Self-nurturing is easier if we have a history of being nurtured by our own parents. If not, we are more challenged. Religious folks can use the power of prayer to access and bathe in God’s love. Others require more evidence for their beliefs. In the absence of faith in the love of an invisible God, a secular approach to self-soothing is required. If we have a history of abuse, rejection, or other experiences that have led us to internalize negativity, resulting in rejection of our self, self-nurturance is a bigger challenge. The inner-child approach is one route through this dark forest. By tapping our capacity to nurture those we love, particularly our own children, we can access our nurturance skills and apply them to our self, developing self-compassion.
Read MoreMany religious leaders talk as if religion has a monopoly on morality, and that one cannot act morally in the absence of religious belief. But despite religious press to the contrary, most atheists, and even some primates, are capable of acting quite morally. And the notion of objective morality, pre-woven into the fabric of reality, and monitored by an eye in the sky, may be seductive as a means of inducing social compliance, but is compliance really morality? Furthermore, morality comes from within, regardless of whether it initially comes from above (from God), or from around us (socially). And it starts out emotionally, not cognitively. In the words of the primatologist, Frans de Wall (2013), who studied morality in other mammals, morality is “bottom up, not top down.” Join us for a discussion of objective versus subjective, religious versus secular, and proactive versus reactive morality.
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