Life, Nature and Human Nature are all about connections and relationships.
We exist within a complex ecology. Our satisfaction and well being are dependent on these relationships.
As we grow, our sphere of awareness expands to include more aspects of the great complexity of which we are a part.
Here we explore this expansion of consciousness, some of the blocks to this expansion, and how they affects our relationships.
We exist within a complex ecology. Our satisfaction and well being are dependent on these relationships.
As we grow, our sphere of awareness expands to include more aspects of the great complexity of which we are a part.
Here we explore this expansion of consciousness, some of the blocks to this expansion, and how they affects our relationships.
The Adolescent is Relating to the World
In our infancy and childhood, our relationships are simple and limited to how our primary carers take care of our basic needs. The task of the child in their early development, is to establish a trusting relationship with their own body and immediate needs. The child should be developing self-esteem rooted in being able to satisfy their basic needs, fully in the body, in their family and immediate community. At this stage our perception of ourselves and others is quite dualistic, flipping back and forth between Good and Bad, depending whether we feel our primary needs satisfied or not.
As a child we are totally dependent on others and easily blame ourselves or the primary carers for any dissatisfaction. Normally, the caring adults, from their own limitations, will sometimes invade or abandon the child in the satisfaction of their needs. Our neurobiology is set so that our childhood experience of needs and relationships in our family and community prepares us and largely determines how we live our relationships throughout the rest of our lives - it becomes wired in at an unconscious level. The adolescent phase is also about building relationships and community from a healthy individual self.
As a child we are totally dependent on others and easily blame ourselves or the primary carers for any dissatisfaction. Normally, the caring adults, from their own limitations, will sometimes invade or abandon the child in the satisfaction of their needs. Our neurobiology is set so that our childhood experience of needs and relationships in our family and community prepares us and largely determines how we live our relationships throughout the rest of our lives - it becomes wired in at an unconscious level. The adolescent phase is also about building relationships and community from a healthy individual self.
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With sufficient ego strength and self esteem the child grows into an adolescent who can go out and explore community in different groups, identities and structures, learning to communicate in ever more complex social structures.
The child's awareness is essentially physical and immediate, where the adolescent has more capacity to, delay satisfaction, to contrast, evaluate the past and plan. The adolescent sees others who might seem happier or freer and wants some of that. So the adolescent will want some freedom to question and break away from the parents and culture, and some freedom to make mistakes in learning. The Adolescent sees the limitations and hypocrisies of the accepted social paradigms. She wants to go out and challenge them. She is battling for honesty and coherence. She is fighting for her future. The spring or adolescent phase in life cycles is about individuation, knowing and defining truths, a WAY. |
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Anchored in these roots our adolescent is able to break free of the Family, to explore personal identities in the environment, in groups, in social and love relationships. This is about breaking free and defining our individuality. But again, this is dependent upon healthy roots in the family, community and ancestors. In adolescence we struggle to define ourselves and find our place and direction in life.
The adolescent explores and tries different truths, methods, communities and groups in this growing exploration. To truly break free we have to go back and understand, love and accept this social, spiritual and neurological heritage from our family and culture. This will give us the strength to assume our personal path to freedom and adulthood. To understand our unity with the Great Spirit, we must sometimes define our truths and separate ourselves.
As adults, we all have our personal ‘Altered State of Consciousness’, neurologically fixed in childhood by the norms, values, habits and language used in our family and community.
The adolescent explores and tries different truths, methods, communities and groups in this growing exploration. To truly break free we have to go back and understand, love and accept this social, spiritual and neurological heritage from our family and culture. This will give us the strength to assume our personal path to freedom and adulthood. To understand our unity with the Great Spirit, we must sometimes define our truths and separate ourselves.
As adults, we all have our personal ‘Altered State of Consciousness’, neurologically fixed in childhood by the norms, values, habits and language used in our family and community.
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