Research Paper By Andrijana Ilic
(Transformational Coach, SWITZERLAND)
Intro
In the context of the fourth industrial revolution “digitalization”, the way the world is working on VUCA mode (Volatility – Uncertainty – Complexity – Ambiguity) may jeopardize the quality of life of people in our “global village” and can create many questions about the future of humanity. How as coaches can we provide suitable support for individuals to live their lives in another mode which may be: VUCA as Vision, Understanding, Clarity, Agility? This means adopting a more strategic response regarding their current context (1). The idea is to integrate the latest existing knowledge, way of understanding, and opportunities to improve our human intelligence. This not only from a rational point of view in terms of the ability to analyze the situation and to act with performance. Other complementary dimensions can support the individuals to use the highest level of their potential to achieve what they really want no matter the context. Both modern and traditional medicines agree on the fact that stress is the ultimate root of the degradation of health. People tend to be absorbed by their negative aspects of the environment and this frequently maintains chronic stress that limits the expression of human potential. Managing the perception of this negativity becomes an important challenge particularly with the “media mirror” that can easily build a negative vision because the brain will preferentially memorize the negative information due to our innate natural survival programming. The journey to achieve higher fulfillment is not only about telling our mind how useful it is to keep positive thoughts. The challenge is both more complex and simpler at the same time. A systemic approach to the mental and spiritual complexity of human beings should be explored to gain the ability to reach the deepest/higher level of people development, whilst at the same time staying more aware, relaxed (avoiding mental tension), and connected to our inner and outer nature. All of this is oriented towards the goal of feeling a deep satisfaction in ourselves, our life, others, and our universe is the best way we can achieve harmony.
- A higher purpose through spirituality
- Some scientific perspectives on spirituality
- a. « Laic spirituality » and hyper-humanism from a modern scientifical perspective
The French scientist, Joël de Rosnay supports the concept of a “laic spirituality” which is based on Einstein’s point of view that humanity is moving towards a “cosmic religion” linked to UNITY and the harmony of Nature which stems from no specific dogma. There is an “unknown power” that is a kind of global acknowledgment and awareness that exceeds the power of the individual’s reflexive consciousness. He also bases his analyses on epigenetics, which demonstrates that the expression of genes may be different according to the behaviors that people have regarding nutrition, physical exercise, stress management, pleasure in achievements, and harmony with social/family/professional networks. This means that our activities impact our genes, and this shows how we are responsible for what we can become. On an individual level, the idea is to give purpose to our lives by creating our own life and a coach would be an excellent support to achieve this by increasing consciousness. A positive approach means building a balanced approach even when people’s environments are generally not balanced for many reasons. It is the interactions between elements that affect the complex systems that humanity creates. The quantic physic also shows how each individual’s mind can influence reality regarding what is material to the vibratory energy that everybody creates unconsciously or consciously and how everything is linked in all universe (2) (3).
- de Rosnay is also inspired by the older French scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who explained how the history of humanity proceeds towards more and more complexity. He believes that each element has a psychic, that with time it elevates, and becomes more complex and more conscious. They use the concept of the “Omega point” which is the point to which all consciousness converges (past, present, and future). Behind this is the idea of transcendence and the convergence that frees the mind from matter. P. Teilhard de Chardin writes: “Everything that goes up converges”. This higher convergence unites people. The development of human collective intelligence more cooperative and related with auxiliary intelligence (artificial intelligence) brings humanity to a new stage and reinforces the unity, the hyper-humanism based on our higher capacities (currently generally inhibited by egoism): empathy, love, sharing, generosity… It is key to detect the positive elements of our world to give people the envy to have envied.
- b. The purpose behind the appearance from an esoteric perspective
Antique alchemy is also the research of UNITY. Patrick BURENSTEINAS is one of the ten alchemists of the century and has a background as a physician specialized in high energies. Symbolically the idea of UNITY is related to the Light and the main goal of alchemy is to transform the material into Light (4). “The philosophers’ stone is a legendary alchemical substance capable of turning other metals into gold. This represents a higher idea of “elixir of life useful for rejuvenation and for achieving immortality.” It is the central symbol of the mystical terminology of alchemy, symbolizing perfection at its finest, enlightenment, and heavenly bliss. The effort to discover this is known as the Magnum Opus (“Great Work”) (5). This process helps see the purpose behind appearances, and maybe to enter a parallel world. This is also true for the words that we use (“the bird language”(6)). The higher or deeper consciousness by shaping the mind carries people towards the Light to obtain a higher ability to be rapt to wonder (see the beauty, the positive…) and to dialogue with Nature and themself. A coach is a useful support to achieve the necessary consciousness elevation to get to the “Light”.
In Asian antique culture, for example, the Ying and Yang also represents the idea of UNITY and polarity (everything immaterial of the world cannot exist without its opposite) that is based on opposite (black and white are opposite colors), complementary (an assemblage of the two opposite generates the unity) and inseparable (the black is the white and opposite).
