March/April 1998Articles on the theme "Regeneration"The Cosmic Dance An Ayurvedic Perspective The Jewel Within The Path of the Heart The New You The Psychology of Regeneration A New Light Body? by Audrey Craft
Davis Physical Regeneration Spiritual Regeneration Walking on Fire The Problem of Regeneration Other Feature ArticlesNatural Health Q&A What is . . . A Medical Savings Account
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The Psychology of Regenerationby Patrick PlaskettEvery aspect of human existence can be looked at as having a physical and a psychological component. What is a psychological component? For the purpose of this article, I will define a psychological component as anything that is not patently physical in nature, or detectable by our physical senses, but affects something physical. For example, sex may be thought of as an act that is basically physical in nature, but the thoughts and feelings which accompany sex, or the non-physical components, are far more important to us. So I'll just set aside all arguments about Jungian, Freudian or behavioristic psychology and refer to everything in that fuzzy, non-physical area of our lives as psychological. Let's look at regeneration from this psychological perspective. Whether we're talking about physical regeneration or spiritual regeneration, it's easy to get a clue as to where we want to go from recalling our first generation of this lifetime, or our childhood. Barring genetic disorder or injury, a child is healthy. The feelings and perception of a child are fresh and uncalloused. A child has not yet learned all the attitudes that might make him a cynical or fearful or suspicious adult. A child is quick to forget the little disappointments in yesterday when he or she is busy with the infinite possibilities of today. A child can also perceive with its total being, having less constraints of linear logic for not having yet learned all of the rules. As we mature, we all develop little mental models of the world in our heads. Much behavior becomes learned, so we don't have to think about what to do in every situation; we just react. This is not necessarily bad, for it saves time and thought. At the time of the reaction, though, we believe that we're thinking or behaving through an act of will. Worse yet, we believe that we are the reaction, and will defend it at great cost to ourselves, even when the reaction was incorrect. Our sense of ego is often wound up with our sense of our reactions. Still worse yet, we all pick up negative attitudes, which invariably attract negative attitudes from other people, as well as attracting negative situations. So as we mature, we develop our psychologies and seek out the company of other people who hold similar attitudes. When we were young and our worlds were little bigger than a playground, we could interact with almost anyone on a pure and basic level. As adults, in a world with billions of people, we're more likely to interact with a handful of people who have attitudes just like our own. What would it mean to regenerate psychologically? Could it really be possible to become as little children, so that we might enter the kingdom of heaven? I believe that we can, though you can't dismantle in a day something that you've spent a lifetime building. I believe that we can learn that we are not our attitudes. We can abandon negative attitudes with no danger to ourselves or our egos, and come out as stronger people in control of our own lives for the effort. We can be so secure in ourselves that we can be open enough to listen to anyone's point of view. We can restructure our psychologies to be happier and more effective. How can this be done? First, we must realize that we are machines of reaction, for better or worse. Only when we have done this do we have a chance of making it for better. The machine that I am may have been haphazardly programmed by the life situations that I have found myself in. I can decide which ones are life enhancing or self defeating. I know that I am not the program, any more than the computer program is the computer. The first step is to observe what your reactions are, instead of identifying with them. They happen. They're not you. They're automatic, subconscious. I saw a child whining in a grocery store the other day. He's a child; this happens. I saw a car on the expressway with a bumper sticker that said, "I Live to Whine." That was an adult; that happens too, but it's also pathetic identification. We all do it, in one form or another, though we don't want to see it. For a psychology of regeneration, you might watch very young children at play, and see if you can recognize openness and innocence. You might also recognize the comic awkwardness when a child tries to take an attitude that he's learned from a parent or older sibling and inject it into playground repartee. You might notice the approach of an afternoon thunderstorm, and instead of thinking of a gray afternoon you might remember the childhood delight in hearing the far off roll of thunder, and marvel at how the first droplets accumulate on the window. I once knew a middle-aged couple in Ohio. The husband suddenly died. Within two years, the widow looked like she had aged fifteen years. What if she had taken this tragedy as a child would, as a sad event to be left in the past? I also wondered if we could use this same mechanism that seemed to cause her quick demise to rejuvenate ourselves, by filling the mind's eye with visions of hope, love, prosperity, and health? I believe we can. Patrick Plaskett is a hypnotist and the director of Mind Advantage, in St. Petersburg. He is a member of the Florida Association of Professional Hypnotists and holds a bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of South Florida. (813) 381-9101.
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