The Treasure of Family

Many executives appreciate Vertical Development as distinct from Horizontal Development. Vertical is to change how we think and know, in contrast to Horizontal development which is to expand what we think and know. Another version is to consider Vertical Development as a change in our inner operating system (IOS) with which we perceive and interpret our world, in contrast to adding more apps to our existing IOS.

Another perspective is the shift in consciousness whereby we are more aware of what was once subconscious or superconscious, and thus expand in our conscious awareness. What was once hidden from view can be seen and understood in the context of an expanded belief system. This belief system moves from creating our lives as human doings in the outer world, to also creating our lives as evolving human beings in our inner world.

In this new belief system, every life experience is custom designed for us to grow and evolve. We often do not know what life is trying to teach us and this leads us into inquiry. We can ask the question, what was that all about? If we hold the question with openness, without the need to work out the answer or have it immediately present itself, then it intuitively appears at the perfect time.

This is a profound shift as we move past the half-way mark, from the 3rd to 4th Perspective of a total of 6 Perspectives on the human plane. It’s scary and yet sacred as we discover how our early childhood experiences and ancestral stories shape our way of thinking, feeling, and behaving in positive and reactive ways.

For instance, I was born into a family of hard workers. My parents ran a farm. Both were the eldest children of Catholic families numbering 10 and 11 kids, so they both did a lot to help raise their younger siblings. As I was having a lie-in on Sunday morning, I was thinking of my father and how he had to get up every single morning most of his life to feed the animals. It’s no surprise that my siblings and I are all hard workers. It was ingrained in our daily lives.

However, our reactive patterns are quite different. I don’t think this is just about birth order but what our inner being, our soul, comes to earth to heal. For instance, I’ve always been highly sensitive to people saying unkind things to me. I would simply collapse into tears or distance myself and become very subdued. I've always found it much more pleasant to escape in a book than be with people.

Amazingly my sister is the opposite. What I’ve seen in families is that they often represent polarities. I was quiet and sensitive, my sister was loud and brash. Whenever I lost weight she gained weight and vice versa. Later I saw that this was a reflection of our mother’s relationship with us as we fell in and out of her favour.

Another theme from childhood is a significant salient memory. For me it was receiving a book prize when I was 10 years old. It was the title that mesmerised me: "All Alone in the World" by Johanna Spyri. It seems to me that I am a relatively 'alone' type creature, something that I also interpret as 'all-one' reflecting my fascination with the nature of our evolution.

More recently I’ve seen repeating ancestral patterns. For instance, my brother distanced himself from my parents in his early 30’s, and my son has done the same with me. It seems these experiences need to be repeated until the underlying dynamics are understood and healed at the source of their emergence.

1. Similar positive traits
2. Personal reactive patterns
3. Contrasting polarities in the family
4. Significant salient memories
5. Recurring family patterns

While our life experiences can be incredibly painful, our capacity to embrace, accept, and appreciate them as another evolutionary cycle becomes easier as we mature through the Perspectives. They’re all designed to foster our wellbeing as an evolving holistic self, a Masterpiece-in-Progress and instrument of evolution, incorporating the lessons and blessings of multiple generations and lifetimes.

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