The Actualize Philosophy
Part Three: The How of Relating to the World
"The practice of freedom is the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world", Paulo Freire
It would be mistaken to view people as strictly determined by society since we do exercise power and agency in our encounters with the world; and here lies the ground for personal growth and change.
How we respond to the world we're living in is intimately bound up with how we exercise our personal power. If our sense of what is possible is limited by the expectations we have accepted as normal, then then we will only exercise power within that limited range of possibility. If I hold a limiting belief about myself, for example "I'm not the sort of person who can do that", then I wouldn't exercise power in pursuit of whatever it is I've already decided I can't do.
While self-actualization can be inhibited by a range of things, from limiting beliefs to social discourses that marginalise, we have the ability to transform our lives by reframing our relationships, redefining who we are, and changing how we position ourselves in the world. We are always in the process of constructing ourselves and are always able to define who we want to be and how we wish to engage with the world.
If knowledge is power, then knowledge and understanding about our situation can enhance our exercise of personal power. The Actualize Approach’s emphasis on situational analysis is all about gaining a greater insight into your life-situation, to understand the patterns of relationship that characterise your encounters with the world, and to identify the limiting beliefs that are holding you back.
With a greater insight into your relationships (with yourself, with others, and with your world) and with a greater awareness of your personal process, come new possibilities for exercising constructive power and expressing yourself in a way that is meaningful for you...
And, fundamentally, this is what the Actualize Approach aims to help you to do.
Elaborations
"The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination"
Carl Rogers
“Self is always in the process of creation. The individual person is agentive in this creation, rather than determined by social structure”
John Winslade
"All life is interrelated.
All men are caught up in
an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly"
Martin Luther King
