The article assumes
you're familiar with:
Premises about
Families
With your childhood and present families in mind, see if you
Agree, Disagree, or are (?) ambivalent
or unsure about these proposals:
Premise 1) Families
have existed in every age and culture because they fill some
core
(nurture) better than other human groups.
Any family can be ranked somewhere
between very low nurturance to very high nurturance using
the traits on page 2, (A D ?)
From one (very low) to 10 (very high),
how would you rate the "nurturance
level" of the family you grew up in? If you're a parent, how high
will each of your kids rank the nurturance level of their childhood
family when they are, say, 35? By the end of this article, you'll have a
better idea of how to answer these questions.
2) The core purposes of
all families are to:
-
provide an
accessible refuge where each member can
feel consistently accepted + valued + appreciated + safe
+ useful + supported + encouraged - i.e.
loved.
Many families also...
-
conceive and/or
nurture children - i.e. provide for their
and growth, and work patiently to prepare minor kids to
become healthy, self-sufficient, productive adults, and
re-sponsible parents and citizens.
(A D
?)
Can you think of any other reasons families exist?
4) The
adult leaders of any family are responsible for
how nurturing their home and family is over time. The
nurturance level of their physical family directly mirrors
(a) the nurturance level and harmony of each adult's personality
and (b) how well they know some
.
(A
D ?)
Premise 5)
Average American (and other?) children raised in a
low-nurturance home and environment
automatically survive
by developing a protective
"false self" and up to five psychological
Without in-formed help and a
higher-nurturance environment, such kids grow up to continue
the [wounds + unawareness]
- they...
-
unconsciously choose wounded partners,
and often divorce one or more times,
-
justify
neglecting
their own health and longevity, and...
-
evolve a
low-nurturance home for any kids they conceive despite
vows not to.
(A D
?)
6) Women and men with
true Selves
don't see themselves as psychologically wounded or
their family as being "low nurturance."
Other
wounded people may say "Sure I have some wounds - everyone
does," and they deny, minimize, or ignore what that
(A
D ?)
|
7) Family leaders can learn how to
and
their psychological wounds and raise their inner
and outer families' nurturance levels at any
time.
(A
D ?) |
8)
Typical high-nurturance families have specific traits (page
2)
that lower-nurturance families don't.
(A D
?)
9)
The unremarked U.S
divorce epidemic is largely due
to...
-
most mates denying or ignoring
their wounds and unawareness;
and...
-
the (wounded, unaware) public
not demanding legislation to improve the nurturance
levels of American families.
(A D
?)
Premise 10)
Typical
family adults and supporters need to know the information
summarized here to...
-
Understand the common
of the [wounds + unawareness]
, so they can...
-
whether any of their
family members are
significantly
so they can...
-
help each other
and...
-
help
courting partners make three informed
and...
-
protect
themselves and their descendents and society from the
ancestral
cycle
of low childhood nurturance
psychological
wounding
low
nurturance
divorce.
(A D ?)
Recall - these are premises about functional
(high-nurturance) families.
11) The
nurturance-levels of your birth and present families
powerfully affect your
wholistic health
achievements, priorities, and relationships. You have
many choices about assessing and improving your current
levels. A useful way to begin is to study
and use these
tools. Then decide if you want to act. People ruled by false
selves often aren't motivated to do this unless they
(A D ?)
12) Family leaders who provide
high-nurturance homes were usually well-nurtured by their early caregivers at home, school, and
church. Personal wholistic health and family nurturance seem to
re-produce naturally, and vice versa: low childhood
nurturance and related psychological wounds
the generations, until identified and intentionally
healed. (A D ?)
Do you have dependent
children and/or grandchildren?
13) High-nurturance organizations, like schools, teams, committees,
churches, communities, governments, and businesses all have
common traits. Typical
group members
display characteristic be-haviors like
these. People whose
inner families
have high-nurturance levels tend to join or create
high-nurturance social environments, and vice versa. (A
D ?)
14)
Families and other groups which
don’t fill members' current primary needs (nurture)
very well are called
Most U.S. families and schools appear to be moderately to
very dysfunctional. It's our current cultural norm,
so few people are concerned enough to work toward raising
and
revising state and federal laws to improve this. (A D
?)
Premise 15)
Key questions about
any family (like yours) are:
-
How wholistically-nurturing
is or was it (very low to very high) for all members -
i.e. how many of these nurturing traits
have been consistently present?, and...
-
What
psychological, physical, and spiritual
has this had on each family member?
(A D
?)
|
16) Kids who consistently get enough
nurturance at home, school, and church (a
subjective judgment) usually mature into what may be called
Grown Nurtured
Children, or GNCs. Adults who were
unintentionally deprived in early childhood of "too
many" nurturances too often may be called
or GWCs.
|
Each of your family adults falls (subjectively)
somewhere on a line between "major GNC" and "major GWC."
This has implications
personal,
marital, and family harmony or stress. (A D ?)
17) My clinical research since 1979
suggests that most
troubled and divorcing couples are GWCs in
of their wounds and their
toxic effects. Few family adults,
human-service
or legislators seem to (want to) know this. Many are wounded
themselves and in denial. (A D
?)
Premise 18) Typical
GWCs and their kids exhibit clear
personal traits and group
behaviors. These traits, and
characteristics of their childhood
family and their ancestral
family trees, provide four ways to
assess for significant psychological
wounding.
Accepting and reducing (vs. curing)
such wounding
can...
-
reduce a major marital
and...
-
break the unseen generational
of significant wounds and unawareness,
and...
-
help
recovering adults raise the nurturance levels of
their relationships and families. (A
D ?)
Pause, breathe, and reflect - what did you just
learn?
These premises
build on those under-lying this nonprofit Web site. Note that the
Lesson-1 guidebook
Who's
Really Running Your Life? (Xlibris, 2011,
4th
edition) integrates key Lesson-1 Web articles. It focuses on understanding and identifying psychological wounds and practical
options for reducing them over time.
With all this in mind, meditate on these
thoughts from and about the
kids in your life.
Then pause and
reflect - why did you read this article? Did you get what you
needed? If not, what
you need now?
Please answer this 1-question
The Web address of this
two-page article is
http://sfhelp.org/fam/health.htm