WHOLISM AND WHOLISTIC THINKING

 

I have modified the word holistic to wholistic to better capture the spirit of the word when applied to a workplace or a planning or decision-making situation. To look at the WHOLE, is to understand the broadest possible implications and to transcend the details and see the inter-dependencies of the details.

 

The words holistic and health are both derived from the same Anglo-Saxon root, hal, which can mean "whole", "to heal", or "happy".  Further back the Greek word "holos" means "whole".  To take a wholistic perspective means:

 

• Viewing things in their entirety instead of their separate parts

• Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves

• The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

• Seeing the inter-connectedness of "parts" rather than their separateness, for example viewing people as biological,  social, psychological, spiritual beings, if you’re a doctor, rather than just biological

• Anything that affects a component part will affect the other parts and thus the whole and these affects are important

• To take a non-mechanistic perspective

• From a wholistic perspective, the health of a society or a community is related to the health of the individuals in the community.  Further from a wholistic perspective, individual health is directly related to the integration of body, mind, and spirit.

• A wholistic perspective seeks first to see the whole of a situation (people, water, wildlife, etc.) and then decisions are made based on how the whole will be affected by a change to one of the parts.  This contrasts with a linear traditional perspective which is based on focusing and fixing a part in isolation and with no attempt to see the whole.  A wholistic perspective sees the relevant parts as inseparable.  For example the linear view would see communities made up of separate parts, estranged from each other (shopping here, work there, homes another place); whereas the wholistic view would see communities made up of inseparable parts, more like organs of the body.

​

​

 

STEWARDSHIP PRINCIPLES

 

The following principles may be helpful to you in attuning yourself and finding a place of inner balance within yourself:

 

FIRST SEEK TO WALK IN BALANCE EACH DAY:  Seek a place of inner and outer balance in your personal life.  It is difficult to practice your trade or career, and to see a vision of how an agency or organization or group should be in balance unless, one is personally seeking a place of balance.  Your present life reflects your present state of inner balance, if you’re personal outside world is chaotic; this is a reflection of your inner world.  Focus on balancing those aspects of yourself which are clearly in need of personal work.

 

GIVE UP YOUR ATTACHMENT TO THE PAST ESPECIALLY WAYS OF DOING THINGS:  That doesn't mean stop doing them, it just means, see each situation freshly, openly.  Everything is evolving, even the task that was just completed or the goal that was just achieved, is just a step toward the next task or the next goal.  Every moment is fresh and new, appreciate each new moment and do not dwell on the past moments, they are complete.

 

RESPECT EACH HUMAN BEINGS SOVEREIGNTY, IT IS AS IMPORTANT AS YOUR OWN SOVEREIGNTY:  Respect your own sovereignty.  Observe your tendencies to control what people say, or interrupt them, or to change them.  These tendencies do not respect another's uniqueness, and another's uniqueness is their contribution to the puzzle, there part of the whole.  Honor yourself and honor all others, everyone has something to teach each of us.

​

YOUR LIFE PROCESS IS AS IMPORTANT AS THE PRODUCTS AND TASKS YOU COMPLETE AND ACHIEVE:  Don't try to short change or end run your life process.  Trust your unique life process.  Success is measured each moment and your yardstick for measurement is your own inner sense of happiness and fullness.  Your process of living and finding inner satisfaction works.  Just pay attention to how life is teaching you, follow your heart as to when to stay in situations and when to leave them.

 

BE ALERT TO YOUR CAUSES AND YOUR ACTIVISM:  Environmental activism, economic development activism, humanitarian activism, any aspect of business or strategic planning activism, etc., has a way of dividing and antagonizing people.  Be alert to your causes; and be at the same time truthful and honest about your feelings in every and all forums.  Do your part, make your contribution, just don't let your fervor unbalance and unground you. 

 

TAKE A WHOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE, A WHOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE BRINGS SEPARATE PARTS TOGETHER IN TRUTH AND HONESTY SO THEY MAY FIND THEIR PROPER PLACE IN THE WHOLE:  A Wholistic perspective seeks to respect all the different and separate parts and then seeks to bind them together into a coherent whole which recognizes the sovereignty of each part and the greater whole of which these parts create.  The uniqueness of each part in community with one another creates the whole; the whole does not create the parts.  Wholistic perspectives brings separate parts together in truth and honesty so they may find their proper place in the Whole.  All parts must respect both themselves and every other part for this to happen.

 

FOCUS FIRST AND FOREMOST ON YOURSELF, your inner experiences, your actions, and the way you interact with people:  Avoid focusing on other people or evaluating their wholeness.  You can only change you.

