General Introduction to Motivation part I

This theory states that understanding and purifying your Motivation is key to developing and maintaining Health and a reasonable degree of Happiness.
If you understand your motivations, you have a key to understanding yourself. Why do we do what we do, or avoid doing some things and often at all cost? If we understand what we are actually after, we come closer to seeing the whole picture of ourselves. By figuring out what our ultimate goals are we get to know ourselves thoroughly and learn what we are all about. Self-knowledge is power! Knowing ourselves fully will enable us to make smart decisions of which others also benefit.

Discovering Our Motivations is Not Easy

In order to be useful, our discovering of our motivations, of this key, requires total honesty with our selves. That might seem easy enough. It isn’t. Finding out the truth about our deepest motivations is not obvious, nor simple, nor easy.
It is actually a challenge because we human beings are masters in denial. We might be ready to admit that we sometimes deceive others by pretending we are closer to our ideal self than we are. Try on the shocking admission that you might be going out of your way to deceive yourself, even for a whole lifetime! Yet, that is what many of us are doing!
If you choose to move from deceiving yourself into the truth of who you actually are, then getting insight into your ultimate motivations is the way to go. This theory contains a great deal of practical information to help you dig down and get clear on your way to becoming healthier, happier, and more successful.

How do our Motivations develop?

This theory presents a new and Holistic approach to the understanding of the human condition and the potential changes that can be made. Our point of departure is that body; mind and emotions are continuously in communication with each other which then results in the way each person is what he/she is in the world right now.

Here’s one way to look at that. You are born with certain qualities and characteristics of who you are on a soul level. If there are few obstacles to your developing a healthy mind and body, then your life circumstances are allowing you to live up to that potential.

But what happens if there are too many obstacles, and your development, as it could naturally go, is blocked and distorted by some life circumstances? (This actually happens to many of us, maybe including you.)

Then Nature seeks ways in which your body, mind, and emotions can compensate for the lack of growth/health-promoting life circumstances.

How does motivation develop differently in those two cases?

In a healthy situation, we know motivations by describing the obvious reason why we do something. In the unhealthy situation, motivations get more convoluted. We develop complex patterns of subconscious motivations in Nature’s attempt to compensate for our thwarted natural development.

Labeling Motivation (healthy) Direct Motivation and (unhealthy) Indirect Motivation.

In this section of the Holipsych.com website you can learn how unhealthy motivations develop. The key is looking at the healthy development of a Natural Sense of Self. Natural Sense of your Self is an attribute, skill or characteristic that is indispensable for growing into a healthy, happy, and productive individual. We’ll discover that motivations can be divided into Direct (healthy) and Indirect (unhealthy, the result of thwarted development) – and we’ll learn how this comes in turn from and contributes to a healthy or unhealthy Sense of Self. That connection is the key to healing!

We’ll look at Indirect (unhealthy) Motivation through a magnifying glass. That will require some new names for new things we spot while looking so closely. These terms will be briefly explained in a pop-up window as you read but you can always go deeper into the subject by clicking on the ‘read more about…’ link.

Some of those terms include ‘Ego-References’. We will speak about ‘Vehicles’ and ‘Hidden Goals’ and about the ‘Substitute Sense of Self’ as the ultimate goal of Indirect Motivation. You can learn more about ‘Substitute Sense of Self’ in the Theory-section under ‘Sense of Self’.

You’ll come to understand more about the essence of human Motivation in general and about some specific concepts that are closely related to Motivation, such as ‘Hindrances’ and ‘Rage’, and even ‘Rewards’ and ‘Body Language’.

Why bother to learn and understand such things? Because, in this theory, ailments such as Depression, Insomnia, and Violence can be a direct result of thwarted Indirect Motivation. You can read directly about these subjects in the Pathology section.

Now, you’re invited to stand up, stretch, get a drink of water, and then read Part II of this section on Motivation.

Where the reader goes next….  Introduction to Pathology

or …. Introduction to Motivation Part 2