More tools for life.

[Victoria]

The following is from Tools for Life... a site a subscribe to. I found this of particular interest, expecially in these days and times of critical mass and criticism.

V

No one should abandon duties because he sees defects in them. Every action, every activity, is surrounded by defects as a fire is surrounded by smoke.

And how about Abraham Maslow who studied the greatest people of his generation (from Einstein to Eleanor Roosevelt) as he identified the hallmarks of what he called "self-actualizing" individuals? He taught us: There are no perfect human beings! Persons can be found who are good, very good indeed, in fact, great. There do in fact exist creators, seers, sages, saints, shakers, and movers...even if they are uncommon and do not come by the dozen. And yet these very same people can at times be boring, irritating, petulant, selfish, angry, or depressed. To avoid disillusionment with human nature, we must first give up our illusions about it.

And Rumi who advises: There is no worse sickness for the soul, o you who are proud, than this pretense of perfection.

The moment we allow ourselves to be less than perfect, we open ourselves up to the opportunity to grow

 

[TGDragonfly]

Maslow saw human beings' needs arranged like a ladder. The most basic needs, at the bottom, were physical -- air, water, food, sleep. Then came safety needs -- security, stability -- followed by psychological, or social needs -- for belonging, love, acceptance. Then, came esteem needs -- to feel achievement, status, responsibility, and reputation. At the top of it all were the self-actualizing needs -- the need to fulfill oneself, to become all that one is capable of becoming. Maslow felt that unfulfilled needs lower on the ladder would inhibit the person from climbing to the next step. Someone dying of thirst quickly forgets their thirst when they have no oxygen, as he pointed out. People who dealt in managing the higher needs were what he called self-actualizing people. Benedict and Wertheimer were Maslow's models of self-actualization, from which he generalized that, among other characteristics, self-actualizing people tend to focus on problems outside of themselves, have a clear sense of what is true and what is phony, are spontaneous and creative, and are not bound too strictly by social conventions.
Peak experiences are profound moments of love, understanding, happiness, or rapture, when a person feels more whole, alive, self-sufficient and yet a part of the world, more aware of truth, justice, harmony, goodness, and so on. Self-actualizing people have many such peak experiences.