 

FOCUS ON THE COMMONALITY, PLACE YOUR ATTITUDE ON WHOLENESS:  Focus on the commonalty without changing other people's opinions or compromising yourself.  The adjustment of opinions toward a common vision will come about naturally through the process, as long as your intent is focused on this "coming together".  If your intent is to separate in one form or another, this will also happen.  You have the key by where you place your attitude.  See other people and their opinions and their disciplines as an important and unique part of the overall solution. Nurture yourself, balance yourself, harmonize yourself; once you have created a personal life of balance, harmony, and nurturing, you will be able to extend balance and harmony to others around you and the world at large, and you will be able to nurture the resources that you are a steward of.

 

FOR A CAREER TO WORK AT its HIGHEST LEVEL IT MUST HAVE A HEART:  The heart of a wholistic perspective is stewardship, stewardship of the planet and all that is on it.  In business or government, it is stewardship of all aspects be they human, wildlife, resources, whatever. In the busyness, in the competition of our present times, it's easy to forget that we are living in a finite environment and also that we will be here for a short time.  Our work will last long after we are gone from the scene.  We are given resources, budgets, responsibility and we are stewards, not just of our small piece but of the Whole.    

 

HUMANITARIANISM, ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN, A SENSE OF OUR CONNECTEDNESS TO ALL LIFE IN WHATEVER FORM IT TAKES, THE FUTURE - ARE ALL KEYS TO A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE:  We can never forget people in our daily work.  We are an equal partner with the earth and all the natural systems; we must not forget our equality.  There are high and low ways to approach our work and life, seeing we are connected and in relationship with all life and seeking to maintain harmony and balance in that relationship is a high way.  We must plan for seven generations; we must care about our children's children.

 

DON'T TAKE YOURSELF TOO SERIOUSLY:  All of us are here only for a short while, understood you are not the center of the world with your plans, policies, and products, you are only a small part.

 

GO REGULARLY INTO NATURE AND COMMUNE WITH THE EARTH:  From the beginning of time human beings have sought the solitude and the natural healing energy of the Earth by spending long periods of time outdoors, with others and alone.  Being alone in nature, if even for a few hours naturally balances us, it is as if nature cleanses our confusion away and naturally heals some of our deepest wounds.  Especially valued in past and some present cultures, were hot springs.  These were felt to have natural healing properties.

 

LIVE IN YOUR HEART:  The ancient's and the indigenous people lived in their hearts, not in their intellect.  Today modern civilization has forgotten the heart in favor of its head or intellect.  And yet the heart is coming back, we are regaining our hearts, and so our connections with all life are growing stronger.  The way to live in your heart is simply to open to the love that is within you.

 

ATTUNE YOURSELF TO THE FOUR SEASONS AND THE DIFFERENT EARTH EXPERIENCES THEY BRING:  In the Fall, what is old and ready to fall, falls.   As the life energy in trees and plants begins to retreat from the leaves and branches of trees, making the journey into the roots, so the energy in human beings begins to retract thus going from the outer to the inner.

 

 

The Wholistic Approach™ Will Help You Understand Your Needs

 

• Your Emotional Needs – Nurture Your Heart: Be aware of them for they can sabotage your good work

• Your Physical Needs – Nurture Your Body: We all have to maintain our physical wellbeing through diet, exercise, non-stressful activities in our off time

• You’re Mental Needs – Nurture Your Mind: Whether through reading or meditation or hobbies these keep us balanced and alert; also coffee is no substitute for rest. The 1989 Nobel Peace Prizewinner, the Dalai Lama says for example that if place our mind on hate or anger, we essentially poison it and ourselves and in the process affect our health, just as if we had blood poisoning and needed an antibiotic. So keeping our mind whole and healthy becomes very important.

• You’re Spiritual Needs - Whether through the practice of a religion or prayer or a simple nature walk; you have to take time each day or week to nurture your soul and to take the time for “silence” to listen to your inner still small voice.

 

Generally in the Workplace today we have embraced a "values of technocracy" in place of a "values of humanness".  No matter what our profession, our values tend to spring primarily from our analysis and our analytical reasoning rather than from a balance with our feelings and our intuition.  This traditional technical approach can be characterized by an over-reliance on analysis; a mechanistic view of the world; an over-emphasis on proving theories in order to understand how the world works; and by a breaking everything down into parts and sub-parts, analyzing them and coming to conclusions and actions.  The basic problem with this approach is that it forgets that “wholeness” is inherent in the overall and by skipping the “humanness” of situations and people; we miss the truth and the understanding.  We also skip our inner peace, which is the best platform from which to make effective decisions.

