In the context of Life Therapy Education, being human has a specific meaning. We are living holons and narratives. That means we are both points and lines and particles and waves at the same time.
It means that we are not just a soul in a body. Neither are we just a type of mortal animal. These beliefs underestimate what it means for us to be human. We are so much more!
We Humans are Living Holons
We are living holons: whole beings consisting of smaller holons and participating in larger holons. For example, inside us, we have a natural animating force that makes and keeps us alive: our human spirit. It’s centered in our chest, behind our breastbone. Its anatomy consists of smaller holons. Our spirit’s smaller holons include its—
- Aspirations toward life, health and the happiness of realizing our dreams and joys
- Basic instincts that direct us to do what keeps us alive: breathe, drink, eat, etc.
- Emotions that inform us about what we’re experiencing and fuel our responses
- Inner wordless knowing that guards and guides us
- Character type: sweet spirited, mean spirited, etc.
Our human spirit animates our body, mind, and relationships with others. Without the animating force of our spirit, we would not be alive. Our body and mind would not function, and we would not have relationships with others.
Inside our body we have smaller holons called organs. Depending on how they’re counted, we have from 78 to over 100 organs. Each organ consists of many smaller holons. Our body and all its smaller holons are alive to physical sensations like seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting. It’s alive to feeling calm, pleasure, and pain.
We also have a mind with smaller holons such as thoughts, judgments, beliefs, memories, and imaginings, These holons consist of even smaller holons in our mind.
Beyond Our Holonic SpiritBodyMind
Each one of us is a unique human spiritbodymind in relationships with others. Our relationships are our living connections with individual humans, animals, plants, as well as earth, water, wind, and fire holons.
As holonic beings, we also participate in and connect with larger living holons outside us, for example, the holons of our families, communities, states, regions, countries, hemispheres, and planet Earth as well as the sun, moon, planets, stars, and all that is.
We Humans are Living Narratives
Our spirited lives are also narratives we create one action at a time. We received no script to memorize. We had no rehearsal. We only have one attempt to live our lives. We never know what a day will bring. Our only option is to improvise. We’re all improvising the stories of our lives as best we can.
However, we do have guidance. Our human spirit’s aspirations and inner guardian and guide direct us toward fulfilling our life-affirming desires and realizing our dream and joy. That’s what we’re all here to do.
We Are Limited Beings
As human beings our knowledge, skill, energy, and capacity are limited. We have limited knowledge. We develop only a limited number of skills. Our energy is also limited. When it runs low, we need time to recover. Likewise, our limited capacity allows us to take on only so much each day.
As human beings, our very lifetime is limited. We can die at any moment. We don’t know how much time we have. We only know we have no time to waste.
When we die our human spirit dissipates into the wind. Our body decays and returns to the earth. And our psyche flies free. However, since we are holonic beings, our relationships remain. Those who love us still love us after we die, and we still love them too. We can still connect with each other because our love never dies.
Each One of Us Humans is Unique, Has a Purpose, and is Improvising
We humans aren’t just rare. We’re so much more. Each one of us is a unique, here-and gone, once-in-forever human being of inestimable worth.
We naturally aspire toward life, health, and the happiness of realizing our individual life-affirming dreams and joys. Realizing our dreams and joys is why we are alive and here. As we realize our life-affirming dreams and joys, we make the whole world more wonderful.
As we aspire toward realizing our dreams and joys, we never know what we will face each day. We experience both pleasure and pain, and triumph and tragedy.
Since we don’t know what we’ll face each day until it happens, we must improvise. As we improvise the narrative of our lives, we do well to focus on doing the best we can given all our human limitations. Each day our best varies.
We do well to go with our natural aspirations to live healthy, happy lives and realize our dreams. When we do this, we make the whole world more wonderful.