Abraham Maslow (1962) is (imnho) the founder of the modern Positive Psychology movement, Ancients Stoics aside.
Jamie’s Notes.
“Every age but ours has had its model, its ideal. All of these have been given up by culture; the saint, the hero, the gentleman, the knight, the mystic. About all we have left is the well-adjusted man without problems, a very pale and doubtful substitute. Perhaps we shall soon be able to use as our guide and model the fully growing and self-fulfilling human being, the one in whom all his potentialities are coming to full development, the one whose inner nature expresses itself freely, rather than being warped, suppressed or denied.”
We don’t currently have Rights of Passage, we don’t become Men & take Extreme Responsibility. S’why I see so many “ManBoys” pissing their lives away.
“So far as motivational status is concerned, healthy people have sufficiently gratified their basic needs for safety, belongingness, love, respect and self-esteem so that they are motivated primarily by trends to self-actualization (defined as ongoing actualization of potentials, capacities and talents, as fulfillment of mission [or call, fate, destiny, or vocation], as a fuller knowledge of, and acceptance of, the person’s own intrinsic nature, as an unceasing trend toward unity, integration or synergy within the person).”
Personally, I think the “Sailboat” metaphor of Scott Barry Kaufman in Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualisation sums this up beautifully.
Life isn’t a climb up to a summit, it is a vast ocean of uncertainty to be explored.
“Certainly it seems more and more clear that what we call “normal” in psychology is really a psychopathology of the average, so undramatic and so widely spread that we don’t even notice it ordinarily.”
Fuck “Normal”.
Normal, average, whatever you want to call it, equates to mediocre and conformist.
I, personally do not wish to be in debt (£Slave), overweight (in need of weight loss drugs), depressed (in need of serotonin foo-foo pills), etc.
My Primary Goal is Freedom, and that means to be free of just those sorts of “Normal Tyrannies”.
Maslow wanted to know what’s possible, rather than what is.
So do I.
Of myself, and of others.
Which may be perceived as being bloody annoying, but hey-ho. 🤪!
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” Jiddu Krishnamurti.
One of my favourite quotes ever, as a “Wannabee Rebel” (Damian’s label for me, not mine!), my gut tells me the programming and the programmers want us to conform. For their benefit, not ours.
“The serious thing for each person to recognise vividly and poignantly, each for himself, is that every falling away from species-virtue, every crime against one’s own nature, every evil act, every one without exception records itself in our unconscious and makes us despise ourselves. Karen Horney had a good word to describe this unconscious perceiving and remembering; she said it “registers.” If we do something we are ashamed of, it “registers” to our discredit, and if we do something honest or fine or good, it “registers” to our credit. The net results ultimately are either one or the other—either we respect and accept ourselves or we despise ourselves and feel contemptible, worthless, and unlovable.”
This sums it all up for me.
+1 or -1?
All day, every day.
It’s not St Peter who is waiting to judge you at the end of your life.
You are judging yourself constantly.
One decision, one choice, one action, one deep breath, one lie, one drink, One Love, one fag…(insert what your gut says right now, here)…at a time.
Which ties in with my belief that we are all “Godshards“.
“You must want to be first-class … meaning the best, the very best you are capable of becoming. If you deliberately plan to be less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you’ll be deeply unhappy for the rest of your life. You will be evading your own capacities, your own possibilities.”
But don’t beat yourself up when you fall short, as you will. There are, never have been & never will be any perfect human beings, and you or me aren’t going to be the first.
“There’s no word in Tibetan for ‘guilty.’ The closest thing is ‘intelligent regret that decides to do things differently.’” Geshe Michael Roache.
You need a strong grip on your ego before you will be able to let it go.
EVERYBODY is creative, we are all creating our own lives. Which is better than shit poetry. Our lives are our Work of Art.
“The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.” John Gardner.
Be spontaneous and expressive.
Trust yourself, your gut, follow your own path. Get rid of Fear of Other Peoples Opinions (FOPO). Drive without the handbrake on.
“Man is not born perfect. He is born incomplete, he is born as a process. He is born on the way, as a pilgrim. That is his agony and his ecstasy, too; agony because he cannot rest, he has to go ahead, he has always to go ahead. He has to seek and search and explore. He has to become, because his being arises only through becoming. Becoming is his being. He can only be if he is on the move. Evolution is intrinsic to man’s nature, evolution is his very soul. And those who take themselves for granted remain unfulfilled. Those who think they are born complete remain unevolved. Then the seed remains the seed. It never becomes a tree and never knows the joys of spring and the sunshine and the rain, and the ecstasy of bursting into millions of flowers. That explosion is the fulfilment, that explosion is what existence is all about—exploding into millions of flowers. When the potential becomes the actual, only then is man fulfilled.” Osho.
I’ve often felt like a shark, needing to be in perpetual motion, always progressing. Now I know why, and it’s quite affirming.
“Self-actualizing does not mean a transcendence of all human problems. Conflict, anxiety, frustration, sadness, hurt, and guilt can all be found in healthy human beings.”
Life is hard, it is supposed to be hard, it will always be hard, just in different ways.
Or to put it another way, stop whining, you have a bad case of LIFE!
“No one feels the same way all the time. Even if you are angry, depressed, crazy, afraid, or grieving, you’ll have moments when you are distracted. There are no enlightened people, no nice, bad, smart, neurotic, or stupid people, either—only people with more (or less) enlightened, nice, bad, smart, neurotic, or stupid moments.” Dan Millman – Everyday Enlightenment
This too shall pass. Doesn’t feel like it at the time, but it will.
“The muscular person likes to use his muscles, indeed, has to use them in order to self-actualise, and to achieve the subjective feeling of harmonious, uninhibited, satisfying functioning which is so important an aspect of psychological health. People with intelligence must use their intelligence, people with eyes must use their eyes, people with the capacity to love have the impulse to love and the need to love in order to feel healthy. Capacities clamour to be used, and cease their clamour only when they are used sufficiently.”
You know yourself. Better than anyone.
Yes, you have biases, blind spots and delusions.
But make Self Actualising good & high on the priorities list.
“What one can be, one must be.”
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