What is "Psyche"? (An Introduction to this Section)

As a first article to this section, it would be better if we start with the meaning of Psyche. What is Psyche and its relation to what we do at Da Seekers Cove?


CUPID AND "PSYCHE"

"Psyche was the deification of the human soul. She was portrayed in ancient mosaics as a goddess with butterfly wings (because psyche is also the Greek word for 'butterfly'). The Greek word psyche literally means spirit, breath, life or animating force."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psyche_(mythology)

Venus, the goddess of beauty,  tried to manipulate Psyche's life, a mortal, so she would remain to be the most beautiful beyond earth. She asks the help of her son, Cupid to strike golden arrows while Psyche sleeps, so when she awakens,Venus will place a vile creature for her to fall in love with. However, the plan didn't work out because Psyche woke up just before Cupid could strike an arrow and so he accidentally strikes it to himself. In turn, Cupid falls for Psyche but he returned to Venus and reported the incident. Out of rage, Venus curses Psyche, preventing her to meet the right man to marry. In retaliation, Cupid stopped to make people in love and prevented animals to mate. 

After several years of no one falling in love and getting married, the Earth grew old and Venus had to let Psyche be for Cupid. Cupid started to shoot arrows again but Psyche's parents already consulted an oracle, advising them to leave their daughter on a nearest mountain as her beauty is not for mortal men. Zephyrus, the west wind, carries Psyche to a far away palace where she is attended by invisible servants and at nightfall her promised Cupid arrives and Psyche unknowingly makes love with him as the lights are turned off before he comes. Out of curiosity, one night, Psyche lit a lamp and recognizes Cupid to be her mysterious husband. She accidentally pricked herself with one of Cupid's arrows and soon enough she felt a strong desire for Cupid. As she leans forward to kiss him, Cupid awakens and flies away from her. 

From then on, Psyche searched far and wide for her lover. She underwent and surpassed a lot of challenges under Venus' influence to be able to get to Cupid. Filled with pity for his wife, Cupid helps Psyche out with Venus' last challenge for her. As soon as she succeeded, Venus had no choice but to not stand in the two lovers' way anymore. Psyche was transformed to be a goddess by Zeus. Cupid and Psyche married and had a daughter, Hedone, who was to be made as the goddess of sensual pleasures. 

PSYCHE'S BACKGROUND IN ANCIENT PSYCHOLOGY

"...the immaterial part of a person; the actuating cause of an individual life."

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Psyche

In psychology, psyche means the totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious. Psychology is the scientific and objective study of the psyche. Its Greek etymology also suggests "life", "spirit", "ghost", and ultimately "self" or "conscious personality", as equated to one's soul.

Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle has integrated psyche in their treatises on ancient psychology.  It is the central concept of Plato's philosophy. In his Phaedo, Plato discusses the immorality of the soul and life after death following the separation of the soul from the body. The psyche is better able to achieve wisdom since it is freed from the earth-bounded limitations of the body.

Aristotle's On the Soul deals with his theory of the "three souls or psyches" --- vegetal, animal and rational. The plants are considered to have the vegetative psyche as they have the capacity for nourishment and reproduction, the minimum characteristic which any kind of living organism possess. In addition to this, the animal psyche, belonging to the lower animals have the powers of sense-perception and self-motion or action. The rational psyche (intellect) is exclusively embodied by humans including the first two psyches.

Aristotle's psyche pertains to the form or essence of any living thing. He believes that it is not a distinct substance from the body that it is in. Thus, relating this to psychology, our psyche is what makes us human, which is unique in every man.

THE HUMAN PSYCHE

The Mind, the Body, and Personal Space are the three elements that covers human interaction and the level at which they occur, as well as the behavior of the party when invasion occurs within each of these zones.

