Psychological Wisdom
From an existential perspective, good mental health is synonymous with cultivating life wisdom. Health and suffering are two wings of the same bird, and living creatively and courageously means accepting both sides. Just as it is impossible to eradicate all disturbances in the external world, it is equally difficult to eliminate our ignorance or blind spots. Psychological wisdom is the capacity to accept and engage with the good and the bad, the mundane and the exciting, the meaningful and the absurd. Attempts to avoid life's negatives can trap us in vicious cycles, just as failing to savor life's triumphs can leave us continually unfulfilled.
Wisdom is not granted by perfect parents or excellent genetics. It is an ongoing process, riding the tension between the fundamental and the potential, the negative and the positive, what we avoid and what we approach. In navigating these dualities, we find the will to make choices and shape our lives. Mental health issues often arise from avoiding the truth or being unable to face reality as it is. Unease is frequently a result of self-deception, often through the blind adherence to others' thoughts, beliefs, rules, values, and behaviors. Some people struggle to cope with the paradoxical, absurd, and overwhelming aspects of living and desire to find meaning in it all.
Authenticity, often overused today, truly means being honest and courageous enough to embrace all aspects of life. It involves finding one’s agency, responsibility, and purpose. As biological, social, psychological, and spiritual beings, becoming our ‘authentic self’ means becoming open and honest to life itself. Authenticity involves recognizing our human nature, limitations, needs, freedoms, responsibilities, capabilities, fears, and blind spots. Many avoid authentic living because it can be terrifying to face the reality of our suffering, including failure, crisis, mistakes, and doubts. The first step toward authentic living is to accept our inherent vulnerabilities and mortality. We can't know everything or prevent everything, so the best we can do is adopt meaningful responsibility for our well-being and absorb ourselves in the adventure of a lifetime.
Four Quests To Find Wisdom
The Search for Truth: Gaining understanding about the self and the world.
Slaying the Dragon: Overcoming difficult, fearful challenges, reaping the rewards.
Repairing the Damage: Purifying oneself to refresh and re-tune emotions. Understanding our influences.
Leaving a Legacy: Building something with enduring value.
These quests are reminders from our conscience, often highlighting what we are avoiding and what we are motivated toward. Courage to move forward and live according to our values can be found by silencing external voices and rules that dominate our thoughts. Consistent, thoughtful reflection can help explore moments of distorted truth. This call of conscience, reminding us when we have strayed from our path, is known as existential guilt. This guilt indicates a debt to ourselves, suggesting we owe ourselves a new way of living.
The call to adventure arises from adopting a stance of active engagement and openness with the world. This freedom brings angst or anxiety as we recognize our responsibilities and weaknesses. However, this anxiety can be channeled as fuel to face the unknown future and build a meaningful life.
Finding wisdom involves living with integrity, acknowledging our limitations and strengths, and building the courage and motivation to live according to our higher values and purpose. It requires developing a healthy compassion for ourselves and others without losing our self-identity. We are only truly alive when we face the possibility of our death.
-ST