Write A Letter Of Forgiveness
Eco-centric Life Coaches
Human happiness and environmental sustainability are supported or thwarted largely by the maturity level of human society.
A mature society fosters both gladness and the preservation of nature, while an immature society diminishes both.
A “more mature human society requires more mature human individuals” (Plotkin, 2010, p.13). Eco-centric elders, both the volunteers and the life coaches, are such mature individuals. Eco-centric elders work to transform others into whole, mature, and effective individuals.
Write a letter of forgiveness.
The kind of eco-centric elders we seek to develop in this series of Substacks is not those that know best how to extract wealth from the environment or how to teach children to “work the system.” Rather, they know how to foster both human happiness and environmental sustainability. To be able to do this, they will first need to be made “whole, one life stage at a time, by embracing nature and the soul as (their) wisest and most trustworthy guides” (Plotkin, 2010, p.13).
Eco-centric life coaches encourage the expression of forgiveness.
Dr. Cohen’s methodologies and Bill Plotkin’s Wheel of Life will certainly be helpful for this first step. Additional steps include the organizing methods David Brower used to create the world’s environmental movement and the development of eco-self help groups throughout the country (and world).
Eco-centric life coaches remind us that mature society fosters both gladness and the preservation of nature, while an immature society diminishes both.
Through these steps, the eco-centric elders I call “eartHearts” will focus first and most on selfless assistance; second on glory or respect in the community; and lastly, if at all, and if they are professional life coaches, on remuneration. What is needed is a cultural transformation, one that changes materialistic, anthropocentric (human-centered), competition-based, violence-prone, unsustainable, and class-stratified so-called “egocentric” societies into “imaginative, eco-centric, cooperation-based, just, compassionate and sustainable” so-called “soul-centric” societies (Plotkin, 2010, p. 13).
Eco-centric life coaches remind us there is a need for a cultural transformation towards an imaginative, eco-centric, compassionate, and sustainable soul-centric society.
Along with this need, our modern society would benefit from a human development approach that is based not on biological development, or on mental abilities, or on social roles, or on chronological age but rather on a progression that is “spurred by the individual’s progress with the specific psychological and spiritual tasks encountered at each stage” of life (Plotkin, 2010, p. 13).
Eco-centric life coaches also remind us that there is a need for a high level of spiritual development, a drive to stand up to injustice, and helpfulness.
Given how most of us humans in modern society have not developed spiritually up to our own species’ capabilities, we do not only need more average or typical people. We also do not need only those who would be recognized for their hard work and for their ability to satisfy their practical responsibilities.
To increase your well-being, commune with nature, and consider how it will be helpful to be extra kind to a person one has privately forgiven; or, better yet, send a letter of forgiveness.
Instead, we also need a particular sort of human development approach wherein people mature into good examples of what I call “eartHearts” or “eco-secular saints”—that is, visionary people who have the following characteristics:
They are wise.
They have a broad and deep perspective.
They know how to show their gratitude.
They are working to obtain a high level of spiritual development.
They see what needs to be done at both personal and ecological levels.
They stand up to injustice. And
They are easily driven to help others.
We need more people who have developed a mystical relationship with nature.
For this relationship to develop, we need a methodology (Dr. Cohen’s for example) that is used along a purposeful path (the Heartwood Path, for example) and occurs over the course of one’s psychological development that may span over a period of decades (Bill Plotkin’s Wheel of Life, for example). The use of these and other tools are blended in this series of courses in such a way that it will not take the participants decades but rather months to reach a satisfactory level of maturity.
To clear up the psychic space needed to become an effective eco-centric elder (volunteer or paid nature-centered life coach) or to further your journey towards the well-being that is found at Gladandgreen Junction, be sure to, at a minimum, be extra kind to a person you have privately forgiven or, better yet, actually voice your forgiveness. If such an action is daunting, do the following activity.
