Competence, Sense of Agency and Periods of Ambiguity & Liminality

     We work so hard to feel and be seen as competent. This quest to be good enough consumes much of our life. Yet, no matter how hard we try, there are regular, unavoidable times of transition in life - several during training, starting work, marriage, break-up, moving, serious illness - our own or loved ones', retirement, death - of loved ones' and inevitably, our own.
     Even during a single day, we have moments where we feel "the illusion of control," then fairly quickly we wake up to reality. The problem is not so much that life is incomprehensibly complex, it's that we keep worrying that we should be able to understand and control it - or at least the healing & mortality aspects. A major underlying problem is that our current Western society has lost the meaningful rituals that help smooth out and help integrate important transitions in our lives. We're becoming great at counting stuff ... and forgetting the things that really count.

     See: http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/06/liminality-insight-into-emptiness.html
     and: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/10/425-arising-urges-to-be-squirrel.html
     and: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2013/08/developing-strong-sense-of-efficacy.html 

Brazo   www.dpreview.com