Many Minds
Use The Heartwood Path To Develop Your Multiple Intelligences.
Photo by Exelsius Adam, Pixels.com.
To begin to think about conspicuous consumption, commune with nature,* and consider the importance of money beyond a basic threshold of material comfort and whether acquiring excess stuff is a symptom of insecurity and an inappropriate strategy for lowering your dissatisfaction.
Key Assertions
One’s intellect is not fixed at birth but can be developed.
A person’s overall intelligence cannot be measured accurately by a typical IQ test because such tests only measure a person’s mathematical and verbal reasoning skills.
Work to develop all of your multiple intelligences: logical/ mathematical; verbal/ linguistic; spatial /mechanical; musical—music is sensual and spiritual nourishment; bodily/ kinesthetic; interpersonal/social; and intrapersonal/ self-knowledge.
Devote your intellect to more than acquiring things.
One’s intellect is not fixed at birth. Intelligence can be developed. A person’s overall intelligence, however, cannot be measured accurately by a typical IQ test because such tests only measure a person’s mathematical and verbal reasoning skills. We all have multiple intelligences: logical/mathematical; verbal/linguistic; spatial/mechanical; musical—music is sensual and spiritual nourishment; bodily/kinesthetic; interpersonal/social; and intrapersonal/self-knowledge. Work to develop each of them.
Sometimes I wonder if, by having some many ways of thinking, our multiple intelligences lead us to gather that odd and unneeded collection of stuff most of us deal with only when changing homes. I, for example have a ton of books to occupy my linguistic mind, an ever-disappearing collection of tools for my mechanical mind, a huge collection of drums for my musical mind, and various balls, bats, canoes, and bikes for my bodily mind. Does the results of my acquisitiveness really reflect my intelligence? Does it show a marked lack of proper thinking? Besides thinking about all your “priceless heirlooms” and assorted junk, engage in the follow activity to test your feelings about your possible planet-burdening tendency to over-acquire.
Photo by Meriç Tuna,Pexels.com.
HumaNatureConnect Activity
Recording Your Impressions About Materialism
For this activity, delve deep within regarding your own personal response to what Eric Lambin calls “the screen of material artifacts” (Lambin, 2012, p. 12).
“ . . . beyond a threshold of basic material comfort, money does not buy happiness” (Lambin, 2012, p. 12).
“The relentless pursuit of an accumulation of material goods leaves very little time to devote oneself to that which truly creates happiness” (Lambin, 2012, p. 12).
In your journal record your impressions of these two quotes and describe what you think about the role of materialism in your quest for happiness?
Photo by Ellie Burgin,Pexels.com.
Nocturnal Pilgrimage
Dreams “function as imaginal medicines that can be used in the treatment of physical disease symptoms . . . as an adjunct to regular medical treatment” (Aizenstat, 2009, p. 189). We will show you how to work with dreams in this way later. For now, stick with tending to your dreams everyday.
