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On Self Growth and Activism By Jay Ray I think its fair to say that over the last year or so, I have received a good deal of flack about my work as an activist and its perceived incompatibility with the aim of self development, particularly but not exclusively Psychosynthesis. So I felt that it was time to set the record straight. For me, there is no such thing as inner work standing on its own. The whole reason people go into self development is to change themselves. They feel that things are not right for them, and seek to adjust that. Often they would prefer to make those changes within, without the necessity of looking any deeper. They prefer not to look at the choices that they or others made, that resulted in them being who they are where they are. As I worked with them (as well as my self) I found that it was impossible to divorce our choices from our development. Much of the difficulty we face as we seek for change, is acknowledging to ourselves of our own powerfulness. We did make those choices ultimately, and they have lead us to where we are today. We don't have to wait for anyone else to start making new choices to bring about new personal environments. We must not get hooked up in the desire for them to change, or we disempower ourselves, spending our lives waiting. The first challenge for us all, however, is seeing what past choices there were that placed us where we don't want to be with those we would prefer were different. If we are frightened of our part in that, fearing fault, we may well stay in denial and nothing shifts. There is never any need for self-flagellation. We do the best we can with what we have got at the time. However, once we have lived to see the consequences of those choices, we may use them. We can learn some things about what sort of choosing we might prefer to do in the future, and what psychological patterning we have developed along life's path to enhance or inhibit that process. We may need to gain new internal skills for rearrange ourselves, but for sure those skill must eventually translate into external action if anything is really going to update in our lives. So there is a short formulae that I use: First, become aware of the problem. Second, find the source-choice that created it. Thirdly, find out where that choice stemmed from inside our psyche. Then, because it doesn't produce what we would prefer, begin to look for skills to change it. Finally make a new decision and watch the screen of our life transform! So far so good! The next thing that I realised as I continued my work was that we were all connected. I cannot change my life without the lives of all those who touch me changing also. If I change the steps to my dance others also must. Or stop dancing with me! Either way, change occurs. It occurred to me that the truth 'as above, so below' applied here. Enough people changing enough things does indeed change the fabric of the society in which we live, one way or the other. If more and more of us accept pornography and violence then society will indeed become more pornographic and violent! If more and more of us refuse to live with that, making different choices about what we do with our time, perhaps turning to self development or instance, our world must also change the steps to its own dance. Now here is the sticking point. Just as in our own lives, if we do not know what is not working, we cannot begin the process of questioning process. We are unable to find the earlier choices that created the consequences, or update our internal and external skill base to choose again, either personally or socially. Maybe the early feminists were right- the "personal is political "!! So, as I contemplated all this for several years, watching lives change, I came to the point of realizing that I, as someone who purports to work for change in the lives of others (as well as Self), could not honestly ignore the need for awareness of the political choices that are being made all around the globe, affecting the lives of all? The answer was no! Awareness must always come before action, but action must always follow awareness if growth is to be assured. About this time I came across the works of Starhawk, a wonderful pagan, storyteller, activist, author, ex-psychologist, and Permaculturalist. She had succeeded in weaving her personal development work with her activism and indeed, spoke strongly for the need for both. Closely followed by her came *Anne Wilson Schauff. I had read most of her works on codependency for years, but now I discovered the wider aspects of her work in social change, recognizing that we cannot change a person without changing their environment. So many clients do wonderful work in isolation, only to revert once reintroduced to the toxic environment from which they sprang. Ultimately, what is the good of cleaning out the lungs to turn around and go back down the mine??? Up until this point I had held fast to the belief that all we needed to do was take responsibility for changing ourselves and the world would change. That's probably true if it lasts long enough for that to occur. Were I to live long enough I could probably shift all the remaining psychological malaise in my own process, but I am a realistic woman. Psychosynthesis never works in singularity. We are always looking for the polarities inside of us that create the conflict. We work on both sides, eventually meeting in the middle in a new integrated whole. So it wasn't too much of a stretch for me to realise that I could no longer only work on the personal growth aspect of change. I knew that both the personal and the transpersonal (both spiritual and political) were as much in need of attention and awareness as each other. How could we possibly take responsibility for what we did not know about?? How could we face our own internal prejudice if we only lived myopically separated from others in our own fenced yard? It seemed to me that was as much denial as was the desire to just change our 'mind' without making new choices to accompany that in our personal lives. So began the advent of the activist in me for whom I make no apology. It feels right that my connection to the whole is leading me to an awareness of what is out there. Just as with my clients, I can lead them to self perception, but must leave it up to them to do what they will with what they perceive. So it is with my activism. I can lead people to information they may not have come across before about the global environment that is our home. Hopefully that will give them a broader viewpoint from which to make choices. Nor am I assuming to be right. What they choose to do with that information is entirely up to them. But awareness comes before the ability to act, and action comes before change. And I do believe we can change this human society to a much more 'liveable' one for all. * "When Society Becomes an Addict"-1987, "The Addictive Organization"-1988 Updated 27/02.2006 |