- c. Supernatural people from a neuroscience perspective
What can appear as uncommon is related to super consciousness. Joe Dispenza explains in his book “Becoming supernatural” how humans can achieve absolutely exceptional things in their life. Some may be qualified as “miracles” but the latest neuroscience research demonstrates the unexpectedly high abilities of humans. “To guide your inner self to freedom” is key and meditation creates a powerful synergy between the energy of the brain (the spirit) and the energy of the heart (the soul). J. Dispenza says: “Learn to change your brain chemistry to generate transcendental experiences to train the skill of creating a more efficient healthy body, a mind with no boundaries and a key to realms of spirituals truths. It is about stepping outside of our physical reality and heading into a mystical place where humans can evolve their inner self” (7) (8). The coaching process will support people on their way to changing perspective and activate the strong client’s resources.
- Spiritual elevation and a religious perspective
- a. Connected to the divine through the purpose
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer explains in his book “The shift” (9) how to achieve a deep “letting go” and to connect to the divine.
He underlines two types of approaches in life. One is oriented to the “having” as an ego-oriented life based on oneself and material things. He calls this the “morning” of life which creates non-useful suffering to people. This is due to societies teaching us to be able to accumulate wealth, be ambitious, and fight for success. The second is oriented to the “being” as a life of meaning and purpose based on the satisfaction of our own soul needs. This is the “afternoon” of life that brings the feeling of fulfillment. Experimenting with this life with purpose means feeling deeply the love energy that brings the feeling of happiness. That is a kind of universal love that helps to connect one with UNITY represented by everybody and everything that is a divine connection. Love energy attracts the abundance that people need and it is seen as the opposite of fear energy.
To avoid fear, mindfulness helps people to activate the rational part of the brain and to focus on the present moment. The fears are activated by the limbic brain where the memories (mainly negative for people that suffer) are and based on experience and future projections.
- b. Building a life purpose through a religion
In his book “Mental disorders and Spiritual healing: teachings from the Early Christian East” (10), Jean-Claude Larchet shows the way the orthodox fathers understood the psyche and its relationship with body and spirit. They assimilate the health of humans to a state of perfection on which humans are destined (it is in their own nature) and that means to be deified (elevated to God rang). The human owns this perfection from his creation first because of his spiritual abilities, particularly the intelligence as an “imitation of God’s intelligence that gives him the ability to know their creator, and also because of this free will created on the same image like the one of God and that make him be able to orientate all of his being to Him. Finally, the desiring’s and loving’s empowerments are as reproduced features in him of the divine charity that allows him to be united to God.
Spiritual discernment is key to achieve that level and that is considered as the charism that the human receives when he gets to the highest level of the ascetic life (what a person should achieve to benefit effectively of God’s Salvation/Eternal felicity). The higher state of health based on the expression of the natural human perfection is built on three aspects: the impassiveness (defeat all passions to restore all virtues), the charity (love for God and others based on own love build on a spiritual way to feel in the UNITY) and the knowledge (about reach the knowledge of the True that is linked to a higher level of contemplation and humility).
- Build the conscious elevation for a meaningful life
- Intelligence, self-awareness, and consciousness
Intelligence is the ability to know, to understand how things work, to anticipate or adapt to a situation or an environment. Then, that is naturally based on the awareness of everything.
Self-awareness is the ability to see yourself clearly and objectively through reflection and introspection. That is based on consciousness. This is a distinctive feature of humanity (11).
Consciousness is a form of reflexivity that goes beyond the immediate perception of things. That is as reprocessing of the perceived information. This form of consciousness is linked to the size of the brain and it could be concluded then, it is linked to the level of intelligence.
- Consciousness levels and the growth journey to go beyond the purpose
“Bridging the gap between our deficiency needs and our growth needs is the transformation level of consciousness. This is where we begin to release the limiting fear-based beliefs we learned during our formative years and start to align our ego motivations with our soul motivations. …
It is important to understand that when people or groups operate from the first three levels of consciousness, their sense of well-being will always be linked to the gratification of their deficiency needs. Only when they have learned how to satisfy and master these needs are their minds free to focus on the gratification of their transformation and growth needs.
We achieve well-being at the transformation level when we find freedom and autonomy to be who we really are. We achieve well-being in the upper levels of consciousness when we find meaning and purpose to our lives through self-expression; when we feel we can make a difference in the lives of others through connection; and when we can be of service to our family, community, country or the well-being of the Earth through contribution.
To achieve Full-Spectrum well-being, we must learn to satisfy our deficiency needs, our transformation needs, and our growth needs. (12)”
By coaching support, we can support the clients regarding their needs to activate their engagement to elevate their consciousness and connect them with their life purpose. Depending on the development level of the personal, but to go out of a victim mode would be key to help them to act responsibly.
