Politics and Personal Change

Published on 21 August 2022 at 10:25

                                                             Balance in a Political World

 

The recent ascendancy of conservative politics world wide, partly driven by the previous U.S. administration has given me a great deal of food for thought. Not living in the States, I get to witness the affect that its foreign policy has on my world, without the moderating affect that U.S. domestic issue no doubt have on the overall mix for those of you that live there. As a Psychotherapist, Shaman and an activist it sometimes seems that the needs of both are conflicting. When does the personal become political?? Should it ever do so?? Can it, in fact, be avoided and should it?? I have contemplated these questions long and hard. I have come to the conclusion that what happens on the global stage reflects the state of balance in the lives of the individuals from which it is composed…. all of us! Indeed, we are all connected energetically, as well as physically, through our contact with, and dependence on, the Earth as our source of nourishment. It is impossible for us not to influence and be influenced by the actions of others.

So as a follower of the work of Roberto Assagioli for many years, I come to the quest for balance that his perspective. It seems to me that balance itself is the place in between the old and the new, where we rest for a nanosecond before change drives us forward. Just as we walk forward by throwing our balance from one foot to the other, eventually coming to rest balanced on both and yet in a new, different place from which we started, so our internal and global growth depends on the forward movement initiated by this “throwing out of balance to regain a new equilibrium”. We are all agents of change. It then behooves us to become conscious of the change that we are part of. Finding the ‘middle way’ or the synthesis cannot be achieved by maintaining the status quo. It can only come as a product of the continued lurch from side to side, becoming more and more skilled at feedback interpretation and choice as we go, ever seeking the type of personal and political world we wish to inhabit whilst recognizing our own limitations that membership in the larger body of the world imposes upon us.

We cannot ultimately have the lives we wish personally, without a complimentary environment in which to live them. Political choices affect that environment, as do our personal ones. If we want to breath fresh air, we must move out of the coalmine. If enough of us leave the mine, it will close and so the air will be that degree fresher for all, whether they realised that was the consequences of their actions at the time or not. Balance comes through addressing the issues of our needs, being prepared to break the status quo for a time by making different decisions in order to gain results that take us closer to the fulfillment we seek. These choices will cause a ‘rocking of the boat’ just as changing balance from one foot to the other does.

In the political scene I feel it is no different. If the results of a political liaison are not meeting our needs, then we sometimes have to have the courage to break up the existing circumstances, thus creating imbalance, in order for a new balance to be obtained. This is where the personal becomes the transpersonal. In having the courage to change, we assist all lives to change by affecting the environment in which they live. If we do not want to live at war personally then that has to be the criteria for our actions towards our co-joined human relations, for living in a world of war defeats our personal attempts to live in peace. This is no doubt why Assagioli himself chose to become a conscientious objector in the Second World War. It no doubt caused him some personal imbalance for a while because incarceration could not have been pleasant, but he left us with a model to follow regarding our own attitudes towards synthesis and the world of politics.

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