• THE MIND is considered to be very private and personal which is completely controlled by the psyche of  the person. 
• THE BODY is where some interaction takes place with those allowed. If there is an invasion to this zone, it is met with unease and is the body reacts opposing it. The mind closely mediates this reaction as the body becomes a catalyst to express the least private and personal responses.
• THE PERSONAL SPACE is frequently invaded by the unknown. It is an imaginary space, which is often modified with the space available. Although invasion of this space is frequent, the psyche will do everything to avoid this contact get to the level of the body.

"All interventions into the psyche of any person fall into one or other of these two categories. It is important to understand which, for the style, manner of application and expectations and demands will be quite different in each case. It is also quite possible for the exact same goals and outcomes to be desired in each case. For example, someone requiring anger management as directed by the courts, and someone seeking greater emotional control, including and in particular managing anger and staying poised under pressure."

http://www.grlphilosophy.co.nz/cpmh.htm

According to Dr. Graham Little, PhD AFNZIM, the following are types of psychological disfunction:

1. The unconscious. Responses and emotions arising from historical experiences. Our experience builds within us the mental sets and psychic flows, particularly our early experience. These become truncated mental sets consisting only of emotional responses, buried within the developments of conscious experience; these truncated mental sets can produce strong emotional responses without us being aware of their source.
2. Cognitive management. Having attitudes and beliefs resulting in maladaptive actions and reactions and/or ability to manage own thoughts.
3. Emotional intelligence. Inappropriate emotional responses and/or inability to reasonably manage emotions.
4. Cognitive nets. Interlinked system of cognitions, bridging many mental sets and role structures, such that once the psychic flow becomes enmeshed, it flows to some specific set of thoughts and feelings. Grieving loss of loved one; it can be that no matter the occasion, thoughts seem to link and track back to point of grief.
5. Lack of congruence and balance among mental sets.
1. Extreme mental sets that result in inappropriate feelings and thoughts.
2. Unrelated mental sets that produce different responses to the same or similar circumstances.
6. Existential malaise. Pervasive feeling of emptiness and lack of purpose (see cognitive nets, and pervasive maladaptive tone).
7. Pervasive maladaptive tone. Similar to cognitive nets, except that this is a tone to the thoughts, the style of the person's world view or novel. Examples include lack of purpose, lack of hope, pessimism or excessive optimism. The issue is the quality of the thought not the thought itself.
8. Lack of assertiveness: Can extend far beyond relationships, for example knowing the life desired, and it is realistic, but not pressing for it, which can be for many, many reasons.
9. Ineffective processing and interactive skills: Can include problem solving and planning, creative option development, evaluating and judgment skills, self-management, and relationship skills.
10. Inappropriate self-images: Specifically how the person sees themselves in their life and the relevance of those images to them.
11. Mal-adaptive self-esteem: Typically low self-esteem, but can be aggressive, unjustified over confidence. The nature of the mental sets surrounding the concept of self, the realism or otherwise and the impact of these mental sets of the actions and experience of life of the person.

In any particular circumstance any number of these can occur in any combination; multiple dysfunctions are likely the norm.

VALUE YOUR PSYCHE, FOLLOW YOUR INTUITION

You would go to the gym to get fit when you get fat. You would get a massage to "de-stress" and unwind. You would see a doctor when you get sick. What do you do when you're depressed?

Depression can be caused by a lot of stimulants our psyche gets exposed to everyday. Stress, the cause of depression, is everywhere. From the time we wake up, we get exposed to a lot of probable causes. The sad part is not everyone is ready to protect themselves from the stressors in their lives. Not everyone is open to talk about their battering partner, their bullying colleague, their harassing boss, etc. Most people claim it to be something PERSONAL and that not minding people would SEEM to be a rather more PROFESSIONAL approach to the problem. In reality, avoiding to resolve these issues just makes the situation worse. Contrary to suppressing all your pent-up emotions and keeping it all poised under pressure, a person should learn to follow one's true feelings and not let judgement and prejudice get in the way of expressing his or her individuality.

