Overview of Primal Injunctions in Adversity
enable awareness and a functioning that is inherently beneficial for:
- the self and others,
- groups, society and culture
- humanity.
It is rather easy to be virtuous when life is easy. It becomes far harder when everything starts going wrong, stresses pile up, and temptations emerge. So must come to the fore in adversity. But this phrasing perhaps avoids recognizing that adversity of some sort is our normal state of affairs.
This brief review Topic, whose contents are surely rather obvious, provides examples only.
Get Enjoyment: RH"L1
Remain cheerful by finding a cause for cheer, laughing at difficulties, entertaining others, or seeing the funny side.
Negative: Mope!
Hold Ideals: RH"L2
Bring your values to bear and seek the best solution all round, not the most expedient, or the most profitable. See the crisis as valuable, possibly as an opportunity to learn or to strengthen yourself further.
Negative: Despair!
Become Aware: RH"L3
Consider many aspects of the situation and apply diverse perspectives. Analyse and foresee by noting risks and checking opportunities. Listen to others as well as yourself, recognizing your own limitations, biases, needs and feelings.
Negative: Deny!
Care About Others: RH"L4
Accept responsibility so as to maximize your ability to consider others while managing your situation. Regard the adversity as an additional reason to care about others both in small and large ways.
Negative: Ignore!
Do Your Best: RH"L5
Re-double your efforts, heighten your concentration, envisage new solutions, mobilize more resources, see new opportunities, bring additional capabilities into play.
Negative: Give up!
Heed What's Right: RH"L6
Ensure that your moral principles are your guide at all times. If you recognize overwhelming force, find ways to go with the flow. If you are part of a group, respect its choices rather than free-riding or creating dissension. If you cannot support the group, leave it.
Negative: Defy!
See Unity: RH"L7
Seeing unity can help you cope better because you won't waste energy on blaming or victim-thinking or fantasies of revenge. If you see how this adversity is similar to others you have overcome, you may find strength. If you see the adversity as part of a bigger picture including yourself and your activities, then you may find inspiration. If you stick together with others who are involved, you are in a stronger position. If you see adversity as woven into life's fabric, you are more likely to regard it as just another challenge—and it too will pass.
Negative: Split!
- Consider how relating to the world oscillates as the hierarchy is descended or ascended.
Originally posted:16-Nov-2012