Emotion and Motivation on the Path and in Healing

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EMOTION and MOTIVATION on the PATH and in HEALING
March 2, 1996

Self-motivation & Motivation of Others
Reward & Punishment, Justice, & Change;
Emotion, Intention, & Levels of Motivation/Detachment
An Analogy of one's Body-mind "Vehicle" to an Automobile;

A number of considerations are given below from a Humanistic Gestalt Psychology perspective as well as from the Metaphysical/Spiritual;

Lets get down to the basics - in terms of action on the earth plane -at least according to the particular school of thought that I go by: Emotion is necessary for motivation if one also includes love, joy, and will to good as emotions. For those who require a more stringent and limiting structure in order to limit destructive behavior, lower emotions such as fear, anger, and guilt may be the only useful motivators in the earlier stages of learning the lessons of life. These, attached to thoughts, form beliefs, which our ego uses to establish identity, place, direction, and purpose. Emotion relates directly to our desires as well as to our ideals. Here we get to define values in establishing the difference between our desires and our needs --the latter of which relate to the Will of God. Hence our ideals and intentions should be established as directly related to (our clearest perception/belief of) what the Will of God for one's Being is. These learning processes involve trial and error. More pain to one degree or another, whether it may be so mild sometimes we laugh our way through it, or so intense we go into some form of shock and suppress the memory of it. The latter is more common to infants and children than most people realize, and is part of what I call the initial "setup" or "karmic induction" [ref: essays, "The Alignment of Beliefs, Desires, and Needs...," "A Concept of Healing," and "To Structure or Not" by the author]

Hence, The more evolved the personality is, the more the personality relies on "higher" Intention levels of motivation for self and others (e.g.: love, empathy, purpose, etc., as compared to guilt, fear, anger, etc.).

Awareness of Vehicles on the Path, Fuel Efficiency, and Drive:

     The body-mind can be compared to a vehicle in order to illustrate a relationship we can have with our feelings and emotions (motivation) or "drive". The body-mind is our vehicle for getting from where we are to where we want to be; it takes in fuel (needs and desires translate to motivation, or to fuel in this case). If it's your average junker it runs on low to medium octane and pollutes the air badly (uses fuel like fear and anger). If it's a souped up standard, it might run on higher octane but it still pollutes (ie: like guilt), though maybe not as much. A cleaner fuel might be the lead-free gas (ie: obligation and then responsibility), and then we eventually come to using more and more of the high octane lead free fuel (ie: love). At about this point we start using systems and devices that require the higher octane fuels, do not pollute, and the fuels are the most efficient of all (like straight joy and unconditional love).
     Also important to consider, in the trunk is baggage (old hurts and judgments on/for self and/or others that one hasn't forgiven if even brought to conscious awareness) most likely, which requires that more fuel be used to pull the vehicle. As we are becoming more sensitized to the cleaner fuels and more efficient operation of the engine, we also notice more acutely the drag-effect that the baggage creates, and its effect on overall efficiency of the vehicle. And we become more and more motivated to clear the baggage out. There are various methods and techniques are for checking into the engine's efficiency (for gaining self-knowledge) and for improving it -through re-aligning our systems with the high performance standards (with one' higher guidance/"blueprint") and loosening ones baggage for more efficient travel.
     We have to get our hands into the grease some in order to get the gummy stuff out. With cars we might pay someone else to do the work. Body-minds tend to be much more self-innovated and incomprehensible to others in the finer operating systems. Even with some overall guidance and practice assistance, we generally have to do a great deal of the detail work ourselves. And, in any case, that darnned baggage just won't fall out by itself usually. That's where this analogy fails the most, since body-minds tend to become addicted to the baggage to the point where it can be quite painful to let go of the baggage.
      In the end, the re-alignment makes the fuel more efficient, but only the knowledge from hard-earned experience can re-design the engine, fuel delivery, and baggage handling systems in order to maintain and continually improve the capacity to use the higher octane fuels.

Reward, Punishment, and Change:

The only purpose for MOTIVATING OTHERS is to get the job done. It only needs to do that - pain is Not a necessity UNLESS that’s the only way to get done just what has to be done. There are many ways to motivate. This implies that children, prisoners, nations, etc. do not need necessarily to experience pain in order to conform to appropriate standards. First try love, challenge, compassion, etc. and appeal to their higher nature. Then try mediation, compromise, or reward. Then try guilt or manipulation, etc. if absolutely necessary -- if nothing else works, in other words (when the objective is critical - otherwise the losses and karma would be greater for All concerned).

You can’t beat, separate, or condemn someone (or some part of yourself) into healing or even changing. Under those conditions more feelings of rebellion and resistance to change are created. At best you create a fear- and pain-motivated person, society, or country that trains its offspring, its body, to be likewise motivated - which ends up cycling back to what you originally fought and denied and then acted as if there was no reason for. Acting as if there IS reason for a condition puts us in charge -gets us to the root of the need that the destructive behavior was created to fulfill. Then Healing can BEGIN. It seems to me that God wouldn't have said, "Be a nice and willing victim for awhile and then I’ll reward you," But more likely S/he would have said something like, "Learn how to be all you can be - YOU have to discover your options, make decisions, and take risks and I’ll help you when/if you listen."

We need new motivators, based on love and acceptance. The back and forth karmic cycle of abuser and abused is supposed to wake us up to need for new behavior and ways to transition us to it. It is not supposed to provide another justification for added insult and injury, more punishment and reward syndrome reinforcement, all of which maintains the attitudes that produce the abuse cycle in the 1^st place. The cycle has to stop somewhere -revenge does not cure addiction! Revenge has become much of the motivation behind the systems we have created to provide justice - via reward and punishment.

