Humanity's Values

Democracy is a Value-based interpersonal construct for guiding human behavior. As such, democracy exists at the intersection of humanity's greatest potential and all our foibles. We can aspire to be the best versions of ourselves that we know to be, but it requires an active engagement, both on the ground through action and also through mindful reflection. Here we explore voting through the Relational-ACT lens of Values, Narratives, and Behavior to see why there's so much emotional weight to this time in history.

Working through the stories that bring us down, that make it difficult to cope with adversity. Exploring three basic truths concerning how we deal with consequences, create meaning/purpose and learn to accept our feelings without having them be the only truth that matters.

References "Coddling of the American Mind" by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt.

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Site for Humanity's Values, and the website and Facebook page for Life Weavings, LLC for further resources.

Looking at failure, it's inevitability in our lives and how you can accept, learn from and not define the whole of who you are by it. Will tie the nature of failure to last episode's discussion of behavior and go over six steps to working through the difficulty of failing.

Ever wondered what behavior was all about? Here we explore Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) through the relational structure of Values - Narrative - Behavior. We'll be challenging the usual understanding of behavior for one that takes into consideration the nature of our predictive brains and our deep need to construct a reality that works for us and makes sense.

Our desire for simple answers is funneled through the intrinsic psychology of having the stories of our lives be consistent. This consistency is always self-serving, in the sense of providing a feeling of 'being right,' of having perception prove the truth of our judgments. This whole process finds a troubling outlet in the medicalization of our inner worlds and the pathologizing of human behavior.

Anger is often maligned as "negative" and "destructive," looked at as morally suspect and commonly sought to be removed from the lives of those coming in for therapy. Exploring these stories, we can come to see anger as a tool for assessing what we Value and step back from behavior that only feels inevitable. You can flexibly respond to your stories in ways that show the best version of yourself.

Exploring the nature of 'anecdotal evidence,' why it's so enticing and why we all engage in it. Connection made with bias and why bias doesn't mean there's something wrong with our rationality or our minds.

Setting goals too often leads us into shame and self-doubt. I want to encourage you to possibly stop goal-setting for a moment and focus on what you care about. Start livable goals from a place of what you're already doing, succeed from a place of plenty rather than wasting energy trying to leap from lack. We can help explore this by using the religious practices of Lent and dive into how Values never leave us.

The pursuit of change is as varied as New Year's Resolutions and almost always focused on what we consciously are doing. Looking at change as a foundational law of life can help us on our journey's of discovery and see others more clearly.

What is happening when we have "feelings" about someone? What should we do about them? Do they require anything of us or of the other person? These questions do not have to generate the angst they so often do. A reminder that our humanity is always looking for what is important to us.