Vital attitude is the set of behaviours and strategies that are implemented through decisions, both large and small, that shape the individual's tendency to gain or lose psycho-emotional and vital energy. Their quality depends on the degree of acceptance or denial of problems (accumulated, current or future), as well as the motivation and interest to face up to them or not. Vital attitude is the result of the interaction between the processes of interest, intention, intent and will.
We need to constantly renew and have sufficient functional energy, which is necessary to achieve a good or better adaptation to the external environment (surroundings, environment, relationships) and to the internal environment (physiology and psyche). We are a living system, we need energy and resources to maintain balance and also to continue to incorporate learning.
We human beings are different from the rest of the known living beings in the sense that, although we have the same innate impulse to conserve, increase and transmit our essential characteristics, this impetus can be blocked by a bad or ineffective attitude towards life. This is due to the large degree of freedom we have at our disposal. Our great capacity to decide is brought about by a stronger manifestation of our selfhood, and with it, of our capacity to control the automaton and its inertias.
Nevertheless, a good part of our behavioural and relationship patterns are automatic and, at times, unconscious. They were transferred to us or we learned them, and we executed them as inertia (relative freedom, determinism). On the other hand, the choices made at any given time, although influenced by automatic patterns, are fundamentally conscious and voluntary (real operational freedom, degree of freedom).
A very serious problem when it comes to confronting the task of changing our behaviour is that a large part of it is fiercely defended by the individual, due to its assimilation, not as learning, strategy or ways of relating, but as something more fundamental, something that is part of one's own identity (“I am like that”). This is a mistake made by the individual due to the pressure of the egoic (automatic) mind on the original (volitional) mind. Fortunately, as we have seen, this can be corrected through the refinement of interest, intent and by making the correct decisions. Neither behaviour nor personality are the self itself. Conducts are the outer functions of personality, behavioural programs or skills. The mechanisms of selection of objectives and decision making are highly – but not completely – conditioned by the inertia of the automaton.
Not everyone agrees that it is possible to change through trying and improving one's vital attitude, or that this is, indeed, the best option. The use of drugs, both by medicine and directly by the individual, seeks to modify behaviour (and its associated feelings) by means of altering bodily and psychological automatisms. Furthermore, within the world of alternative therapies, systems such as hypnosis and the like – and even Bioenergetic Resonance – focus on intervention in automatic mechanisms, conscious or unconscious, to help the individual change his or her behaviour when necessary. It is true that most people dream of reaching a point where effort or pain no longer exists (the archetype of salvation), but the preference for this option in which everything happens without having to make the decision to improve, in my opinion, is fraught with serious dangers.
On the other hand, at any given moment it is possible for us to make decisions other than inertial ones through an extra investment of energy and effort; this is called using the degree of personal freedom. If the result of our decisions or automatisms is detrimental (loss of energy and symmetry in the body or mind), what can we do? Pay more attention and be clearly determined to change our behaviour in the way we consider most favourable, rather than waiting for something or someone to change it for us. Self-observation and the study of the environment are indispensable when it comes to having sufficient capacity for assessment to help us make different decisions and implement new strategies.
The speed of attention allows for the early detection of a bad decision (one that would result in a loss of energy and symmetry). To change the decision implies having to modify the behaviour that sustains it in favour of a better one. This is called learning and development. Again, this requires a certain amount of effort. By properly managing our decisions and intent, a greater and growing balance can be achieved between the external and internal worlds. As we will see farther on, one of the indirect methods to improve the speed of attention is through the daily practice of meditation.
If you are a warrior and you are standing on a mountaintop, you know that you are not there "because the time has come or because it had to happen". You understand that you are there after a great deal of preparation and through your effort, through your intent, which is a combination of full control and letting yourself go. First, you had to assess the possibilities, study the terrain, have the right tools and learn how to use them, plan the trip, collect good companions for the journey, and acquire the necessary resources. You had to get to the base of the mountain and set up camp there, get up very early, when it was still dark, and assess whether the conditions were right to start climbing. Then you decided to go upwards. You had to believe you would make it to the top. But it was also necessary to accept beforehand the possibility that you might have to go back, or that even your bones might end up in the bottom of the abyss. You prepared yourself, both to live and to die. It is not by chance that you are there, nor is it by fate. This was your decision, since a long time ago, with all the consequences that it entailed. And when you achieve it you know that you will have to go down again, because there are other mountains to climb and conquer, as long as life continues to flow through your being. Oddly enough, to climb a mountain you spend most of your time looking at the ground.
Do you focus on what you are lacking or on what you are doing, on how far there is still to go or on whether you are going, on achieving or on keeping going, on the destination or on the journey, on the goal or on the process?
A positive attitude toward life is one that leads the person to pay sufficient attention to themselves and to give strength to the true interest that is necessary to consciously modify strategies, behaviours and decisions that are malfunctioning or are in need of improvement. This increases both the chances of adequately meeting needs and solving problems and, additionally, to seize the good opportunities when they arise, thus expanding resources and learning. At the same time, the development of essential virtues (motivation, prudence, patience, persistence, kindness and temperance) must be actively pursued while integrating new learning and skills. It is the individual themselves who must make the choice that their innate capacity for evolution continues to develop tirelessly until the very moment of death.
In reality, it matters little if you have achieved your goals; the truly important thing is to go in the right direction. Interest should not be a matter of taste, but rather of necessity. If something is genuinely necessary for you, it is up to you to make it your interest – this is what it means to have a truly good vital attitude.
Vital Attitude by Chema Sanz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.