TA practice - A great tool for growing in self awareness.

Transactional Analysis (TA) practice  is a great tool for growing in self awareness. TA theory was developed by Dr. Eric Berne in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He developed the theory from his training in psychoanalysis, learning experiences from his patients, and his wide and deep reading and travel. In spite of the depth of the concepts he was explaining, he used very commonplace and simple terms to explain the concepts. This lead to evolution of simple tools and models to understand the human mind. This in turn has made it easy for everyone (the sophisticated academicians as well as common persons and even patients with psychiatric problems) to practice the models and tools developed by the theory. In the 50th year of his best selling book 'Games People play' I am making an effort to reflect on this eidetic theory and edifying models & tools developed by this theory for personal growth and development.

Self Awareness

Much of our social behaviors are guided by unconscious motivations. They are beyond our awareness. As a result many of us live in the 'then and there' than in the 'here and now'. Especially the problems experienced in our social interactions are results of this kind of living. If we are able to get in touch with our unconscious (including preconscious and  subconscious) motivations we will be able to understand the problems we experience and ways to get out of them. The more we do that the deeper we are able to understand ourselves. With consistent practice the better we will be oriented to the 'present' or function in the 'here and now'. Here is a tool to begin the practice!

The PAC model of Personality and Structural Analysis of Mind.

The difficulty to understand the human mind has been considerably reduced by the PAC model developed by Dr. Berne ( Berne E (1961) Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy, Grove press, New York). This model speaks of the mind having three basic parts. The Child part that feels, thinks and behaves like children: the Adult part that feels, thinks and behaves like rational grown ups: the Parent part that feels, thinks and behaves like any one of the parenting figures a person has experienced. At any given moment every human being will be functioning from any one of this aspect of the mind which has been technically named as 'ego states'. Structural Analysis is the process of understanding the structure of our feelings, thoughts and behaviors using this frame work. An effort to understand ourselves using this tool is easy and rewarding. This can be done intuitively or using  an objective questionnaire developed for the same. As soon as one starts doing this, thoughts starts getting organized and one gets a new language to communicate about internal experiences. This is the beginning of regaining of awareness about  our motivations. Consistently practicing this, and experimenting this in contractual groups helps moving forward in this awareness. This is the basic learning in any experiential TA training programs. More on this later.

Self Help and Self Awareness for Abundant Living

Earlier, I wrote about abundant living and also self awareness practice. Today I am making an effort to understand  abundance experience and connect the same with self awareness practice. I am also exploring here how one can help himself/herself to achieve this. Self help is the personal responsibility of each individual to self awareness.
Though the law of nature is abundance many of us are brought up in a belief system of 'scarcity'. This is probably because there have been times of material scarcity in history due to various reasons. Experiencing material scarcity while growing up may cause an attitude of scarcity in the lives of people because that is the reality of everyday life they were experiencing. I am making an effort here to  explore the attitude of abundance versus scarcity. Now, it is important to understand how attitudes develop in humans. Attitudes are  learned from the conditioning experiences one goes through. They are not hardwired in the genes (for that matter today's understanding is that even the hardwire of the genes is not so hard! They might be altered over a few generations of interaction with environment!!) So a child brought up in times of material scarcity by parents who were poor in resources may have internalized a concept of scarcity internally as well as externally. Economists explain every situation of material scarcity using the demand Vs availability equilibrium.
The theory of hungers in TA (http://www.claudesteiner.com/tainfo.htm) explains the desire for recognitions that every human mind has. This hunger of the mind is as real as hunger for food that the physical body experiences. The child that is brought up with plenty of recognitions grows with plenty of self affirmations and an attitude of abundance internally. On the other hand when recognitions are scarce child learns to compete for available recognitions in order to survive! This is the cause of the power plays and negativity seeking that is rampant among humans. However as the child grows up s/he is free to acknowledge himself/herself or seek recognitions from wherever available. This requires awareness about one's internal experience whether it is one of scarcity or abundance. Once this awareness happens one can take proactive steps to change this by self recognition and seeking recognition in healthy ways. This is self help! This will lead to an experience of self affirmation and abundance attitude inside. Thus self awareness leads to self help in seeking what is required. When abundance come internally it will flow out externally also. The moment this change happens inside immediately competition dies out & s/he can experience sufficiency everywhere. It is possible to enhance and strengthen this experience through self awareness practices and mutual affirmation (stroking in TA language) practices. Research in neurology on mirror neurons explain the neurophysiology of this phenomenon (http://www.allsouls.ox.ac.uk/users/heyesc/Celia's%20pdfs/9%202014%20Cook%20et%20al%20BBS.pdf).
Affirmations or appreciation for whatever s/he is  from the people around  strengthens experience of internal abundance. Self reflection using appropriate tools to understand ourselves better followed by affirming the positivity in the other human beings around us is the key to abundance in living. Even though it is all about self awareness and self help we need the people around to practice these.
At SHALOM we strive to practice this in the training groups! This leads to self helped experience of abundant living as persons and professionals! More on this later.

Abundant Living at SHALOM

"Abundant Living" is a phrase taken from the Bible (John 10:10). It is used here to explain the quality of spiritual life and how to achieve the same. It is basically about being truthful to oneself and life around which will reflect the abundance nature has provided.

Transactional Analysis (TA) is a practice of an edifying theory based on certain universal principles like the basic "okayness" of every human being and ability of a healthy brain to think, make or change decisions. These principles also reflect the abundance naturally available to humans! Stimulus hunger and stroke hunger derived from stimulus hunger is a central concept in TA theory. All life forms require some kind of stimulation to survive and life forms endowed with a nervous system even more so. When the nervous system is as highly evolved as in the case of humans there are various ways in which stimuli may be given and received that are also highly evolved. In nature, stimulations are many like the coming and going of light, a light breeze, a comfortable shift in temperature etc. They are abundantly present and when a person is open to feel and receive them he/she experiences the abundance in nature!

A simple touch, a loving gaze or a sincere act of appreciation for something done well are all common ways of positive stimulation among human beings. These are the building blocks of human relationships! To experience the abundance of human living it is essential to have plenty of such positive exchanges. However many of us seem to be at a loss to practice this positive exchanges. Human beings seem to be in competition for resources. Competition spoils relationships. As a result the free flow of positive stimulation among humans dwindles. Lack of positive exchanges results in  scarcity experience and more competition. This leads to seeking negatives which may be better than not having any stimulation. This gets cyclically reinforced through repeated behavior or habit formations. Gradually it becomes so hard for persons to see the good in others and support it. This comes to stay as a vicious cycle that perpetuates itself leading to 'scarcity 'experience as against the natural law of 'abundance'. Claude Steiner a pioneer TA  scientist and colleague of Eric Berne has elaborated this concept. Anyone who desires a deeper understanding on this may refer to his writings on 'power play in humans' (http://www.claudesteiner.com/osp.htm)

Re-experiencing and regaining of abundance in life is possible!!

To re experience abundance, the vicious cycle needs to be broken. Old habits must be unlearned and new habit of finding the good in others and promoting it must be practiced. This can be learned through TA training. Self analysis and physical relaxation practices in the training enables one to rediscover the okayness in oneself and others. This in turn strengthens the self, and helps one to  realize one’s own power. The new learned habits become second nature. This leads to re experience of abundance in relationships. This is precisely what abundant living is about. At SHALOM the emphasis of training is centered on the theme of 'abundance'.