If I believe my "victimizers" cannot heal, then how can I believe that I can heal - considering the laws of metaphysics? This implies that revenge is not applicable in the guise of justice or any other vehicle. Justice, then is taking into consideration the Present and all it implies, not focusing on feelings of the past; but on what the true needs for learning (by All concerned) are - not on how much punishment can be mustered out based on fixed laws and the various expectations of society. If I am to heal through personal resolution of my own issues, how much and what kind of focus can I engage in as regards the healing of my brother, my "victimizers"? How critical is this question to my own healing ?

So what other ways can we develop to transition us from where are now to where we want to be? It will happen -and likely take a few hundred years, but it has to be approached like there is faith in this or it won’t happen. It has begun, so what’s the next step? What’s the end product - what does that feel like, what would look like? I believe that God is not going to rob us of our learning process by "saving" us. God wants to be able to give US the credit, so we’ll feel good about being with God.

Motivation and Detachment:

Many that identify with the "new age" belief systems have apparently misinterpreted Richard Bach’s statement "Argue for your limitations and they’re yours." One shouldn’t have to convince another (especially a friend) that his/her pain is real - or felt as real. Claiming one’s pain - for what it is as a subjective feeling, whether or not it can be described as rational, justified, or accurately associated, etc - is the first step to letting go of limitations. It is true that the act of claiming/owning one’s pain may enforce limitation(s) for a time, depending on the (unconscious or even conscious) need to identify with the victim experience. Yet, it is denial that much more enforces limitations since (as perhaps the major point of this whole section) one doesn't process feelings that one doesn't feel. I admit that I've just been amazed at the degree of belief in a few "new age" self-healing techniques that refute or ignore that basic premise.

There is no real challenge to releasing illusion from one’s awareness, depending on how one defines illusion and reality, of course. If someone needs a certain amount of structure (ie: "Religious leaders and corporate advertisers determine my values and needs") to learn in for a period of time, then s/he must believe in the reality of that structure to a certain degree. And letting go of the associated emotionally charged beliefs and perceptions would then be a considerable challenge. But once one acknowledges that one is "attached to" a reality and related mental, emotional, and physical material, then one can begin to let go of it. I like the sayings, "If you can feel it, you can heal it," and "one has to have an ego before one can transcend it."

And regarding ego nature: I believe most all of us have areas that can use a little ego building and a few areas where the ego is doing a *necessary* job of maintaining individuality and position in one's environment. Where the (true/actual) needs are felt as not having been taken care of is where the ego will try to protect in some way. This is where the addictions and other coping mechanisms come in. Therefore, upstaging or bragging, for instance, is not a sign of too *much* ego, but of protecting where there is too little. It's the very healthy ego that can be transcended, because at the level of full ego transcendence, the person is pretty much beyond any need for a body, position, or individuality anyway. (And I don't know that I've ever even met anyone of that caliber, by the way.)

More personally speaking:

No, I do not have all this "down" yet. I believe we are ALL in some kind of pain on some level, most of us appear unconscious of it or incredibly great actors, or both. But that seems to be part of how we are trained. It goes along with the co-dependent-required unconscious beliefs that a good person can't tell another's pain from one's own, that sympathy is good yet one isn't to feel sorry for oneself, that martyrdom is godly but losers and victims are mostly just manipulating, yet that pain is God's message that one has been bad or wrong. (Phew!) Under the scourge of such contradictory beliefs, many in society have felt this perception as safer, kinder, and more productive (!?!) and have pretended pain is just not happening within one's realm of influence. So in the name of national financial priorities we have too often ignored the crucial needs of our elderly and youth, our teachers and our progeny.

I believe pains are also like handicaps, challenges, and gifts. Everyone has them, some folks are just more adept at hiding them - from themselves and/or from others. And all four are highly related. Sister Theresa had her own pain just like the rest of us, but she had learned to have compassion for pain (perhaps her greatest gift - to others since she worked hard for it) without making herself or anyone else wrong for having/feeling/expressing it. Well that's my take on it. And Buddha and Jesus is still hanging out with the folks on earth, so what's keeping Them from moving on? Maybe These Folks could be 'out of here' and away from us but apparently They're not. It's also taught that even They are still continuing Their (spiritual) growth thing, and that part of Their responsibility is working with us. So, I think "it's not over 'til it's over," and that we cross a major hurdle when we just stop making wrong the fact that we are in pain. [ref: essays, "Notes on Pain, Awareness & Denial," and "Victims, Compassion, & Responsibility -- Notes on The Emotional-Body, Denial of Pain, & Easy Answers," by the author]

Reference Section

Essay Links Mentioned in Text:

"Body-Mind Integration in the Personal Growth Process"
The How's And Why's Of Psycho-Emotional Storage of the Body-Mind (in layman's physiology & psychology): When, how and why tension is stored and released; communication between body and mind, benefits; proprioreceptors, personal growth, massage/bodywork, therapist's approach, etc. Originally published by the author in Massage Magazine, July-Aug 1992. May-Oct 2011: Addendum essays added with the goal of clarifying these topics as more easily understandable for *common sense* preventative maintenance application, as well as further completing the context and clarifying the dynamics and processes involved, including "Muscle Q & A" - a Kind of overview of the core topics, "Body Awareness and Communications, as Related to Body-Memory and Integration", "Insight Please", "EQ, IQ, Emotional Integration, and a Synergetic Relationship", and "Sticky Muscles", Reviews for two articles "on Massage, Alternative Therapies, & Pain, with "Study: Massages really can make pain go away"; & Sept 2011 Consumer Report; quotes, commentary & charts.

The "Core Body-Mind Integration Concepts in Context Chart" is now (10/10/11) at the Organization Chart page. It compacts the key points into a relatively small visual space, and provides a summary of them and their implications relative to body-mind preventative maintenance, pain management, other aspects.