Let’s start with something seemingly irrelevant and work our way back….
Have a little read of https://unherd.com/2021/10/what-turns-women-into-witches/ . It’s a well written article and I found it genuinely interesting. (For clarity, the witch here refers to the old Christian perspective and the article does not vilify practitioners of witchcraft.)
A few things stood out to me:
People who feel powerless, or have a greatly diminished sense of self, will do much to address this in some way. Here, ideas about having magic powers bestowed by the devil become a more palatable reality than the one currently lived in — even if it means a death sentence.
I hadn’t even considered the parting thoughts: linking the witch hunts, accusations, disinformation and more with what we’re going through right now on a global scale. On reflection, it makes a great deal of sense. There’s no shortcutting being human.
I’m reading a book by Gabor Mate (When The Body Says No — The Cost Of Hidden Stress) in which he makes many references to patients whose debilitating and varied symptoms (some cancers, ALS and more) seem to have one major common thread running through all of the cases: a greatly diminished sense of self. ‘Never good enough.’ Doing plenty for others and little for ourselves. Dofers.
Losing our sense of self is one of our greatest fears — a fear abused in prisoner of war camps to turn inmates against all allegiances: themselves, their countrymen, their countries, their ideologies, everything. Prisoners did anything to avoid the fear of loss of sense of self.
This is not a claim that all illness is mental in origin. Rather, our sense of self and how we treat ourselves are intimately tied to our physical and mental health.
How’s your sense of self? Are you pretty good at giving yourself credit for your accomplishments, even if they seem small (like putting the laundry away)? Do you do a lot for other people at the expense of yourself?
Perhaps more importantly, what can we do about it? How do you build a strong, healthy sense of self?
There’s plenty in No Fault Psychology and Other Than Conscious Communication on it. (See the FunShops over at https://excelquest.com/product-category/dave-barb .)
One of the things we can do is to give ourselves credit when we do things elegantly.
And … we’re back with the Weekly MindSpa Check-In!
I created the Inner Goddess Adventure for people who were so busy working hard and helping others that they forgot to give themselves credit. I created it for people who were so busy encouraging others, they weren’t encouraging themselves. I created it for people who took their every success for granted and never gave themselves credit.
It’s worth remembering you’re absolutely worthwhile. You have done many things elegantly.
On Tuesday, 6.30pm, we’ll take another trip to the MindSpa, and we’ll be visiting the room for the Inner Goddess. We’ll start with some good old fashioned deep relaxation, feel great, and celebrate some surprising stuff.
