Day 309 of 365 - Waking Up To Life
When we think about how a child develops, it's fairly easy to imagine or visualize the sequence of stages that occurs to get from being a totally dependent baby to a more independently functioning child and then adult. But, what about after that? Is that it, or does development continue?
A speaker I heard today, Terri O'Fallen, an education expert and spiritual practitioner, says yes. We definitely carry on in our development throughout life. Through her many years of teaching and research, she has developed a model of this, simply called STAGES. It is based on life developmental stages and how at each stage we wake up to something new. She describes it as a very natural process where skills build on one another.
In infancy we are at first primarily developing our senses based on external input. Then we start to sense more from inside, such as experiencing emotions in response to external things like touch and all our other senses. Our memory begins to develop and our interactions with others starts to build our social sense. With further physical development we use object manipulation to develop thinking skills, which are first concretely based on what happens outside us and subsequently becomes thinking in the mind. By early school age we have a good awareness of self and others and want to relate to others, first in a more concrete way as a young child and then in a more abstract reasoning way by later in our teens. This roughly describes what are called the concrete stages.
After that comes what are called the subtle stages. This is when we develop the ability to reflect about thinking and feelings and notice how they influence each other. That is, how I think affects how I feel and how I feel affects how I think. This is the first adult stage and is very focused on goals. Many people remain in this stage for much of their adult life.
The next stage is called awareness. This is where spiritual and developmental paths merge. Awareness lets you see contexts and assumptions in your life experience. It allows you to zoom out to see the bigger perspective and to zoom in on what you'd like to shift in your thinking or actions to match your desired perspective. We realize that our understanding of self and how we define that, is something that we have created along the way and that we can change. Instead of believing that you have been the same your whole life, you realize that it's actually the story of yourself created from your experience. New life experiences shift our beliefs and cause us to see ourselves and others differently.
Beyond that is another category which is higher levels of consciousness, from which most of us don't yet operate.
There are repeating patterns in each level, so we can see how we use skills from previous levels to build up in our current one. Within each stage there is also a progression of experience from individual to collective or social. There is also a progression of learning styles from receptive to active to reciprocal and integrated. Words used to describe that progression, to make it a little clearer are: fuzzy, focused, aware, aware and focused. That analogy to waking up shows us the kinds of patterns we repeat throughout life in different layers. Although there are defined stages common to everyone, our unique style is seen through underlying attributes like social preference and learning style.
This might seem like a complicated breakdown of what is described as a very natural process of growing up or evolution over our lifespan. One can see how educators, researchers, therapists and spiritual practitioners would be interested in making these kinds of definitions for purposes of teaching, assessment, measurement and research. It can help us to understand how we shift from a concrete, individual perspective of life as a very young child to an understanding of group dynamics, ethics and the principles we choose to live by as adults. We move from being focused on primarily satisfying our own needs to being aware of the greater good and the best outcomes for all.
In case you were wondering, there is an assessment offered on the website, stagesinternational.com. There you can download a PDF describing all the stages in greater detail if you are interested. The assessment is something you purchase and which is scored by a certified analyst. You receive a profile and practical recommendations for further development. I won't be doing that assessment as it is rather pricey for my budget. However, the detailed information on the site gives you lots to consider on your own.
As someone who worked as an infant development therapist for many years, I found this talk to be another very interesting perspective on developmental progression throughout all our life stages.
A speaker I heard today, Terri O'Fallen, an education expert and spiritual practitioner, says yes. We definitely carry on in our development throughout life. Through her many years of teaching and research, she has developed a model of this, simply called STAGES. It is based on life developmental stages and how at each stage we wake up to something new. She describes it as a very natural process where skills build on one another.
In infancy we are at first primarily developing our senses based on external input. Then we start to sense more from inside, such as experiencing emotions in response to external things like touch and all our other senses. Our memory begins to develop and our interactions with others starts to build our social sense. With further physical development we use object manipulation to develop thinking skills, which are first concretely based on what happens outside us and subsequently becomes thinking in the mind. By early school age we have a good awareness of self and others and want to relate to others, first in a more concrete way as a young child and then in a more abstract reasoning way by later in our teens. This roughly describes what are called the concrete stages.
After that comes what are called the subtle stages. This is when we develop the ability to reflect about thinking and feelings and notice how they influence each other. That is, how I think affects how I feel and how I feel affects how I think. This is the first adult stage and is very focused on goals. Many people remain in this stage for much of their adult life.
The next stage is called awareness. This is where spiritual and developmental paths merge. Awareness lets you see contexts and assumptions in your life experience. It allows you to zoom out to see the bigger perspective and to zoom in on what you'd like to shift in your thinking or actions to match your desired perspective. We realize that our understanding of self and how we define that, is something that we have created along the way and that we can change. Instead of believing that you have been the same your whole life, you realize that it's actually the story of yourself created from your experience. New life experiences shift our beliefs and cause us to see ourselves and others differently.
Beyond that is another category which is higher levels of consciousness, from which most of us don't yet operate.
There are repeating patterns in each level, so we can see how we use skills from previous levels to build up in our current one. Within each stage there is also a progression of experience from individual to collective or social. There is also a progression of learning styles from receptive to active to reciprocal and integrated. Words used to describe that progression, to make it a little clearer are: fuzzy, focused, aware, aware and focused. That analogy to waking up shows us the kinds of patterns we repeat throughout life in different layers. Although there are defined stages common to everyone, our unique style is seen through underlying attributes like social preference and learning style.
This might seem like a complicated breakdown of what is described as a very natural process of growing up or evolution over our lifespan. One can see how educators, researchers, therapists and spiritual practitioners would be interested in making these kinds of definitions for purposes of teaching, assessment, measurement and research. It can help us to understand how we shift from a concrete, individual perspective of life as a very young child to an understanding of group dynamics, ethics and the principles we choose to live by as adults. We move from being focused on primarily satisfying our own needs to being aware of the greater good and the best outcomes for all.
In case you were wondering, there is an assessment offered on the website, stagesinternational.com. There you can download a PDF describing all the stages in greater detail if you are interested. The assessment is something you purchase and which is scored by a certified analyst. You receive a profile and practical recommendations for further development. I won't be doing that assessment as it is rather pricey for my budget. However, the detailed information on the site gives you lots to consider on your own.
As someone who worked as an infant development therapist for many years, I found this talk to be another very interesting perspective on developmental progression throughout all our life stages.
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