Angela Lee Duckworth (13) has shown how the GRIT is the key to the achievements or success of the people, more than the talent. That represents the high passion and determination for long-term goals that should be explored with the client as a base in the consciousness improvement process. Creating the shift of perspectives in terms of having positives reactions is key regarding the obstacles and failures that happen to maintain a learning dynamism and a strong connection with the long-term goals and the ability to transform dreams into reality.
When we work on the improvement of the relationship consciousness, the reinforcement of emotional intelligence (EI) is helpful. Daniel Dan Goleman in his 1996 book (14) of the same name that EI refers to the ability to know our feelings and manage our emotions, and recognize the feelings of others. “These abilities are vitally important to your success since they determine how well you know yourself, how well you cope with all that happens to you, and how well you deal with others. The more emotionally attuned you are to your feelings and those of people around you, the more appropriately you can respond. Responding empathetically, appropriately, and thoughtfully has important consequences in our relationships and in resolving challenges.”
According to the following results of a recent survey, emotional intelligence become also a key skill that is necessary for workplaces:
We can support the consciousness improvement on the way to understand, to communicate on an adult to adult (transactional analysis) way by using actively more the rational brain instead of the limbic brain that slides us in a reactive behavior based on emotion. The idea is to support the client to respond without judgments and negatives emotions in the different situations of their life (be able also to give positive feed-back, being grateful, know to acknowledge, being able to exceed boundaries constructively). It is also on another dimension a question of being able to act with empathy for others without falling in a persecutor or rescuer or victim way of reacting (Drama triangle of Krapman).
When we work on self-esteem, it would be necessary to make the distinction from self-confidence to be able to support efficiently the growth of self-esteem (15). “ “Esteem” is derived from the Latin estimate, meaning “to appraise, value, rate, weigh, estimate,” and self-esteem is our cognitive and, above all, emotional appraisal of our own worth. More than that, it is the matrix through which we think, feel, and act, and reflects and determines our relation to ourselves, to others, and the world. People with healthy self-esteem do not need to prop themselves up with externals such as income, status, or notoriety, or lean on crutches such as alcohol, drugs, or sex. On the contrary, they treat themselves with respect and take care of their health, community, and environment. (…)”Confidence” comes from the Latin fidere, “to trust.” To be self-confident is to trust in oneself, and, in particular, in one’s ability or aptitude to engage successfully or at least adequately with the world. A self-confident person is ready to rise to new challenges, seize opportunities, deal with difficult situations, and take responsibility if and when things go away. Self-confidence leads to successful experience, so successful experience leads to self-confidence. A coach will support the accountability of the clients regarding their own goals and the actions to achieve. The inner and outer purpose of life of the client would become clearer (16)
Conclusion
The coach will be a strategic partner that will support people to increase their abilities to define and implement the strategies for their necessary evolutions. This development journey requires frequently some transformations. Meditations techniques would be a useful tool also for the inner journey by which the power of the brain will be able to activate what may, in the beginning, looks like impossible.
When coaches support the process of how individuals work deeply on their inner self, their inner purpose, it would be beneficial to avoid the reinforcement of a kind of individualism. The idea is to adopt the right approach to support individuals in their development but at the same time their connection with other individuals and more generally the rest of the universe. Being able to support the quality improvement of the “social link” between people in a meaningful way particularly in the digitalization context and pandemic challenges would serve better the “collective”, the humanity. Ensure that all individuals are deeply and authentically engaged in the new “Purpose-driven organizations” would give another purpose to the business and the economy from a more macroscopic point of view. Then future of the humanity may be seen with a better perspective.
The stakes related to the development of high-quality coaching services that can be offered to the whole of humanity are then obvious from an individual and collective point of view. Is it not the purpose to finally increase the true worth of humanity and to create deep enthusiasm for our future?
Resources
New leadership models for the VUCA world – Thorsten Mannherz – 2017
Joël de Rosnay – Je cherche à comprendre : Les codes cachés de la nature – 2016
Joël de Rosnay – Surfer la vie : comment sur-vivre dans la société fluide – 2012
Patrick Burensteinas – De la Matière à la Lumière – Pierre philosophale, modèle du monde – 2009
Wikipedia’s definition of the Philosopher’s stone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher%27s_stone
La langue des oiseaux – La vie secrète des mots – 2020
Becomingsupernaturel – Joe Dispenza
The Shift: Taking Your Life from Ambition to Meaning – Dr. Wayne W. Dyer – 2010
Mental Disorders & Spiritual Healing: Teachings from the Early Christian Eastern – Jean-Claude Larchet
org
https://www.barrettacademy.com/7-levels-of-consciousness
TED Conference – GRIT: The power of passion and perseverance – Angela Lee Duckworth
Goleman, Daniel: Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ, 2009, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (electronic publication)
www.bloomsbury.com/danielgoleman
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201510/self-confidence-versus-self-esteem?amp
“A New Earth – Awakening to your Life’s purpose”-Eckhart Tolle
(2005).