When your intuition tells you to, choose courage. And when you’re completely honest with yourself, your heart will create boundaries to protect you. Choose the courage to allow fear into your conscious psyche. Neither feed nor fight that fear. Acknowledge it and let it be. Your unconscious mind has then no negative signals to send to your DNA.

http://paulcburr.com/category/personal/lifes-changes/

"Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference and/or the use of reason". Most people tend to relate intuition with psychic abilities. However, intuitive and psychic abilities are a natural part of life. Everyone has a psyche, so it follows that everyone is potentially psychic. People in the ancient times may have been believed it to be supernatural but we do not need to follow that predicament in this day and age. For so long, people have been bounded by norms and mores, but still the need to break free from all these pushed through. Throughout time, we have been witnesses to the continuing revolution, evolution, innovation and improvement of life. Thus, our way of thinking should also be flexible and open to new ideas. We cannot  hold on to the same values as before and respond to current situations the way people would a hundred years ago simply because we are living in a world where nothing is constant but change.

When you look at the successful people of today though they seem ordinary but you notice that there is something about them. That something is their “individuality”...We are all unique in our own way but only some of us allow our uniqueness to express itself. Most of us choose the easy way out, to be one of the sheep in a herd and prefer to follow others and be directed.

http://www.ask-gratitude.com/individuality.html

To succeed in life, one has to realize that he is your individual. As an individual, one cannot be affected or hurt by external forces. That is supposed to be the real self is. A person is composed of a "higher self" and a "personality", as one's outer appearance. As Gary Zukav puts it “only personality can feel anger, fear, vengeance, sorrow, shame, indifference, frustration, cynicism and loneliness. Personality is the one that judges, manipulates, exploits and pursue further on external forces. On the other hand, personality can also be loving, compassionate and wise in relation to others. However love, compassion and wisdom do not come from personality; they are expressions of the psyche, which is immortal.

Your personality tries to pull you back but your higher self wants to advance you towards strength and internal power. The more you get closer to your real self, stronger your personality becomes. Individuality is a characteristic of your higher nature. When you realize the presence of “I am” within you, you will feel a sense of power unknown to you before.

http://www.ask-gratitude.com/individuality.html 

A person should still respect the values and traditions of the society you live in but it should never get into the point wherein one should forget about who he or she is. Individuality is something real and each of us has it in us. 

EMPOWER YOURSELF FROM WITHIN

A lot of beauty products are out in the market these days. A lot of advancement in aesthetic technology are being offered with the promise of becoming forever young to conceal the real age of women. Also, we take in a lot of supplements and try a lot of diet and workouts as the witty advertiser's promise of being confident with ourselves appeals to us.

However, real confidence comes from within. There is nothing wrong with being conscious on how we look. But that is just the first step, let us not forget to complete our individuality by surpassing these mundane world's stresses. Let us not ignore our true self and dismiss intuition as nonsense. It is okay to ask help from other people or to find a friend but never let anyone make you deny yourself or forget your individuality in exchange for an untrue friendship/relationship. It will be untrue as you will be befriending that person as the person he/she wants you to be and not your real self.

At Da Seekers Cove, we help bring you back to yourself. We help you to be attuned to your psyche through various methods including the most well-loved tarot cards. We don't judge people who come to see us. All the more that we do not impose a solution that should be done by our client. We are merely guides for you to reach tap your inner and higher self. We are authentic in what we do and we bring out results immediately.  We take pride in being able to help out people. Drop by our center and see for yourself.

SOURCES:

http://www.moa-newcastle.com/2012/05/03/mind-body-personal-space/

http://htpprints.yorku.ca/archive/00000252/01/Consciousness_and_Reality.htm

http://www.grlphilosophy.co.nz/cpmh.htm

http://paulcburr.com/category/personal/lifes-changes/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psyche_(psychology)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupid_and_Psyche

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psyche_(psychology)

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Psyche

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Soul

http://www.grlphilosophy.co.nz/cpmh.htm

http://www.examiner.com/article/signs-of-depression-part-1

http://www.ehow.com/about_4616513_psychic-intuition.html

http://www.ask-gratitude.com/individuality.html