In-Box-Thinking
It strikes me that intelligent people are sometimes immune to rationality in a circumscribed domain. This is VERY intriguing. I have as close-to-me example a quite intelligent medical colleague and friend who has… the ‘magical, healing hand’. Well… There are millions of examples like this. It’s not at all some isolated case. The term in-box-thinking Read the full article…
Symbolism and Placebo
These two domains have lots in common. Rationality cuts through both, but in essentially different ways. Power to the people As a matter of fact, the ‘power’ of a symbol doesn’t lie in the physical symbol itself, just as the ‘power’ of a placebo doesn’t lie in the placebo itself. It lies in the person Read the full article…
To Measure Is to Know?
To measure is to know… but only if you know what you are measuring. If you are confused in this, chances are you end up knowing even less than before. Western culture seems to be addicted to measuring, whether it be in management or medicine, education or economics… I see this as part of a Read the full article…
Words Like ‘Soul’ Are Not the Exclusive Right of Religion
Not of any specific religion, nor of ‘religion’ in general. It is therefore high time for a kind of ‘science of the deeper self’ that distinguishes itself from ‘religion’ in the sense that it is not based on a dogma or a story. You can compare it with astronomy that has emancipated from astrology +/- Read the full article…
Nirvana and Depression: Same Emptiness?
Concepts of Nirvana and Mental Depression are not usually brought together. Yet they do share important commonalities, to say the least. Of course, deep suffering is not bliss. Depression and nirvana Major depression is described by many sufferers as the worst experience one can get. It is the darkest emptiness, devoid of any meaning or Read the full article…
The Culminating Point
… The top and then some …. A little story from, you-probably-know-where, is about a 30 m high pile. You scramble up this pile. And then? Then you are on top of this pile. And then? Then you take a ‘step’ forward … but you’d rather not if you don’t know deeply within yourself what Read the full article…
Grinding Yourself into Disease and Out Again
A unidimensional, linear way in medical causal thinking leads to many mounting problems in psychosomatics. Self-perpetuating patterns may lie closer to reality. Old way : serial thinking As a child, I had bronchitis several times. Mother phoned. The physician came. Physical examination and a few questions. Two or three medications, one of them being antibiotics. Read the full article…
Motivational Team-Leading?
Motivational speakers, team-building events… Cheering up the crowd… It can all seem superficial. An open leader looks further. Such ‘energizing’ is not necessarily effective in motivating the workforce. It may even be a de-motivating surrogate out of want for real motivation, construed precisely to ignore the real problems at the workplace. In any case, synthetic Read the full article…
Experiences
One experience may convince more than thousand words because an experience lives – if experienced well – inside your heart. To convince someone of a clear-cut idea, rational argumentation may do. To convince someone of a deeply ethical viewpoint, or a visionary one, or a personally appreciative one, or even a religious viewpoint is much Read the full article…
Do Not Turn the Other Cheek…
… unless you think it’s worthwhile. I have a lot of respect for other-cheek-turners. If however, nothing gets learned from it, one may keep turning cheeks indefinitely. If someone slaps you on the cheek, then I think that it’s better to look at that person than to turn your gaze away while offering the other Read the full article…
What’s the Problem?
The problem is worldwide. Burnout within company X -> search for a direct solution. Symptom Y in psychosomatic healthcare -> search for a direct solution. And in combination: a lot of physicians – apparently more than any other profession – get into burnout. Part of the cause may well be their being incarcerated in a Read the full article…
Religion is a Conversation between God and Me
In the course of time, many have been killed for daring to say so. Many of these have found it worthwhile nevertheless. God and me ― an introduction For the sake of this text at least, we can take a very broad view on the notion of ‘God’. It can be the one (or many) Read the full article…
Open Vision on Leadership
Leadership is created and supported at a deeper level by all members of a group, including the leader him/herself. ‘Leadership’ is not only a typical human concept but also a very remarkable one. Humans are, beyond any doubt, profoundly social beings. For as long as we can remember – literally – we have been living Read the full article…
What is Subtlety?
Subtlety is not weakness, nor evasiveness. In many cases, it demands courage, especially when at risk of being misunderstood. Subtlety is not plainly vague, nor elusive, nor ‘indistinct’ but on the contrary: as distinct as possible in a domain in which distinctness is difficult. It’s not indirect but precisely to the point. Subtlety is about Read the full article…
Don’t Be Vulnerable
Now and then, an admonishment is ushered to ‘show one’s vulnerable side.’ Thereby never to show oneself as ‘the tough guy’ (or girl). OK, there is something in this. But I don’t quite agree. I think that one should never readily show oneself as vulnerable. There is no point in showing oneself as vulnerable, nor Read the full article…
From Grief to Growth
There can be positive elements in grief – if you open yourself. The death of a person – the death of an idea – the death of a relationship – even the death of a hoped-for electoral outcome… One should not get rid of grief or bypass it. Yet what regularly happens, is that a Read the full article…
How to Meditate and Not Get Bored
Are you willing to meditate but afraid to get bored of ‘doing nothing’? With good reason. You want to do something – anything – and you’re just sitting there. You may wonder why, doing nothing. You’re bored. Then in your mind you fill in things you could be doing. Or you just wander around in Read the full article…