 

 

WHOLISTIC SEMINARS, RETREATS, CONSULTING

 

 

For those of you who are interested in the concepts and methods offered in this book on how to bring heart into your workplace by applying an wholistic approach, you may be interested in seminars which are offered by the Institute.  We offer monthly retreats and seminars in both our offices and in your offices as well. Please contact me for a retreat schedule and also for consulting issues services

 

Wholistic Seminars can help you and your workplace adopt the wholistic approach and learn how to integrate it into your decision-making so that greater balance results.  It is through connection in your workplace relationships and connection with the Whole that more wisdom, gentleness and balance can flow to all.  Wholistic Seminars are offered on a regular basis in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington; and at times in other cities and as special seminars in organizations.

 

There is an underlying Unity to life.  It is this Unity that all of us are attempting to experience no matter which path we choose to take to arrive there.  In the past the seeking of this underlying Unity was done in the churches and through the religions.  Today people are beginning to seek this Unity everywhere: in their homes, their relationships, in the Earth and in the workplace. We are dedicated to discovering this underlying Unity in the workplace and to helping people experience it on the job as well as everywhere in life.  Today we as individuals as well as collectively have entered a new era of searching for our Soul, for Higher Wisdom, for this underlying Unity that pervades all life.  No longer can we search only in one part of our life and not in other parts.  No longer can we check our hearts at our workplace door in the morning.  The Newsletter will help you discover Unity in your workplace and give you an opportunity to network and share your experience with others.

 

Please email the following to garyspanovich@wholisticpeaceinstitute.com

or call me at 503-314-5955, I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Yes, I am interested in learning how to apply the Wholistic Approach

___Send me information about your schedule of seminars in Portland and Seattle

 

___I am interested in having you conduct a seminar in the city of ____________

 

___I am interested in having you conduct a seminar in my organization, please call______________

 

NAME:

 

TITLE:

 

ORGANIZATION:

 

ADDRESS:

 

CITY:

 

STATE:

 

ZIP:

 

PHONE:              FAX:

 

EMAIL:

​

​

​

​

​

RESEARCH THAT LEAD ME TO THE WHOLISTIC APPROACH

​

Wholistic practice in the workplace is about discovering inner clarity as agreed to by the authors below and inner wisdom and how to access a place of wholeness, peace, and stewardship within ourselves.  We discover our wholeness by living our truth. The following are excerpts from different authors which reflect this wholistic perspective:

 

"And he thought of the world of nature as the Indian had always seen it.  The whole world was animate-night and day, wind, clouds, trees, the young corn, all was alive and sentient.  All matter had its inseparable spiritual essence.  Of this universe man was an integral part.  The beings about him were neither friendly nor hostile, but harmonious parts of the whole.  There was no ...good or evil, no difference between matter and spirit.  The world was simply one living whole in which man dies, but mankind remains.  How then can man be lord of the universe?  The forests have not been given him to despoil.  He is equal in importance to the mountain and the blade of grass, to the rabbit and the young corn plant.  Therefore if the life of one of these is to be used for his necessity, it must first be approached with reverence and permission...and thus the balance of the whole maintained intact.  What then is a pine...the potential mast of a ship, a life that stands and breathes and dies like man, or the carven image of a thought?  What is the world we see?  It is as each man sees it...and thee alone it truly exists, in the mind of man which sees it as only he can see it, according to his conception of the life of which he is a part".

(Frank Waters, The Man Who Killed The Deer, p. 198)

 

"A holistic world view also encourages what anthropologist Gregory Bateson called "systemic Wisdom", the wisdom of knowing how the different parts of life interweave and interact as a wholeness.  To a great degree, many of the problems we face in our world are the result of acting toward parts of life as if they were unconnected to other parts.  We are learning through the negative feedback of environmental pollution just how wrong this type of reductionist thinking and acting is...When systemic wisdom is applied, to the great issues of our time; it quickly becomes apparent that they cannot be dealt with as separate problems.  Yet that is precisely how we try to deal with them.  We treat the problems of nuclear weapons, global poverty, and environmental pollution as if they were separate projects, which can be assigned different priorities.  Yet, these problems have common roots that affect each other".

(David Spangler, Emergence, The Rebirth Of The Sacred, p. 137)

 

"The emerging paradigm is ... more a holistic sensibility that is in alignment with essential teachings and mystical traditions."

