How do we play a part in the ecosystem? My candid thoughts…
I was never good at creative writing in school and yes I studied arts for my advanced level so you would think I picked up the skill along the way but my village people are working extra hard. Taking on this week’s blog has been the source for my anxiety for weeks.
Should I tell everyone my go to story of how growing up I was a nuisance last born sibling who got regular beatings from my older sister and try to make it inspirational. Should I make this about myself or other people, in fact or should i check what had others written about in the past weeks. This was my thought process so here goes…
An ecosystem is a large community of living organisms. In this instance take the world as the community and the people as the organisms. We operate with different goals, different opportunities and different mindsets but we are all trying to survive, do better than yesterday or just outright try something new. Tabula Rasa is a psychological theory stating that ‘’individuals are born without built-in mental content, and therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception.” We are therefore to a large extent a product of our surroundings.
A Thai friend of mine is a lover of all things green. She loves recycling materials, sustainable fashion, anything that saves the climate. Oh she’s also a plant mom. Her plants are well looked after and she will tell you about each and every one of them and how they have different characters.
As weird as that is to me who still complains about paper straws, I would never have learnt about vegetation and how nature is important to Thai People if I had never met her. I would never have learnt how to say K̄hxbkhuṇ (guess what that means and google) if I had not met her.
I could go on and on about how the people I have crossed paths with have left some little impact on how I act either carry myself or react to external stimuli. This is an important reflection because not often do we stop to think about the individuals we have in our many circles, from family to colleagues.
We also don’t often realise how large of a footprint they leave on you, with you or around you.
This could be a habit, knowledge or a skill.
What is your ecosystem like? Do you reflect on the people around you?
Looking from the inside out, we often underplay our contributions to our surroundings. We often undervalue our impact on other people. I am not saying this to boast or speaking from an egoistic point of view but merely trying to give you credit for your actions, and interactions. I am a firm believer of the time and place narrative- nothing happens by chance and we are meant to be in the spaces we are. That being said, YOU MATTER. Your contributions to your ecosystem are significant.
At Africa Healing Foundation, we pride ourselves in putting value in the human resource. Utilising our network to learn from one another and make the best of what we have. We understand that our differences in character, beliefs, expectations or even professional backgrounds creates curious minds. Gestalt theory states that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” According to Gestalt psychology, when trying to make sense of the world around us, we do not simply focus on every small component (in this instance you). Instead our minds tend to perceive objects as part of a greater whole and as elements of more complex systems (your ecosystem). You are therefore a part of a larger existence and that has shaped you in one form or another.
I hope as this week progresses, we all get time to reflect on ourselves and how much better we are today than we were yesterday. I hope as this week progresses we also appreciate that people are more than just how they look. We each represent different aspects to different people within our ecosystem.
A culture, a memory once experienced or a place once lived.
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