The limits of Self-Work
The limits of Self-Work
When we ceaselessly travel between different stations of change without constructing new frames of self, we render advice as anemic. Passing change without integrating it is letting life pass you by. Being mindful, listening to meaning, and self-actualizing are all the same.
Ambient fitting in stops self-actualization. It stops us from asking what more is there, and we are reluctant to be curious about ourselves.
Mindfulness, meaning-seeking, and self-actualization are all forms of curiosity fueled by a more profound sense of imagination about life, knowing that there is always more than a given configuration.
When we are curious, we listen to the world by sensing ourselves. The process results in self-knowledge, and processing and integration lead to new ways of being.
The crux of this process involves curiosity + opinions. Without opinions, curiosity is useless. Opinions could be felt and embodied, but enrolling others is impossible without language.
Since all economic activity involves others, it will render the meaning we see recreational and inaccessible for integration (ways of being, ways of being in service of others). Ideally, we can keep meaning-seeking activities in sync with economic activities; language-seeking practice must be part of this personal ritual.
A highly intuitive practitioner might be successful but will not know why, nor would they be able to stir externalities. It is the language that allows for the micro movements necessary to stir situations. Self-authorship is authorship frames of sensing the world and the places where we meet others. Being in a place of sensing without the optionality to the author is a frustrating place, where we can imagine another way but have no access to write a plan for it.
The limits of Self-Work was originally published in I Know Myself on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.