 Themes |
| Themes |
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| Our stories led to several common themes, and sparked new questions... | ||||||
| What I have is more than enough to make a life. | ||
| Often, it's a conversation with someone who really cares about us that awakens us to something new. | ||
| Laughter and children help us experience "enough." | ||
| Many of us grew up in much "simpler" circumstances, with Depression-era parents who scrimped and saved. | ||
| There are lots of people living on very little - $4,000/year in the U.S., $300/lifetime for 3 families in India. | ||
| We are blessed to be able to criticize our own society like this. | ||
| Resources are like a siphon: what pours out, pulls more in. | ||
| It's only external distractions and messages that convince us that we aren't or don't have enough. | ||
| Many of us return again after leaving the corporate world, but with a different sense of purpose. | ||
| Usually, but not always, the money is there for meaningful work ventures. | ||
| We find a tension between voluntary simplicity and an abundant universe - and really want the power to choose. | ||
| There are other people who have concern with how to live more lightly on the earth. | ||
| After exploring "enough," many of us felt gratitude, fullness, happiness, and contemplativeness. | ||
| There is a subtle distinction between giving from inspiration and giving from perfectionism. | ||
| Maybe it's more about enough depth, not so much enough volume. | ||
| Staying grounded in the mind/body connection, we can open our hearts, respond from who we really are instead of what others want us to be, breathe, let go, take the time we need to respond. | ||
| If we knew our ordinary selves were enough, we'd be willing to follow our hearts, our intuition. People would know who we really are. We'd be willing to commit and focus, and at the same time let go. | ||
| Anything we do, the best we can expect is 80%. What put it in us to conceive of more than that? | ||
| Our culture fosters the idea that we can "will" things to be done. And that allows us to tolerate fundamental contradictions: we can develop all AND conserve all, we can be centered completely AND give all away, we can save all AND consume all, all while we relax perfectly. | ||
| If we are inwardly still beseeching our parents for what we need, then we fall into anger, fall into having to do 100% When we see that when our parents withheld, they were in more pain than we are, then we find compassion, more space, room for understanding. |
| Being in pride, self-will, fear, we propel ourselves into perfectionism, which comes out as - I'll show them... | ||
| Who is that real self that would come out if we were enough? | ||
| How do I master the art of excess that I feel called to express, but in ways that are not damaging - in ways that are creative and beautiful? | ||
| So many people find ways to give, to do something good - but are we choking on what we can't stop doing, individually and collectively? | ||
| Enough means balance, even of good things. It represents limits on the perfection we expect of ourselves and the boundaries between us and the world. It's the yellow light before too much, the range within which we are satisfied, at peace. Enough applies to food, money, "performance" in our work, and how much we demand of the earth. A sense of enough comes from integrity, being true to who we are AND being connected - so it's about watching internal signals AND relationships. Listening to both means balancing the the call to differentiate and the call to unify - and so it is a dance. | ||
| Grounding, centering, dancing helps us know what's enough. Listening to each other helps us reassess values. Animals, like kittens - who shows unconditional love, rebellion at will - can help. It helps to imagine the voice of the good parent who says do this, and not more. With food, your body tells you what's enough - but not all longings have that feedback. Tangible work, like cleaning house, has a discernible end. Working on the computer can suck us in, and you never feel like you're done. Enough is like a teeter-totter, with opposites of too much and too little - we find the center by throwing the balance off just a little. | ||
| My client imagined a plumb line and a level, you know, when things are 'true.' I think we all have these internal plumb lines/levels, and where they meet near the heart, maybe this is the source of our truest voice, the touchstone which we can rub against others and know what rings true. But this voice doesn't know instantly how to respond, it takes a moment, it takes time to let things sink in. |
| One touchstone to be aware of is how much human suffering there is in the world. On this train heading who knows where, we need to be aware and think of all 6 billion people, and one dimension for doing so is ecological. Our biggest impact is through driving, but next is through eating less meat, buying local, organic and in-season produce. | ||
| Shall we all try to do the ecological footprint to see how our choices are affecting the environment? | ||
| Does our sense of what's enough change? What influences it? Does buying stuff cause us to worry more? |
| © 2002 Bridge Interactive, Inc. - All rights reserved. |
