Basia's Thoughts

In this episode I explore a core idea from Bioenergetics: how early developmental trauma can create deep “either/or” splits inside us — patterns that live in the body and run automatically before we have time to think. One example: if a baby experiences rejection (or interprets it as rejection), a survival-level split can form — I can either survive… or express my needs. Not both.  And later in li...

In the previous episode we noted that merely focusing on practicing the mutually beneficial win-win situations will not fulfil our longing for meaning and connection. Thus it may not be sufficient to move us out of an increasingly addictive world, where all we have are fast pleasure hits provided by addictively designed food or social media. What is more satisfying than the currently addictive mod...

Narratives are stories that we give power when we believe in them. They may originate in traumas, developmental traumas and this form our personalities, telling us who we are. They may come from our society and be partially factual or fictional. By moving beyond our current identity we can loosen the grip they have on us. This move will also tend to move us beyond just mutually beneficial exchange...

Beauty with capital B is like God with capital G - inexplicable.  And yet, there is so much to say. It is our essence.  It is one part of the trinity of our essence: Beauty, Consciousness, Love. Beauty is related to one of the fundamental ways in which we experience, in particular through perception.  It is tied to Being. Moving away from our wholeness we move into separation, and it becomes more...

The idea of moving from Beauty can be accessed through all we do but is perhaps easier to find through dance. When we move from Beauty we act from an expanded sense of self and a larger perspective.  We act from love, instead of acting from fear. By letting go, opening up, becoming present, receiving and inviting in the moment we can let Beauty build up in us until it becomes almost inevitable for...

The astrologer Michael Lennox once said, in passing: "The world is not happening to you, not even for you, or through you, but as you." I found these perspectives thought-worthy and decided to think about them out loud. It is interesting how each step along this process of going from the first, to the second, to the third and to the fourth perspective is automatically achieved by letting...

Is it possible to keep our faith in spite of all the dark moments we experience?  What is faith?  What can we base it on an how can we use it to have a beautiful life? We start off by listening to a part of the tango “ Tormenta ” ( Storm , in English), arranged by Carlos di Sarli featuring Mario Pomar, as a poetic expression for the lack of faith in life. "... Yo siento que mi fe se tambalea,...

Why is life so difficult?  Why do we have to struggle so much and yet often gain so little?  Why are millions starving?  Why is there so much lack and why is abundance so difficult to come by? Even though most would agree that abundance and love are what we value, the systems around our material world are not set up that way. Instead our systems are set up to value scarcity.  We protect it and man...

Inspired by the movement called "Effective Altruism", I asked myself the question as I have seen it posed:  "How can I do the most good, given my limited resources?" As I asked it, I wondered if the second part of the question, "...given my limited resources", was not tripping me up in finding the most natural answer.  To show how the second part is problematic I star...

" The Devil is in the Structure ", and it is the structure, or the system, that provides a slanting floor and makes it easier for us to become, identify as, and live as agents for the system. Systems ultimately lend us their eyes and we end up seeing the world through their perspective, losing other sight.  We talk about this in the context of the system of "Capitalism". If thi...

Do you feel the urge to help others?   Do you know where it comes from?   Sometimes it comes from love, and sometimes, like those times when you feel the need to give others advice and solutions, it might come from another place. Learning to recognise where it comes from for you can help you become more free and loving. In this episode we investigate where it often comes from for the schizoid stru...

In this final episode of 2021 I discuss the following picture:  http://basiapiechocinska.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/EP60Crossroads-scaled.jpg It represents a crossroads that we currently find ourselves at as humans on Earth.   We see the hand of technology pushing us into a place of choice and two main roads being presented to us. One road is represented by a caterpillar and invites us to cont...

In times of great polarity we talk about two ways of stepping out of it and gaining insight and perspective.  The first method is related to ancient battle tactics, where the opponent wishes to distract you and create an internal fight, so that they may have the upper hand and be able to achieve their goal.   Here is the picture of the King and his Adviser I was referring to in the episode https:/...

We are currently finding ourselves in situations we would not have seen as justifiable only two years ago, and yet we are there.   The situation is continuing to escalate as a totalitarian-like movement sweeps across the many countries.  In this episode we talk about some of the things we could have thought unthinkable, such as medical mandates, talks of lifetime prison for non-compliant persons,...

When we become aware that we are an actor we get the freedom of being able to choose what roles we play. By relaxing and dwelling in the unknown present, we train our mind in a way that transcends and translates into all our experiences.  It is like strength training, which automatically makes us stronger in all situations where muscles are involved. By mindfully staying present for as little as 1...

Understanding how and why judgement is problematic for us may be helpful in directing our attention towards alternative ways of being. In our society we have been trained away from our natural way of being into a way that is based around praise and punishment, judgement, and consequently violence.  We employ this when interacting with others as well as with ourselves. It takes away our ability of...

In this short, short episode we connect some of the ideas we have spoken about.  In particular we see how The Art of Silence, of practicing silence, is the origin of the language of the giraffe.  This is Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication.  It is also the language of win-win games.  It is what is needed if we wish to physically stay on Earth, and not extinguish ourselves.    By dwe...

In this episode we primarily look at Hannah Arendt's 1951 book "The Origins of Totalitarianism" and try to see if we can recognise some of the dynamics she writes about, in our current covid-world. The prerequisites for the beginnings of a totalitarian dynamics, of rootlessness, unattached anxiety, and meaninglessness have been escalated by covid-lockdowns.   A central narrative is...

Marshall Rosenberg´s "Nonviolent Communication", or "the language of the giraffe" is a heart centered all-win type of interaction. In this episode we discuss it as a possible future language of a civilisation that is based around win-win solutions for all, including the planet. We talk about money and how it is difficult to fit such a concept into the language of a giraffe as i...

This episode is actually inspired by a Disney song.  We all probably know that what we focus on we tend to notice more of and who/what we identify as provides a perspective for our life.   These are almost cliché, and yet when used wisely can prove life changing. Many of our globally most impactful problems can be traced back to an "we - they" outlook on life.  It is the ancient win-lose...

Sometimes it may be difficult to see how steeped in judgement we are and what it leads to.  So, we start out by looking at the violence inherent in common compliments. We talk about how not only compliments but all sorts of rewards and payments rob us of our joy and creativity. We mention how our global, interconnected civilisation has interdependent and exponentially growing risks that increase o...

Can we bring more magic and miracles into our life? What are some essential aspects of a magical life?  Can we do anything to encourage the expression of miracles? We find that awe, an open and expansive sense of surprise, appears to be an aspect of magic.  For it to be deeply satisfying we would like it to also have meaning that ties all thing together, making it almost inevitable. Such is the na...

A friend recommended I listen to a podcast on stupidity, where the question was posed:  "Why are we acting in ways that hurt ourselves and others?  Are we stupid?" (The podcast was from Dystopia and it is in Swedish.  You can download it from here https://sverigesradio.se/topsy/ljudfil/srse/7878377.mp3 ) I find that when we act in myopic ways that are counterproductive to ourselves and p...

Today we talk about two thieves of joy that are interweaved.   They are expectations and judgements. In societies where things work well and our expectations are met we are often accompanied by these joy thieves.  They rob us of the present moment. In societies where things rarely go the way we would expect them to we eventually have to learn to let go of our expectations.  And when we do that, we...

We talk about the importance of learning to look for what is positive.  We mention that perhaps as a survival mechanism we have developed certain biases that are helpful when we are young but make thriving more difficult over time.  In particular, we mention senescence and the negativity bias. Then, we ask how one may go about solving problems and see that we often tend to use optimisation for tha...