Beyond ‘Carrot and Stick’
Carrot and stick have a long history. Going beyond, one can foresee a future based on a more realistic view on human being. Reward and punishment are efficient means to make someone comply to rules and authority. So has always been thought and taught. Reality may have been quite more complicated. In the face of Read the full article…
Respect Has Many Faces
which are all related to a sense of morality: respect for the group, for authority, for human suffering… and also respect for ‘me’ which can be ego or total self. Delving towards ‘oneness’ The more one delves into human issues, the more one gets the feeling that everything is related. The deeper one goes, the Read the full article…
Manipulation of Empathy
Since empathy is a primordially social reflex, manipulation of empathy is relatively easy and can rightly be called ‘sociopathy’. Unfortunately, this is not seldom in politics worldwide. People are ‘natural empathizers’ but diverse in form and object. For example: empathy for close circle (family, ‘own people’…) versus empathy for wide circle (‘human rights’…). Thus, even Read the full article…
How to Open Someone to Change
Trying to ‘open’ someone to a change of view or behavior, is a common situation. It’s that of a coach with a coachee, or of you perhaps, wanting to ‘open’ someone to another view. People have a natural resistance to be changed. Quite rightly so. There is a natural tendency towards survival as an individual. Read the full article…
Politics: Left, Right, Up, Down
We see a lot of confusion in present-day politics. This may indicate the need for a fundamental shift in direction, not of some party or system but of the very idea of politics itself. What is left and right in politics, tends to change a lot especially over a number of decennia. At present, one Read the full article…
Authority?
‘Authority’: a word that divides many, may bring many back together. Not as a matter of fact though. The situation and an appeal to some caution Authority can be seen as always personal. For example, the ‘authority of scripture’ is the authority of those who command scripture to be authoritative. To some, ‘authority’ is nothing Read the full article…
Empathy and Morality
I (yes, I) contend that morality of a really human kind is basically based on empathy. Rationality is its servant. [This text is a continuation on ‘Landscape of Empathy’.] One may recognize a quote from the Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can Read the full article…
The Middle Way of Dialogue
Dialogue: speaking while listening and listening while speaking. Dialogue strengthens. Unfortunately, there seems to be a growing lack of it. Speaking while listening Non-verbally, deeply attentive: showing yourself in your listening. It helps the other to speak well and thus it also helps your listening. Listening while speaking Straightforwardly: seeing the other ‘speak while listening’. Read the full article…
The Concept ‘Kindness For the Total Person’
Kindness… is probably the first word that comes to mind with reference to AURELIS. E.g. if you want to explain to anyone what AURELIS is about. It is also very important when you are doing an AURELIS session for example. The aim here is to allow you to be friendly to yourself. It’s not pushing Read the full article…
‘Willpower’
And then … there is still place for ‘willpower’. The power of the will to fight against … the will. Different ‘parts’ of yourself apparently want different things. Or without speaking about ‘parts’: apparently there are different, conflicting motivations present within you. You want this and you want that. You want to eat (too much) Read the full article…
Each TOTAL Person is Infinitely Important!
There are many ways to articulate the ‘core’ of AURELIS. This (the title of this text) is a way that touches me personally. Everyone is very important, even ‘infinitely’ important. At the same time, this makes us all equally valuable. No discrimination. No distinction in deeper value. A child is a child, whether it is Read the full article…
Why Full Teacups Are Not Big Fans of ‘Empty’ Teacups
‘Emptiness’ is a screen on which much can be projected. HA! Of course lots of things are emerging from ’emptiness’. Things of which you may search for some ‘conceptual cause” which cannot be found in that ’emptiness’, because there is simply no ‘conceptual cause’ present in it. That is just what ’emptiness’ means: ’empty’ of Read the full article…
Do People Fit in Boxes?
One likes to put people in boxes. Particularly in business circles, this is a sport ‘that could peel paint off the wall’. A theory. An authority. A quadrant. Arrows. PowerPoint … And off you go. However, there are a lot of theories, many arrows, many slides, many types of boxes (DISC, LIFO, MBTI, core strengths Read the full article…
‘Doing Good’: Not as Easy as It Seems
Imagine you are a ‘special kind of therapist’. Good. All kinds of people come by your place with a ‘problem’ and they leave with a sense of relief, glad they came along. After a while they come back and then the same phenomenon occurs. Friendly faces. Nothing to worry about. ‘Doing good’ seems evident. Is Read the full article…
Dissociation at World Level
In other words and at the same time as stated earlier: ‘soul’ getting lost. But then across the world. The first time that such a thing as AURELIS came to mind (in my mind, as a rather naive post-adolescent), was in the year 1984 in Brazil. In a pediatric hospital in a favela (slum) of Read the full article…
Wanting to = Being Able to?
“Where there is a will, there is a way.” “Willpower moves mountains.” “Where autosuggestion and willpower are present together, mountains respectfully move aside.” For example with regard to smoking cessation, using the AURELIS method: “I want to, but I cannot (yet).” is just a gross underestimation of the unconscious power of ‘wanting to’. It would Read the full article…
The Distinction Between ‘Ego’ and ‘Total Self’ is Difficult to Grasp
… and it’s infinitely interesting (trying) to grasp it It can also fluctuate greatly. One moment ‘you have it’ and the other you lost it again Like the sun that is sometimes shining through the clouds. Knowing that the sun always keeps shining behind the clouds may give confidence. Sometimes one sees clearly the mote Read the full article…