Sometimes I will ask a client “bigger questions”, such as…
- Why do you do things, like, get up in the morning?
- How do you see “existence”?
- How do you understand yourself in the universe?
Most often I find answers that astound the philosopher in me.
“I don’t know” is common.
“Because I have to pay the bills.”
“For my family.”
“I want to have a good life.”
and similar replies are also quite common.
The philosopher in me wants to prod them, in a way, try to get them to see the importance of thinking the “big” thoughts, to get out of their “small” way of living.
….and actually, there are ‘philosophical counselors’ who might use such prodding in the attempt to get a client to think differently about existence. This is a viable therapeutic endeavor, and Sometimes, if the client seems open in that way, I might go there too.
But where I might appreciate the philosopher in me, and feel good about the self-righteousness he purports everywhere another person has a different experience, I love the counselor in me, which helps me to love the person in front of me, and appreciate their wisdom.
philosophy is more
As many a philosopher will tell you,
philosophy is the love of wisdom
What turns me off, and what has brought me hesitation in using even the word ‘philosophy’ in every day talk, is that the word usually is understood to be synonymous with ‘intelligence’ meaning ‘smart’ meaning ‘definition broker’ and that this world somehow has crept into academic circles and teaching to mean ‘the intellectual process of critique’.
Often It is not difficult to agree with me here — that philosophy implies all those things— if you simply reflect upon your own thoughts and the world around you where the term ‘philosophy’ shows up. Tell me you don’t imagine a certain insinuation of dense abstract concepts.
What I notice there is missing is love.
Or,
It misses significance because the love is always being mistranslated into diverting conjugations such as ‘love of being smart’ or ‘the love of proving that I am right’, or ‘the love of showing off my intelligence’.
These are all fine, of course, and have their place, but I feel they degrade what philosophy is in-itself.
So it is I love counseling and mental health because it is the place where the love of wisdom actually shows up as intelligence and love, together, for its object wisdom. The wisdom of people.
you, life and experince
When I ask clients about if they ever think of ‘bigger things’ (like above), indeed I am suggesting – however indirectly – that having a ‘bigger’ reason for doing things could be helpful to their plight, and for relieving their problem.
Some would say this is Existentialist Therapy, and perhaps Existential therapists might ask people about these aspects, but I think it is simply sensible, existential or not.
This is because often the reason a person is getting up in the morning because they have a family to support (for example) is indeed the bigger picture, but they simply are not seeing it as such.
This can be an issue because partly it suggests that they were taught that they do not want to think or that they are not supposed to think, that is, anything ‘bigger’ than material tasks. Or maybe even more debilitating, that they are not smart enough, or not worthy even to ponder and be engaged with the ‘bigger questions’.
Often we are taught to automatically, thoughtlessly, mindlessly, create a life where philosophy is degraded as an experiential aspect.
When this is the Way to live, then the person becomes the experience of being degraded.
However, because philosophy never is removed from life, love, and intelligence, it is necessarily already a part of a person’s experience of every life.
…but to not recognize this can lead to mental problems.
seek
Perhaps this post has opened a part of you that you were unsure about or how to make sense of.
If you feel you want to explore more thoroughly the limits and greatness of your self and life in your daily doing, or even be facilitated in the pondering of ‘bigger questions’ then reach out to me.
I might be able to help you to some clarity through what can often seem feel like a grey cloud.
agencymatters.org
You are mattering…
…Open up to reality.