Yesterday the topic was self-doubt and ideas about ways to find more self-acceptance. I have been thinking off and on about this blog since posting it and several further questions have come to mind. Do we really need to go searching for self-acceptance is a question that I have? Isn't self-acceptance what we are born with and society conditions that out of us? How come we humans spend the first 6 to 12 years learning to doubt who we are and then the rest of our lives trying to reclaim our natural belief in self? Is there something wrong with this process?
If our parents didn't feel ok with who they were, wouldn't they teach us not to feel ok with who we are? If schools are based on success and failure then wouldn't many people feel like they are a failure or at least not very good? If churches are built on the ideas of sin and guilt wouldn't we be trained to feel like we are wrong or not ok? I ask these questions because it seems to me that something is wrong if our major influences are focused on the negatives of being human rather than on the positives.
Imagine a world where: parents believed in themselves and loved their children unconditionally without the need to make them feel bad; a world where schools only taught children how to succeed in whatever topic they were studying and the need for grades disappeared in favor of growing healthy self-accepting young people; a world where churches only taught the lessons of a loving and compassionate God who only wanted the best for all human beings. Could it be that we human have gotten it all wrong and that if we straighten out our thinking, our education and our beliefs then all of this could be cleared up?
As a professional that has worked in the fields of psychology, mental health, addictions and education for over 35 years, I would say it is time to make major shifts in how we teach our children. If we start now the next generation of parents will do a much better job at raising healthy human beings.
Education especially early childhood education must develop a curriculum based on teaching children to believe in themselves and to learn at the pace they need to be successful. If there are children failing then the system is a failure.
Religious education is based on a set of beliefs. Many of these beliefs need to be questioned because they are beliefs created by humans who very likely lacked self-acceptance or had some limited notion of who God is. This is the trickiest of the reforms I am suggesting. I encourage everyone to look at the beliefs they have and ask these question: Are the beliefs you have working for you or not? Are your beliefs those of men or Divine in nature? Are those beliefs based on the basic teaching of all religions, the universal teaching of loving your fellow human beings?
Together let’s change the world by encouraging the best in each other.