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This article is for people of all religious and
spiritual faiths who minister to others.
This includes (a) the people who train, support, and
evaluate professional clergy, denominational
guidance, regulation, and policies; and all church
members and staff. |
The article invites you to increase your professional satisfaction
and impact on the people you serve. Using your authority and your
heart to prevent the widespread ancestral
of
[psychological
+
from
spreading and continuing to weaken our society. You have
many ways to do this!
Get the most from this article by (a) reading this 5-page
introduction, and (b) honestly
yourself and your family members for psychological wounds. Then (c) see
what you don't know you need to know by taking each of these adult
with an open mind. Then learn about yourself from this...
Premises
See how you feel about these proposals:
-
Most personal and social problems in our
society result from an inherited cycle of psychological wounds and
adult unawareness. Few people are aware of this, so far.
-
Once understood, anyone can reduce or
avoid the toxic effects of this unseen cycle.
-
Human-service providers have a moral
obligation to (a) heal their own wounds and unawareness, and then
(b) help alert other people to the cycle and how to prevent it.
-
Human-services are best spent in stress
prevention vs. reduction, despite little public demand for
that. What percent of your recent work has been spent in stress
prevention?
-
Because of their spirits, social role,
and reputation, lay and
professional ministers have a unique opportunity to help people
break the [wounds + unawareness] cycle and protect future
generations.
Status Check
Reflect - which
are guiding your personality right now? How do they feel about
proactively alerting your co-workers and audience to the [wounds +
ignorance] cycle now? T = "true;" F = "false,' and ?
= "I'm not sure," or "I'm
ambivalent, so far."
-
I can explain _ why families exist, and
_ what a family
is. (T F ?)
-
I can describe _
_ true Self, _ false self, and _
(GWC)" (T F ?)
-
I can _ name the
that average adults need to know, and _ I have quizzed my own
knowledge of each of them. (T F ?)
-
I have honestly
assessed whether false-self wounds and unawareness are harming
me and my family now, and threatening my descendents. (T
F ?)
-
I can describe to an average teen (a)
how the [wounds + unawareness] cycle
the generations, and (b) the main personal and social
of the cycle. (T F ?)
-
I agree that this [wounds + ignorance]
cycle causes most other major social problems (T F ?)
-
I believe that few of the people I serve
and work with are aware of the cycle and its effects. (T
F ?)
-
I have honestly assessed the
nurturance-level of my
work
environment, and am content with what I found (T F
?)
-
I feel solidly motivated to alert my
co-workers and
colleagues to (a) the cycle and (b) what it means to them
personally and professionally now (T F ?)
-
When I'm old, I want the satisfaction of
knowing I helped people guard themselves and their kids from the
impacts of this [wounds + ignorance] cycle. (T F ?)
Notice what your busy subselves are
now. I you didn't answer most of these items "T(rue)," I fear this
article and series will be of little use to you so far.
Your Unique Options
What adjectives come to your mind with the titles minister, priest/ess,
rabbi, pastor, mystic, clergy, guru, monk, nun, and chaplain? Since ancient
times, people have revered and followed the teachings of re-ligious and
holy men and women, and sought their counsel. Other secular people gain
public respect for organizing and maintaining religious communities.
They are usually people of strong
faith.
If you're motivated to help other people cultivate their spiritual
nature and gifts and promote social har-mony and good will, you have a
special opportunity to educate people on the [wounds + unawareness]
cycle. Do you agree?
Imagine all the people you serve directly and indirectly to be assembled
in one place, including family members, friends, and neighbors. Imagine
standing at a podium with a microphone, and addressing these people from
your heart. If you could prevent stress in their and their kids' lives,
would you want to?
You can. Your challenge is to survey all your opportunities to
serve, and select those that will do the most good for the most people.
Locally, regionally, or globally, These can include...
-
teens,
-
courting and divorcing couples,
-
parents, grandparents, and other
nurturers,
-
people seeking psychological and
spiritual health, growth, and serenity, and...
-
your spiritual and religious colleagues.
Because of your spirit and profession, you can offer something of
priceless value to others who (a) are in pain now (like depression,
rage, addiction, loneliness, and fear), and/or (b) want to guard
themselves and their kids from future pain (like divorce and family
dis-integration).
As a therapist and teacher, I've heard countless times from such people
- "This (personality-subself) concept is the best I've found to help me
understand and improve (some major personal, marital, and parental
discomforts). I've searched for years!"
I don't expect you to take my word for this.
I do urge you to
experience the effects of wound-reduction and education in your
own family. Then take advantage of your position as a respected
professional to educate the people you serve and work with
on the [wounds + unawareness] cycle and its preventable effects. Then
show them options for breaking the cycle, and helping others do the same.
The many ways you can do this are summarized
here.
Special Opportunities:
Educate...
Courting
Couples. Unseen
psychological wounds and unawareness of these topics are the root cause
for typical couples making unwise
and eventually
For specific ideas on how to help couples make wise choices and protect
their kids, see
in this Web site. Note that reputable well-researched marriage-prep
services like Prepare/Enrich, FOCCUS, and Relate! do not help
couples learn about and assess for the [wounds + unawareness] cycle in
their ancestors.
Troubled
Couples - if you counsel mates, help them evaluate whether their
relationship problems are symptoms of unseen wounds and
unawareness. Often, this concept - including
- opens up new options and genuine hope for improvement. This is
specially true if you also encourage them to learn to
communicate effectively.
Troubled
Parents and Kids - Most problems between parents and kids are surface symptoms of a mix of these
primary problems.-
all based on adult wounds and
unawareness. Encourage family
adults to...
Troubled
Persons - my 30-year experience as a family-systems therapist is
that a high majority of personal problems like money, loneliness,
addiction, relationships, obesity, "depression," abuse, sleep, and anger
are all surface symptoms of significant wounds + unawareness.
Help people learn and focus on the
latter problems, rather than struggling fruitlessly to reduce their
symptoms!
If you minister to a congregation, you have many ways of educating them
- sermons, adult education programs, seminars, newsletters, the Web,
handouts, and individual counsel. Enlist your Board-member's help. Your
challenge is to balance spreading the Word and secular ministry.
You can invite members of other
congregations and other citizens to join you. Everyone shares a
concern for personal and family well-ness, and guarding future generations.
In particular, assess the
nurturance level of your organization,
and improve it where you can.
Professional
Colleagues - amplify your cycle-breaking impact by enlisting the
help of fellow profes-sionals, locally, regionally, and
inter-denominationally. Each colleague shares the same unique
opportu-nity you do to educate the people they serve and help them
avoid personal and family stress. Invite col-leagues to start by
reading, discussing, and choosing options from this non-profit
prevention series.
Option - refer them to - or copy them on - these
digests for a quick introduction to
key prevention to-pics. Then invite them to read this article, starting
at sfhelp.org/prevent/intro.htm. Then - follow your Self's and
your Higher Power's guidance! For more in-depth information, refer them
to the foundation articles at
http://sfhelp.org/know.htm.
You're welcome to use any of the materials in this non-profit Web site
at no charge, with appropriate attribution. If you elect to help others
Break the Cycle, let me know
your experience!
Recap
This article is one of a series on breaking the inherited [wounds +
unawareness] cycle and preven-ting epidemic family stress and
divorce. The article acknowledges the special opportunity professional
clergy and church administrators have of educating people on (a) the
cycle and it's toxic impacts on their families and descendents, and (b)
what they can do to break the cycle.
+ + +
Pause, breathe, and reflect - why did you read this article? Did you get
what you needed? If not, what
you need? Who's
these questions - your
or
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