Managing Debt For Use Of Self
When the intervener is in survival, the intervener cannot see.
Demanding provision from a system that is itself made up of depleted individuals is likely a futile and hope-depleting endeavour. Wisdom would have it that we respond with not more demands, but more self-care; to replenish our own personal systems such that we do not incur more debt on behalf of the system. And this I must say is surely an act of love; for after over 20 years of meeting the needs of people in all levels of systems, I can tell you that this is a courageous and selfless act that is rare, and made even more difficult when our systems do not reciprocate.
Interventions should restore abundance to the system. This requires that the intervener is also in a state of abundance to be able to give, only possible by managing the following types of debt:
Somatic debt: sleep, exercise, diet, ritual.
Emotional debt: moods affect our adaptability when we know longer experience a wide range of Emotions, but a predictable response to similar situations.
The easiest way of dealing with this is to adopt temporary coping mechanisms. Since they only stop emotional spending and don’t restore reserves, they can bring barrenness to a system if they become permanent.
Language: pay attention to your linguistic experience and how you describe and assess the world. How you describe work, relationships or anything else shapes the experience and how much perceived debt you’re in.
Optimism or a belief in pronoia, are powerful linguistic interventions into our own psyche and sense of provision. Actively offering, requesting and declaring also can dramatically change our experience of abundance in the world.
References:
- For a great summary of this, see From Citizen to Change Activist — Through the Concept of Use of Self by Tong Yee, published on page 26 of Organization Development Review Volume 52 No. 1. This is where most of the quotes here were taken from.
