Gene Shinoda Bolen is a psychiatrist, a Jungian psychotherapist and a remarkable author of books on psychology, such as the famous Gods in every man and Goddess in every woman.
“Psychology and Tao” is much less known in our country, but, despite this, it is worth reading it to anyone who is interested in psychology, self-development and personal growth, and now I will tell you why.
Little bit about coincidences
The full title of this book in Russian translation sounds like “Psychology and Tao. Synchronicity: are coincidences in our lives random. ”
Synchronicity (more precisely, synchronization) is what is commonly called unexpected and surprising coincidences. This is such a special phenomenon when the events of our inner world, our mental life enter into resonance with real events in the outer world around us. For example, when we think of an important person for us, and in a couple of minutes this person suddenly calls us for no reason at all - this is synchronicity.
Here is an even more interesting example. You have been tormented for a long time and can’t decide which of the two job offers you agree on. One job is calm and stable, but you will not be particularly interested in doing it; and the second is intense and in some places rather difficult activities, but you really like it.
And on that day, when you are going to make a decision, you meet your old friend, whom you have not seen for many years. She is very flabby, aged, looks unhealthy and does not come across as a happy person. A woman tells you that five years ago she made a decision to get a job that was calm, stable, but not very interesting for her. A friend tries to show that she is quite happy with her life, but you cannot be fooled, because with her help you get a valuable message for yourself that helps you make a decision.
With this unexpected appearance in your life, this acquaintance seems to show you what can happen to you: it is very possible that by choosing the first one - the quiet - work, you will lose the joy of life and the opportunity to be a happy person doing your favorite business; while you may have health problems and other not the most pleasant things.
In other words, you had an unexpected meeting, when a person, without knowing it, answered all those questions that you painfully asked yourself for several days, and his appearance helped you make a decision. This situation is also an example of synchronization.
Intrigued? The book is very detailed, interesting and fascinating about various types of synchrony (including predicting future events and prophetic dreams, which are also a type of this phenomenon) and provides numerous examples of synchrony from both the author’s psychotherapeutic practice and from the life of his acquaintances of life.
So, the author of the book is obliged to a wonderful meeting with her future husband and the subsequent happy marriage of synchronicity: if it were not for a number of surprising and unusual coincidences, she and her husband would never have met and could not be together.
Is there any benefit from this?
What is the benefit of synchrony for me personally, you ask, and why is it really worth reading this book?
The fact is that our entire civilization, all culture and way of thinking are built almost entirely on the so-called left hemisphere thinking, for which the left hemisphere of our brain is responsible. It is known to be connected with sober calculation, logic and planning.
At the same time, the role of the right hemisphere, which is responsible for creativity, feelings, intuition, dreams and much more, was reduced in society to a level where many modern people consider all these things unimportant for themselves. As if they have only half of the head, and they are capable, like automata, only to think logically and calculate everything.
Spending life in this way, we exclude from it something very important — that which cannot be comprehended by logical thinking alone. Among them are happiness, love, creativity, as well as the ability to intuitively make important and truly correct decisions for us, which are impossible to understand only with the help of logic. As, say, with the above example of the choice of work.
Therefore, reading books like this one, we learn to acquire psychological integrity and the ability to use all the possibilities that Mother Nature has endowed us with — both the ability to use our head and the ability to listen to our heart sensitively. Indeed, in nature, as you know, nothing superfluous happens.
Therefore, if you feel that your contact with the deeper parts of yourself, your intuition, the ability to dream and listen to yourself is weakened or lost, this book will help you to restore contact with yourself and become a more psychologically solid and harmonious person. Or at least take the first step in this direction. That is also very much ...
Psychotherapist, family psychologist Yevgeny Makhlin
