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Ecopsychology and Personal Development: Pomegranate, metaphor, guide to self understanding

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Category: Ecopsychology

True Story of Personal Growth Inspiration through a Relationship with Two Pomegranate Trees

A woman has two pomegranate trees. She planted them in her garden many years ago. She watched them grow from tiny saplings. After four years they gave her a few pomegranates. The following three years they each gave her about 20 large red pomegranates.

As the trees continued to grow they produced more but increasingly smaller fruit. The branches grew thin with many frail sub branches.

One winter morning she set out to take drastic action. With a tall branch clipper, she spent hours cutting off thin branches and stabilizing herself so she could cut slice off major branches six feet above her head.

She got tired. She felt dizzy. The skin on the back of her hands hurt from branch scratches.

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Follow the Metaphor: How our enthusiasm in tasks can show us our next steps in life

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Category: Self-Help

                                                                                      * Dig deep

Our passionate actions can mirror back to us the unconscious processes of our psyches. That mirroring allows us to catch the callings of our deep self and recognize where we are on our path to wholeness and fulfillment.

When we seem removed from our inner life planning and enthusiastically enter into an unexpected task we are often being guided by our deep Self, giving us answers to questions we haven’t allowed ourselves to ask.  Paying attention to these actions can bring us to a deeper understanding of our state of mind, our choices, decisions and especially what lies ahead for us in life.

What do you want out of life? Is it the same as what you wanted a few years ago or a few decades ago? What’s important to you now? Where should you focus your energy? How can you achieve more happiness and fulfillment?

Periodically we ask ourselves these questions. Certainly, we ask them when we are young and just starting out in life. If we have suffered in our lives and developed emotional defenses to protect us from pain and danger, we give those defenses priority over our deeply felt desires.

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The Fire Alarm Is Not the Fire: Deep causes of intimacy issues, anxiety and eating disorders

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Category: Symptoms

Shutting down the alarm does not stop the fire.

When a fire alarm goes off the problem is not the sound of the alarm.  The problem is the fire. The deeper problem is the cause of the fire.

In my decades of being a psychotherapist I’ve learned that often symptoms such as intimacy problems, anxiety issues and eating disorder behaviors are alarms. Trying to shut off an alarm without addressing what’s causing the alarm to sound off accomplishes little or nothing. It also can be dangerous because the metaphoric fire continues to burn and may increase in ferocity.

It’s also, in my opinion, a waste of time and money to keep focused on the alarm while ignoring or denying the real blaze. It’s also a waste of time and money to put out the fire without understanding the conditions that created the fire and taking steps to prevent a blaze from flaring up

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The Four Agreements of Don Miguel Ruiz: a guide to identifying psychotherapy issues

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Category: Psychotherapy and Recovery Work

* Sorting out the swirl of fact, belief, projection, weaknesses and strengths

Don Miguel Ruiz states four agreements between us and the world that can bring joy, satisfaction, health, good relationships and success to our lives. Stating these agreements as clearly as he does gives us the gift of facing them. When we face them, we have an opportunity to see how we do and do not bring these agreements into our lives on a regular basis. That gives us the opportunity to see what’s required to improve our lives. It’s a wonderful guide to identifying issues that can be explored and addressed in psychotherapy.

What follows are each of his agreements and the psychological issues that might be indicated in psychotherapy work when you have difficulty honoring them.

1. “Be impeccable with your word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.