Loomio
Mon 30 Mar 2020 9:59AM

Knowing from the heart - can we re-frame the value of the heart's benevolent qualities at a political level?

LL Louise Livingstone Public Seen by 55

In yesterday's Zoom session, many words were used like "trust", "compassion", "kindness", "empathy", "deep listening". I have recently completed a PhD through which I explored my own relationship with my heart and learnt to listen to my heart's voice. It seems that the way we were talking yesterday points to all the benevolent qualities and characteristics that the heart possesses, and which I engaged with throughout my PhD.

The key problem that my research discovered is that there seems to be an unconscious understanding/belief in our contemporary world that the wisdom and qualities of the heart - that could so readily show us how to engage more heart-fully with the issues we are discussing here - are merely sentimental; holding no value at the political level where important decisions are made. I show that this idea is merely a perspective that is now preventing us from acting practically from the heart and the heart-space.

My research challenges our taken-for-granted assumption that the heart is a biological pump, and therefore any other ideas we might have about the heart are irrelevant or irrational. My research shows clearly that this is merely a perspective that sadly robs us of the possibility of considering the heart, and the heart's qualities, as able to direct us wisely in these challenging times.

I'd love to talk further with any of you who are interesting in questioning our foundational knowledge about the world. I am interested in exploring other ways of knowing that, it could be argued, could be more beneficial to us as we consider ways of moving into our collective future.

AC

Alex Cooper
Agree
Mon 30 Mar 2020 7:01PM

Sounds good. There's a lot of viral fluffy marshmallows out there - nothing wrong with that, but there is a place for grown up considered kindness too.

BAW

Bret A Warshawsky Mon 30 Mar 2020 2:00PM

RE this
Launch series of social media challenges that seek to promote acts of kindness

For example/precedence of this, to possible learn from and/or inspiration-- look up Compassion Games and Jon Ramer

LL

Louise Livingstone Mon 30 Mar 2020 2:14PM

While I agree there is a lot happening in relation to kindness, etc, I still think we need to be clear about where we understand these ideas from. Specifically, if we are understanding kindness, heart, compassion from the level of the discursive intellect, what could we miss? Learning the language and ways of the heart is a completely new way of gaining knowledge about the world - consequently knowing and acting from that place. This is a subtle, yet very big, difference.