We Moodscopers naturally focus on the mind, the thoughts, perhaps the will, and certainly the emotions.

For most ancient civilisations, these faculties dwelt not in the brain but in the heart or even the kidneys. We may laugh at these primitive ideas but science is coming around to an understanding that some of our faculties are distributed throughout the body – the gut brain and serotonin being a good example.

Today, Easter Monday, I’d like to think about the proverbial heart. Of course, I’m influenced by the message of hope that is Easter – new birth, Spring.  What if we were to care for our hearts today? A favourite proverb encourages us to ‘watch over’ our hearts or ‘guard’ our hearts because from the heart flow the ‘issues’ of Life. As a teacher of Motivation, I would say our motivators are ‘issues’ or ‘drivers’ or even ‘forces’.

I believe we’ve got heart issues in the West.  Recent research suggests that our Victorian ancestors had greater speed of perception, perhaps because they weren’t so overwhelmed with stimuli, and perhaps because they had to work harder to get learning. I see 7 perils facing our wellbeing that we could guard against (if you agree!)

1. Comfort – choosing ease over the uncomfortable truth that would set us free. Comfort seems to quietly become king. And yet psychologists warn us that all significant growth begins outside of our comfort zone.

2. Hubris – the quiet certainty that knows all and therefore learns nothing. What a peril this is, and we now see this as overbearing arrogance on the World’s Stage and on a global scale. It is possible to be confident AND humble.

3. Fear – the longing for security that makes us willing to trade truth for safety. This is the fear that stops us, “speaking truth to power.” The UK is particularly prone to this at the moment with what it means to be British being diluted to the point of pointless homogeny.

4. Distraction – filling every silence so that no voice but the Society’s and Social Media can be heard. Where has the love of quiet, silent, reflective time gone?

5. False Community – the tribe that confirms, rather than the fellowship that transforms. Social Media algorithms increasing expose us to more of what confirms our existing biases.

6. False Compassion – false forgiveness emptied of accountability - grace made into a permission to remain unchanged under the guise of ‘acceptance’ and diversity. Sometimes, “you are enough,” becomes an excuse to remain fatally flawed.

7. Religion itself – the mask of ritual that hides a heart no longer burning with love and passion for transformation.

If I were to reduce this down to one challenge to us all for our wellbeing, it would be to shun being comfortable where ‘being comfortable’ means stasis and ceasing to grow. Society and consumerism may be provoking mental ill-health by cosseting us in a velvet cage filled with false abundance. Love is rarely comfortable, and neither is growth. Let’s choose love and truth over comfort and status, remembering that relationships are often messy.

Lex

A Moodscope member