One of the things I most liked about being an undergraduate student was having moments when I was able to make connections among the various classes I was taking. I remember one semester when I was taking philosophy of art, science and society, Russian history, and Shakespeare--and I had one of those moments. It seemed like all the courses were pointing me in the same direction and toward a single underlying thought that had to do with metaphor as something much bigger than just a rhetorical device.
I've had a similar experience since I've started divinity school. I saw multiple connections between my first two classes--most of them had to do with the role of ritual in perceptual shifts and in a spiritual "opening up." Since I've started making those connections, I tend to see them everywhere.
Yesterday, I attended a work retreat and got to hear a couple of very good speakers.
Barbara Fredrickson, in particular, really had my mind buzzing when she was talking about meditation techniques (especially lovingkindness meditation) that result in a more "positive" outlook and lives that are flourishing. Meditation, for me, is a ritual--sometimes shared and sometimes not--that clearly leads to perceptual shifts and a general opening up.
Fredrickson mentioned that one of the worst things to do is to tell yourself to just "be positive." Instead, it's much more effective to strive to be "open, appreciative, curious, kind and real." That's where it's at, and that's where I hope to keep going. People who are working on being all those things are much better able to work on problems of all sorts, from personal to global in scale. And Fredrickson, because she's a research psychologist, has the hard scientific data to prove it.
