The next fifty years of earth history will very likely determine the destiny of our species and many other creatures. That humans have been completely misaligned and at odds with the very environment that supports us is becoming abundantly clear. The massive growth in psychopathology over the past two hundred years indicates that we have become largely dysfunctional in our relationships with each other and with our environment, and something needs to change quickly. Believe it or not, this is a fortunate and well-founded evolutionary feedback mechanism that protects us and ensures our ongoing place in the world. To ignore it is to skirt ever closer to complete breakdown and destruction.
Prior to the industrial revolution, humans lived with far greater appreciation, humility and respect for Mother nature and the interdependence of all forms of life. Unfortunately, in the 17th and 18th centuries with scientific advancement, a new philosophy emerged that was rapacious and arrogant to say the least. The subjugation of nature by humans for humans caused a psychotic split that has taken us far into a dark wood of error. We now see the strain our beautiful planet is under as we find ourselves trapped in a global system of consumption, competition and materialism which is hard to break free from. The degradation of the earth’s environment is resulting in famines, floods, wild-fires, pandemics, pollution, species extinction, destabilized ecosystems, massive movements of human populations, growing civil unrest and escalating warfare.
The situation is unsustainable, and we need to urgently wake up, and reinvent ourselves. My own recent crisis may be a useful example of the challenges we face, and the changes needed. I found myself suffering from burn-out, negativity and clinical depression as I went through the motions of every-day life living in a rut. After seven years of pressing forward in this unsustainable way, a cancer diagnosis catalyzed my own transformation. ‘Adapt or die’ comes to mind. I was clearly on the wrong path and was about to undertake a massive personal shedding of skin as I closed my psychology practice (my main source of income) and left the church, two pillars of my life. This was done through the realization that there are two counter balancing forces we each need to understand and allow for – Culture and Nature. With the help of certain soul teachers, in the form of authors I read, I learnt how to negate the effects of culture by practicing the nurture of my own nature.
Climate change is providing the global crisis we all need as an earth community to start living in a whole new and better way. By learning to counter-balance culture by nurturing our own natures, we have the very tool to liberate ourselves from a form of mental slavery we are all caught up in. I loved the movie The Shawshank Redemption, which speaks volumes about the human condition, living as we do in prisons of our own making due to a series of choices. One man decides to be wild (counter-cultural) and free (autonomous and responsible), using a small chisel to dig his way out of his cell. We all are given this option, because we all have the tool to do it – our human ability to think about our thinking and to nurture our own natures.
Byron Katie, in her book ‘Loving what is’, makes the profound statement that pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. By learning to nurture our own natures, we move through our pain instead of getting stuck in an endless cycle of suffering. It’s time for each one of us to become part of the solution instead of a perpetuating problem. Learn to nurture your own nature, that neglected part of your being, and experience the difference it will make in your life and in the life of every creature around you. You were born to be wild and free, not imprisoned by culture. To find out more, please contact me – psychologist in Fourways.