MIND MOVES: Something exciting seems to be happening in our collective consciousness. People who have been waiting for years have grown tired of waiting.
They are on the move, embarking on a wide variety of inner journeys. Rather than leave it solely to the God of Easter to wake from the dead, they are trying to wake up themselves, to wake up and feel alive. To explore what they could do with their lives if they could stop living out other people's agendas. To let go of an identity based on the story of their egos - how they've failed miserably, what they should be achieving, how terrible life is - and wake to an experience of the wonder of life.
People are asking old questions in new, fresh ways. Questions about meaning, why we're here and what being human is about. People want to be happy. They want to experience their hearts breaking loose and feel what its like to be free.
Each person sets out from a different place. Sometimes their search is borne out of a period of tremendous upheaval and pain. Generally people become most creative in times when conventional structures, beliefs and relationships no longer work for them. Ruptures and discontinuities require all of us to re-examine our lifestyles. These difficult experiences take us to an edge where we can feel alone and confused. To engage with our lives at these "edges" takes courage, because it would be easier to revert to whatever comforts we usually rely on to soften their impact.
What is perhaps unique about contemporary journeys is that they have become subjective and personal. Whereas previously, people moved in communities and groups, today's seekers are more likely to make their journeys alone. Gone is the comfort of a shared religious faith, a set of community norms and rituals that mapped out the path of spiritual growth.
Psychology has perhaps played a part in making personal development a more subjective rather than collective affair. We have become a very self-conscious people and feel inwardly that the responsibility for growing into maturity is largely, if not entirely, a personal matter. This intense focus on personal responsibility has brought its own risks. People are in danger of becoming dislocated from each other. Inner journeys can become overly self-centred and lead to a progressive disengagement from difficulties and hardships that impact daily on the lives of fellow human beings.
Healthy personal development should lead to a balance between the time and energy we invest in personal struggles and our investment in making the world we live in a healthier place for others. But it is often difficult to achieve and express this balance at any given time.
There are periods in a person's life where they can seem to be overly self-centred, where they engage in some journey or other which takes them away from others. It's easy to write off these times of detachment as "selfish", particularly when a person seems unresponsive to issues of social importance. It is true that such times can signal a withdrawal that is unhealthy. But it is also true that periods of detachment and self-focus can be critical to healthy development. These times will ultimately be judged by the degree to which someone re-engages with others and expresses in their lives some form of ethical concern for others.
My column today is written to support those who feel drawn to build into their life some time to deepen their lives and grapple with issues of fundamental importance. To give encouragement to those who are following a particular path of self-development which is motivated by a sincere desire to improve the quality of their lives.
They may draw on traditional rituals and structures to assist them in their search, and they may also incorporate aspects of other spiritual traditions that make sense to them. Yoga, reiki, meditation, dance or acupuncture may well be blended in a personal montage with prayer, monastic retreats, counselling or psychotherapy. Perhaps these experiments in integrating different practices reflect in a personal way what we as a society are attempting to achieve in coming to terms with a changing, highly diverse multicultural community.
Whatever path to personal enlightenment an individual may choose, wisdom would suggest that a skilled teacher is important. The best protection against losing your way is a mentor who can help us to use a particular practice to bring you forward.
Traditional teachers also advice that you don't jump too often between different practices. It takes time to master the basic discipline of any one of the many practices available, but unless you give them time your experience of them will be superficial, and their benefit to you minimal.
Tony Bates is a clinical psychologist.
