The worst of something will often put us in touch with its opposite…By seeing people being mistreated, we see the pleasure of treating others as we would want to be treated.
Kurt Lewin did work with this notion in the 1930’s. Interest has
been rekindled regarding this way of making sense out of our thinking process in today’s world of war and misinformation. The innocent 46,000 Palestinian men, women and children who have been killed in Gaza in the last 15 months, requires our coming to terms with the horror of this inhuman behavior.
In today’s political world in the United States, Contrast Effect is beginning to become a talking point in relation to Trump and the Mega group as they begin to tout the mass deportation of migrants, in the discontinuing of Social Security and Medicare, the raising of taxes on the average citizen to off-set the cutting of taxes for the wealthy and their outright lies and conspiracy theories.
As people suffer, the ways of doing away with such suffering can become more evident within our communities, and why might this be so? The Dali Lama has written something that speaks to who we are in our very essence. He writes, ‘Whether one is rich or poor, educated, or illiterate, religious or nonbeliever, man, or woman, black, white, or brown, we are all the same. Physically, emotionally, and mentally we are all equal. We all share basic needs of food, shelter, safety, and love. We all aspire to happiness, and we all shun suffering. Each of us has hopes, worries, fears, and dreams. Each of us want the best for our family and loved ones. We all experience pain when we suffer loss and joy when we achieve what we seek. On this fundamental level, religion, ethnicity, culture, and language makes no difference.’
Within each of us lives an essence of awareness and compassion.
Jon Kabat-Zinn has written ‘When we are truly present, in the now, our natural state of being is to be compassionate, to feel empathy with another person or living thing.’
I find myself put in touch with my essence in relation to animals who are in distress and need. There are commercials that present starving dogs, who have been abandoned, trembling in the cold. When I see these commercials, I want to hug our two Rhodesian Ridgebacks and promise them that they will never be abandoned, again. This is a simple example of Contrast Effect.
By our experiencing the worst, we can be put in touch with our essence and begin to heal what we see before us. This is a natural process that takes place within us and can bring us back to the present moment that connects us with our compassion and caring nature.
Wishing you a Happy New Year
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