Conscious Choice

Perception:   from Latin percepere - “to seize”

From birth on, and in utero, our brains form neural networks, or “maps”, based on our experiences of the world around us. Neurological research increasingly reveals our “perception” is shaped by the ways we interact with our environment given the structure of the human brain. We tend to see and perceive that with which we’re already familiar - and thus our brains “seize” and fixate on what we already know, discounting or ignoring the unfamiliar - - or in the worst case, trying to get rid of the unfamiliar.

We can change this limitation of human habit through conscious choice.

In so doing, the old argument among disciplines of “nature vs. nurture” is transformed to:  Nature + Nurture + More to be discovered!

Stretching our perception means we use increasing potentials inherent in our brains and bodies - becoming more intelligent as multi-dimensional humans:

BODY - HEART - MIND - SOUL - SPIRIT = multi-dimensional human nature

What could our work and work systems be like if we built and designed it based on this uplifted understanding of human nature?

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Because we can change our choices, we can change our lives.

And as we change our lives, we can change the ways we work, such as - 

  • Working in ways that improve our health and quality of life

  • Working in greater harmony with family and community needs

  • Redesigning industry supply chains for green products and zero waste

  • Reducing our wasteful consumer footprint in order to restore clear air, clean water, and animal habitat

Robots will not replace the work needed to design and implement green products and retrofit green homes, green businesses and green cities. 

People alone can and will do this. 

Millions of green jobs are needed to bring this transformation – and we need them now. 

We need this vision to change our work world from a degraded state to an uplifted one that benefits people and our planet.

Every generation and age is needed for this work. The science of neurology has shown us that our brains can change at any age - called neural-plasticity. 

This is very hopeful at a time when we are bombarded with degraded ideas and images that crush our spirit. 

We need to change our brain patterns in order to – 

 Move from…

A degraded view of human beings

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from A degraded view of human beings

  • People as mostly selfish and greedy

  • Nature as separate from us, to be used and used up

  • Work as exploitive

  • An economy that only serves “winners” and favors global gaming of outcomes to maximize wins

To…

An uplifted understanding of human beings

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to An uplifted understanding of human beings

  • People as multi-dimensional, with many levels of needs as well as compassion

  • Nature as our home, our own nature, to be respected, loved, cared for

  • Work as collaborative and cooperative

  • An economy that doesn’t play winners against losers, but offers multiple options for community-based, local economies that serve local needs and healthy environments 

Which view will serve us best - - a degraded view or an uplifted view?  

We can choose consciously and change our brain patterns and behaviors to create uplifted work and a better world.

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”  

~ Anais Nin, author

“The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice.

And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change

until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.” 

~ R.D. Laing, Scottish psychiatrist & author

“Between stimulus and response there is a space.  In that space lies our freedom and power

to choose our response.  In those choices lie our growth and our happiness.”

       ~ Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor, Austrian psychiatrist & author


“Pay attention to your tension. Your tension is your teacher.”

~ Julianne E. Maurseth