. It gives you the map and the tools you need to make the journey. It even teaches you to become your own guide. Once you know the score, you can play your own tune.

       These three processes have elements in common, yet they are separate and distinct. Part III presents a detailed exposition of each one, with real-life examples.

Techniques of Transformation
       The transformational processes make use of many techniques, some adopted or adapted from other systems of psychology, others "homegrown." Holistic Diagnosis is a prime instance of the latter. In fact, as the synopsis below suggests, it is essentially a straightforward application of the holistic principles.
       To determine your Holistic Diagnosis, your guide helps you to comb through all aspects of your being — your physical/medical status and history, your energy flow and balance, your emotional and mental dynamics, even your spiritual background. But all this in context. Your story remains your story. It does not become a disconnected bundle of facts, dismembered into separate domains relevant to different professions. It is not couched in technical terms only experts can fathom. Rather, the various aspects or strands of the story retain their relationship to each other — and to you. They even gather meaning in the process (Note: Wholeness).
       Next, you reframe the story into a meaningful account of the choices you made along the way, from early childhood on. You explore how these choices affected your consciousness, your personality, your health, and your life course (Causality/Meaning, and Empowerment /Responsibility).
       The patterns that emerge from this picture reveal your particular style of coping, as it manifest throughout your life at all levels — physical, energetic, mental, and spiritual (Uniqueness). For healing to take place, this unique pattern or style of yours needs to be understood and allowed to express itself freely (using Natural Methods).

The System of Holistic Psychology

       Modern psychology and modern medicine are elaborate edifices constructed to protect established interests. Their rules and procedures are designed to protect professional privileges and maintain the status quo, not to facilitate wellness, healing, empowerment, or transformation. Their technology is based on nineteenth-century materialism and reductionism — concepts abandoned long ago by physics as simplistic and limiting. With their narrow purposes and flawed premises, these professions do not, cannot, reflect the truth about you, as you, me as me. As now constituted, they do not serve us well.

       Holistic psychology, on the other hand, offers an ideal framework for personal transformation and healing. Based on a true and complete picture of human nature, it responds more appropriately and more fully to our needs. The Holistic Paradigm leads us to a deep understanding of ourselves. The holistic principles guide us on the path of transformation and healing. The transformational processes and techniques provide the tools to get the job done.

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