don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

"Our Constitution is in actual operation; everything appears to promise that it will last; but in this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes."

Benjamin Franklin, 1789 (Letter to M. Leroy)

In pursuing a wellness lifestyle, it is good to know that almost nothing is certain. It is healthy, for instance, to value an open mind and wise to practice keeping it that way. Among other things, this means avoiding attachments to a single point of view. Are you a lifelong Democrat or Republican? Both parties have changed enormously over the last few decades. If you still cling to such attachments in a 100 percent, "don't you dare try to change my mind" fashion, you might be caught up in the certainty trap. Many other examples could be offered, particularly in the area of religious beliefs, but I think you get the idea.

Unfortunately, some people become so fixed on one belief (for example, that a patriotic citizen must support the president no matter what, especially in times of war) that nothing encountered at odds with such convictions receives objective consideration. Such a rigid position is not in your interests, nor is it generally helpful to those around you. It is not conducive to your growth and evolution, for one thing. Better to strive to remain attentive to new information at odds with your current perspectives or beliefs, particularly on topics dear to the core of wellness, such as exercise, nutrition and meaning and purpose. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once noted, "certainty generally is an illusion." (1897) Just so, Ollie!

I set to thinking about the hazards of fixed positions the other day while reading an essay by Margaret Wheatley, President of The Berkana Institute and author of Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future. Wheatley sees certainty as a curse and advises against such common tendencies as the following:

• Seeking "the right (versus the best at the moment) answer," something much rewarded in schools.
• An unwavering vision -- knowing just where you want to go, how to get there and blocking out all doubts or second thoughts along the way.
• Ignoring the growing complexity of our times, which makes certainty precarious.
• An unwillingness to let go of long cherished beliefs, if necessary, based on new realities/evidence or experience.

Andrew Jenkins, a colleague who climbs mountains and does all kinds of daring do stuff and describes himself as "a flag-waving patriot who sincerely believes in the American dream for all" (as well as "total wellness and health promotion"), takes exception to this last point. He writes, "Wheatley's condemnation of 'an unwavering vision -- knowing just where you want to go, how to get there and blocking out all doubts or second thoughts along the way' does not resonate well with me. I surely would not be a tenured full-professor with a doctorate degree from Penn State if I had not chosen to hang tightly to my dreams with unwavering, bulldog-like pertinacity. Moreover, if I had listened to all the naysayers along the way who sought to give me a 'healthy dose of reality,' I'd surely have failed miserably and would now be sanitizing cans from 9 to 5. About 20 years ago I came to the brilliant realization that well-adjusted people with high self-esteem do not go around 'setting others straight.' Well-adjusted, high performance people with strong egos simply don't care if someone else thinks too highly of himself. Poorly adjusted people with low self-esteem and fragile egos can't stand to think that you or I might set our sights too high and then actually achieve more than what they think we deserve. I think, at times, certainty is important. Humans need to have some preconceived notions but these should be based on informed opinion, as we've discussed so many times before."

Because we live in a globally interconnected world that is complex and diverse, it's advantageous (in other words, enables more adaptability and attendant human progress) to realize that other people see things differently from us. Increasingly, even Americans are not quite so alike as once was more the case than is so now. Complexity, Wheatley suggests, has produced a "new Tower of Babel, where we can't hear each other because of so much diversity." That is why we are better served by flexible perspectives based on principles, not certainty based on revelations or literal views of truths holy and otherwise. The future is uncertain, a sense that led Tibetan Buddhists to affirm that the root of happiness lies in the acceptance that life, too, is uncertain. It is so much easier to cope, to adjust and to move on if we more or less expect change in all things, including our mindsets about how to live well, how to find new meaning and how to make the most of the time we have remaining.

Wheatley suggests that our learned need for certainty becomes destructive to relationships and makes us less able to approach our best possible selves. Makes sense to me -- what about you? Are you free from the certainty trap? To what extent do you consider yourself flexible in being able to make adjustments in beliefs and customs, when results suggest that reassessments might be in order? What changes in beliefs or practices have you made in the last year or two, and how much of an internal struggle did these shifts require, if indeed shifts occurred at all? In what important ways are you different from your parents?

Yvon Chouinard, a world-class mountaineer and founder/owner of the Patagonia sportswear company, said, "I knew Man was doomed when I realized his strongest inclination was toward ever-increasing homogeneity -- which goes completely against Nature. Nature moves toward ever-increasing diversity. Diversity is Nature's strength. Nature loves diversity. Adversity is what causes organisms to change and adapt. Adversity is the catalyst for evolution. Take away adversity and evolution stops."

So, there you have it. Keep evolving as your lifetime progresses. Resist certainty and embrace reason, science and a philosophy that is dynamic and best suited to the most highly evolved possible you at all stages of your life. This will help you to be well, and to always look on the bright side of life.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MENTAL DOMAIN under the skill area of emotional intelligence. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

 Send e-mail to Don Ardell