Hi Everybody,
Really busy today so I'm going to leap straight into it. We're looking at some of the latest ' guidance,' understanding, knowledge, perceptions....call it what you will...that has emerged from really interesting sociological studies over the past couple of decades, about how we can create a consistent sense of well-being in our lives, and how closely, amazingly closely, that understanding chimes with what we learn from Buddhist teachings. so we've looked briefly at altruism and gratitude, and today we look at the importance of focusing on our strengths, rather than being misled by our weakness. The book takes up the story...
' The researchers talk of the immense value of coming to know more clearly what our real strengths are, and being completely honest to ourselves about our weaknesses, which is essential they argue, in developing a far more effective life strategy. far better they say, to focus our energies and our plans around our strengths, rather than being constantly anxious about our weaknesses, or beating ourselves up over them, or worse, trying to paper over them as if they didn't exist!
That rings true doesn't it? We know full well that we often devote so much time and energy,worrying about and somehow trying to compensate for our weaknesses, that it deflects us from what we really want to achieve for ourselves. Whereas we are much better placed in building our lives around what we know we are good at, and where we have a strong base of self-confidence. This immensely practical kind of self-knowledge is one of the things that Buddhism is referring to when it talks about our innate wisdom, or being true to ourselves. It's our honesty with ourselves that enables us to respond more capably and more creatively to the events we encounter in all the various sectors of our life. It can certainly have the most powerful underlying effect on our sense of confidence and self-worth, since we all want to be seen and valued as capable and resourceful people.
Professor Ruut Veenhoven for example, from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, one of the most highly res[ected teachers in this field, talks of the immense value of this kind of utterly practical, down-to-earth self-awareness. He argues that one of the least talked-about secrets of a sense of well-being, is learning to be comfortable with who we really are, and what our qualities are; as he puts it, learning to love the life we have.
It's a view that ties in so closely with what we have just been talking about, in relation to gratitude, and appreciation for what we have, as opposed to spending our energies yearning for what we simply want.
That's it for this episode. Next time around we talk about the crucial importance to our sense of well-being of really trying to live in the now.
Keep reading! Keep smiling!
See you next time.
William
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