1.2 Being as Human-Doers

“I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion (i.e. doing) will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active – not more happy – nor wiser, than he was 6000 years ago.” - Edgar Allan Poe

Everything is perfect exactly as it is ….. Are we capable to noticing it?

What is the definition of ACTING #IDGs?

Why we do what we do?

As beings living in a digital age “we can never get enough of what we don't really need”. [1] We are always busy and constantly on the move. We keep our minds distracted with all kinds of wonderful ‘stuff’. Oftentimes we end up becoming a Human Doer rather than a Human Being.

We systemically encourage and reward ‘doing’ even at the expenses of our physical and mental health. Sleep deprivation, lack of exercise, poor diet, no time to pause and sit quietly are only example of the habits that constantly trigger our autonomous sympathetic nervous system. The commonly known ‘fight or fly’ mode that trigger useful physiological reactions to deal with life threatening situations. Unfortunately, the constant state of sympathetic nervous system activation creates chronic stress, depression and is associated as the cause of multiple diseases. [2] [3] [4]

How do we do what we do?

Throughout the journey as Human Doers our ‘being’ is shaped by our experiences, mostly in an #unconsciously and #reactive way to cope with the situations/struggles we face in life.

Eventually we identify ourselves with OUR ‘way of being’ and we become #attached to it. In most cases, we hold onto this ‘way of being’ till a moment of crisis when we realize that it’s not serving us any longer.

When we suffer, we might first blame others and 'the world' around us. Eventually we start to recognize that our ‘current’ way of ‘being’ is the source of our ‘thinking’, impacting the way we ‘relate’ and shaping the quality of our ‘collaboration’ and our actions.

In this way, our suffering becomes an open invitation to look inside, to recalibrate our inner ‘lenses’ to be able to see ourselves, ‘the world’ and the connections in between from a different perspective. In other words, making a subject-object shift [Kegan] of our way-of-being transforms our epistemologies, liberating ourselves from that in which we were embedded, making what was subject into object to be better able to reflect on, focus about, link to, look at “it”. At this stage we can separate ourselves from pre-concepts of ourselves and to be in the moment rather than living in our head.

“When suffering is emerging, adopt another attitude. Don’t try to run away… Stay where you are and welcome it, whether it is anger or frustration or a longing for something that is not satisfied. Be ready to say hello to it, be ready to embrace it tenderly and live with it. And you will discover, as I have that when you can accept it and welcome it, it does not bother you anymore…That suffering can teach us and, when we understand it, it can bring us joy and happiness” – Thich Nhat Hanh [5]

How does “Un-hurriedness” help?

Our ‘Auto-Pilot’ consciousness loves speed. For most of us is exciting to go fast, to get things done, to achieve our (outer) goals at a fast pace.

Un-hurriedness helps to be present of our body-mind & emotions, to find spirituality in simple moments that otherwise would most probably goes unnoticed. Grabbing a cup of tea, smelling it, observing it zip by zip enjoy it for a long time, while our ‘auto-pilot’ mind shout “get over it, you know what it is, just drink it!”. How much wisdom can we uncover in the present moment …? stopping our monkey mind from jumping from memories to future and just ‘being’ here and now.

In the next post......

We plan to explore the paradox of our inner developing 'edge' as a teacher and we will learn about gender equality (#SDG5) challenges in Africa and how it links with the #innerdevelopmentgoals

References

[1]??Matthew Kelly,?2015, The Seven Levels of Intimacy: The Art of Loving and the Joy of Being Loved

[2]???Douglas R. Seals; 2004;?Chronic Sympathetic Activation: Consequence and Cause of Age-Associated Obesity? https://diabetesjournals.org/diabetes/article/53/2/276/11482/Chronic-Sympathetic-ActivationConsequence-and

[3]?World J Cardiol. 2020; Sympathetic nervous system activation and heart failure https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7439452/

[4]?Auton Neurosci., 2010, Central Sympathetic Overactivity: Maladies and Mechanisms https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2679852/

[5]?Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet (2021)