LIFE COACHING NEWSLETTER
FEBRUARY 2007
A SERIES ON THE GROWING EDGE OF SELF-DISCOVERY
PRACTICES AND PERSPECTIVES
VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCES
or
LIFE AS ART
Fourth Edition
"It is not common for people to think of their own lives as creations. You are not encouraged to have with your own life the kind of relationship a creator has with his or her vision. But your life can be a creation. What a difference that is from reacting or responding to the circumstances. Your own life can become a separate entity, and when it does, you can form it, mold it, and change it the way your want. When you are able to do this , you are free to develop your life as independent of your identity. You can succeed or fail without the added burden of an identity crisis."
Robert Fritz, The Path of Least Resistance, p. 131
Have you ever felt as if you were lost in the circumstances of your life -- responding or reacting daily, and marking off time as if you were a prisoner in your life? Fritz captures the frustration below:
WHEN CIRCUMSTANCES ARE THE DRIVING FORCE IN A LIFE
ENTRAPMENT IN A RESPONSIVE-REACTIVE ORIENTATION RESULTS
According to Robert Fritz, this orientation is caused by an underlying Oscillating Structure [1] in which we are unconsciously embedded. And when one takes action to remove the situation, it soon becomes clear that problem-solving is merely just another "response" to circumstances.
Jung explains:
“All the greatest and most important problems of life are fundamentally insoluble…. They can never be solved, but only outgrown. This ‘outgrowth’ proved on further investigation to require a new level of consciousness.”
So what is this thing called structure? Fritz uses the concepts of Buckminster Fuller to demonstrate:
"Thinking Isolates events:
Understanding then interconnects them.
Understanding is structure for it means establishing the relationship between events."
Fairy tales, story, and myth are my favorite examples of structure.
Fritz asserts:
"Everything has an underlying unifying structure. Some structures are physical, such as bridges, buildings, tunnels, stadiums. Some structures are nonphysical, such as the plot of a novel, the form of a symphony, the dramatic movement of a film, or the structure of a sonnet. Whether physical or non-physical, any structure is made up of parts that relate to one another. When these parts interact, they set up tendencies -- inclinations toward movement." (p. 7)
If all of this is too heady for you, consider the movie "Trading Places," a film about the structure of class and race and a wonderful story about how the lives of two men: one rich young white man and one poor young black man are toyed with for the amusement of two elderly rich white men, who force these young men to trade places in their lives. In the process, the black man naturally adopts the behavior of a successful white trader while the white man naturally adopts the behavior of a poor black man trapped in poverty because their underlying structures have been traded and their new behavior reflects their new underlying structures.
LIFE AS ART
Is there a way out of the culturally-induced dead end? Yes, the one Jung discovered: it has to be outgrown with an expanded consciousness; one desperate to transcend the small and scripted life.
If this newsletter resonates with you in any way, I recommend that you read Robert Fritz’s "Path of Least Resistance."
Angela Maffeo
©February 2007
The schedule for the Day of Self-Discovery Programs at Radcliffe for 2007 is:
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Visit www.discoveryourpsychologicaltype.org for more information about the Day of Self-discovery or call me at 617-387-3060.
Email your comments and questions to:
amaffeo@post.harvard.edu
[1] "Every structure contains within it has the inclination toward movement, that is, a tendency to change from one state into another state. But some structures tend to move, whereas others remain stationary. The structures that tend to remain stationary consist of elements that hold each other in check. A wheel has a greater tendency toward movement than a brick. ... A rocking chair has a greater tendency toward movement than a couch."
From the Path of Least Resistance, p. 7