(David Spangler, p. 144)

 

"It was a group of space scientists devising life-detection experiments for other planets that first stumbled on this phenomenon of the self-sustaining biosphere, and named it Gaia; the living planet...Within this life realm, every organism is linked, however tenuously, to every other.  Microbe, plant and mammal, soil dweller and ocean swimmer, all are caught up in the cycling of energy and nutrients from sun, water, air, and earth...And throughout the life zone, change and diversity, specialization and intricate interdependence, are found at every level.  Humankind can be seen as either the climax of evolution's course, or as its greatest error.  No other creature is a fraction so precocious.  No other can think about the world, plan to make it better, and dream of the best possible.  Yet no other reveals such capacity for perverse behavior, for gross misuse of its habitat and for reckless proliferation of numbers, without though of consequences...If we can match up to the crisis confronting us, Gaia may well move forward into an unprecedented period of development, development in its proper broad sense, embracing development of Earth's resources and of humanity's capacity of caring.  If, however, we fail, Homo Sapiens could eventually be discarded as an evolutionary blind alley, similar to dinosaurs."

(Dr. Norman Myers, Gaia, An Atlas Of Planet Management, p. 12 & 20)

                                                                                                                                       

            

"From a very early age, we are taught to break apart problems, to fragment the world.  This apparently makes complex tasks and subjects more manageable, but we pay a hidden, enormous price.  We can no longer see the consequences of our actions; we lose our intrinsic sense of connection to a larger whole.  When we then try to "see the big picture", we try to reassemble the fragments in our minds, to list and organize the pieces...the task is futile-similar to trying to reassemble the fragments of a broken mirror to see a true reflection.  Thus, after a while we give up trying to see the whole altogether...The tools and ideas presented in this book are for destroying the illusion that the world is created of separate, unrelated forces.  When we give up this illusion, we can build "learning organizations", organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together."

(Dr. Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline, Senge, Peter, Mr. Senge is a management professor at MIT, and Director of their Organizational Learning Program, p. 3, see handout)

 

Mahatma Gandhi was one of the greatest wholistic thinkers of our time.  A story is told of his life in which a concerned mother has brought her young boy to the Mahatma because he continually eats quantities of sugar and she fears he will ruin his health.  Because the young boy admires the Mahatma, she asks him to ask the boy to stop eating sugar.  When the request is made, the Mahatma pauses and thinks to himself and then asks that the mother and son return in three days.  When the three days are up, they return and the Mahatma asks the boy to stop eating sugar.  Whereupon the mother asks Gandhi why he did not simply say this a few days before?  Gandhi's reply was, "At that time I was still eating sugar myself."  Mahatma Gandhi knew the power of living his inner truth.  He knew that he was a whole person for he had an awareness of the wholeness within himself which he had discovered through living his truth.  Wholeness can be defined as an inner realization that we are whole beings and that our jobs, personal lives, relationships, and the world at large form one unbroken whole which our inner truth connects.  Because wholeness is a realization that we are part of everything and everything is part of us, it is a transcendent experience.  This transcendent experience of wholeness is inside each of us, awaiting our discovery, waiting to be realized.  It is also a profoundly spiritual experience.

 

MY CONCEPT OF THE WHOLISTIC APPROACH

​

I have created the Wholistic Approach™ as a way to help you go within and to understand that a human being is composed of four main dimensions: a physical self; an emotional self or heart; a mental self or mind; and also a spiritual self, which is a deep transcendent part within that is the source of our deepest creativity. By creating a framework for you to allow you to access these aspects and organize what each is saying to you; you will have greater and deeper understanding of the problems confronting you; have access to the most creative solutions possible; have the ability to heal and restore group teamwork and relationships; and access your deep inner voice, your still small voice of truth.  The methods and concepts contained in this book have been synthesized from the teachings of many great thinkers and spiritual people as well as my own realizations, experiences, and meditations.  These are the tools that I personally use and teach, and I am happy to share them with you.  The Wholistic Approach © can help you deal with your situation and management problems: both on the job and off; in a conscious, life-giving way so that you may nourish yourself and those around you in the process.

 

The Wholistic Approach ™ is not a magic formula for fixing something outside yourself, rather it is a path for you to achieve authentic inner growth both in your office and in your home.  As you begin to do this inner work that the wholistic approach requires, you will begin to realize and discover that you can remain in your center no matter who you are or how you are challenged or what you have chosen to deal with in life.  Perhaps you may begin to see through the eyes of Mahatma Gandhi, viewing life and yourself within it as one unbroken whole and being authentic and truthful to everything with which you are involved.