Four Dimensions Of Life

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Human life is one, but if you get closer and look at it from a shorter distance, then you can see aspects of his multifaceted life from different angles, like a photograph in which you can see points at a close position. Man exists simultaneously in all four dimensions, namely physical, social, spiritual and personal. Moreover, this or that dimension in life can have a different meaning and value for each individual person. To understand better yourself or another person, you can peer into life and try to examine it closely, peering into what is happening in all four dimensions. Indeed, only in the case of a harmonious flow of life in all four dimensions, a person feels his life as satisfying and as complete and meaningful.

So, the physical dimension is the physical presence of a person in the world, his contact with the world around him at the level of everyday life, nature, as well as interaction with his own body. We live in a certain climate, country, play sports or have some kind of hobby, our body is sick, and we deal with these diseases in different ways. Strength and weakness, a person's relationship to food, to sex, to childbirth - all these are varieties of the physical world and its different manifestations. It seems that the existence of the physical world can be called a fact or a given, but one should take into account the fact that for each person the experience of his physical world is purely individual and depends on his subjective perception and needs. Thus, each of us has our own subjective reality, which can be very different from the reality of our loved ones, neighbors and just people around, despite the fact that we can live in the same country, in the same climate, suffer from similar diseases and deal with similar deeds. An interesting illustration of this is the example vividly described by Ken Kesey in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Kesey introduces into the novel the hero of the Indian "Leader" Bromden, who has a height of 2 meters, but at the same time feels very "small", he, having such an impressive size and huge body, "shies away from his own shadow."

Our attitude to the natural world can be varied. For example, someone is not able to come to terms with bad weather and at the same time feels severe discomfort, for someone it is not easy to accept age-related changes in their body. In contrast, there are examples of people who live in harmony with their natural world and believe that “nature does not have bad weather,” and body changes are wonderful, as they reflect life experiences that are priceless. The ability to build harmonious relationships with your own body, with the physical world around it is a step towards development, acceptance, deep understanding of yourself and a sufficient degree of awareness of your own life. For example, patients with anorexia nervosa are sensitive to changes in their body, they can reach the very minimum body weight, but in the mirror they see themselves as a huge overweight person, while limiting their contacts with the world and their social connections. There are also women and men for whom aging of the body is a disaster, and rejection of their own body leads to a large number of plastic surgeries. And this still does not bring the desired satisfaction, since the problem of dissatisfaction and rejection lies much deeper.

Measuring the natural world is fundamental. If harmony is achieved at this level, others also have the opportunity to find it.

Social world - interaction with people in society. And close relationships are not part of that dimension. The social dimension is life in a social, cultural, political environment. This is the relationship of a person with his culture, with his language, the history of the country, the power of the country, the political system, and nationality. A person can both feel great and experience various difficulties in their social dimension. The existential direction in psychology adheres to such a point of view, according to which a person should not try to relate with acceptance and empathy to all the people around him. He can express his feelings and emotions, discontent and aggression. He also has the right to express wishes, requests, but must be ready to receive feedback, which can be absolutely varied depending on the feelings, personal experience, beliefs, values of another person. An important and relevant component in the social dimension is the desire for domination, a person's desire for power. The desire for domination and subordination in the social world occurs in people to varying degrees. Most often, a person with a desire to dominate has a desire for people to obey him of their own free will, recognizing his superiority and authority. Submission using the force method does not bring such satisfaction with power as one would like. On this method of interaction, the state system is built, which presupposes the presence of the main person in the state, who has the greatest desire for power and people who obey him. In addition to this example, there are many similar examples from the world around us. The desire for submission is most often associated with the issue of responsibility for one's own life. When the burden of such responsibility is prohibitively large for a person, he chooses a method of submission and a kind of shifting responsibility to another, authoritative person for him, that is, he does not take responsibility on himself, but entrusts his life into the hands of another person. It should be noted that the desire for domination and subordination still exists in the animal world, while in the human world, such processes are complicated by a person's ability to become more aware of the situation and life in general, which brings a large number of additional meanings into the interaction process.

Conflict is an important component of social peace. The concept of conflict in this dimension encompasses many forms and manifestations. K. Thomas notes several main ways of getting out of the conflict: rivalry, compromise, adaptation / concession, withdrawal. The first three methods are based on the principle of people's competition with each other, on the peculiarities of such a situation when there is a certain clash of interests and values that are so fundamentally different and, perhaps, contradict each other that they cannot coexist together. In some cases, a clash is possible, but in defending one's interests and values, this method of interaction leads to rivalry. A person can also choose a way of avoiding conflict and the people around him, choosing solitude and reducing or even eliminating social contacts.

The difficulties of a person in his social dimension can affect his life in other dimensions and, in particular, his personal world.

The personal world of a person is his contact with himself and people close to him, his inner world and the world of intimate relationships. A person's view of himself, self-image, acceptance of his traits, thoughts, abilities, strengths and weaknesses, as well as the search for his place in the world are extremely important components of all life as a process. A person's ideas about himself may or may not be very different from other people's ideas about him. Sometimes it can be completely surprising for a person to receive feedback about him from other people. The inner world of a person includes his thoughts, feelings, ideas, aspirations, imagination. A person can have a rich inner world, deep feelings of feelings in connection with various events in life, feelings towards people, but he can also be surprisingly empty, with meager emotions and undeveloped imagination. A person can feel an inner emptiness when he loses interest in his own life and his own activities.

Talking about himself, a person can pay attention to different facets, focusing on the importance of his physical world. For example, paying special attention to your body, or relationships with people around you, concentrating on superficial contacts in society, thereby highlighting your social world. He may also not pay any attention to his character traits or abilities at all. For many, the search for contact with oneself, with one's own feelings and desires is a rather difficult process that requires deep analysis and attention. We know little about ourselves, and our inner world can be much deeper than we think. A person can recognize himself as the center of his inner world and take responsibility for his own life. Being in harmony with yourself and your feelings is important in order to be able to build close relationships with other people. To be open towards another and to be able to love is a deep big work that requires a certain courage and confidence, a manifestation of trust and faith in ourselves and the other, because by reaching intimacy with another person, we become more vulnerable. All relationships with other people may initially be in the social dimension, but, having recognized a loved one in another person, we can transfer relations with him to the plane of the personal dimension. It is important to remember that only we ourselves can make a person a family and just as a stranger.

The spiritual world is the world of human beliefs and values, as well as its ideological orientation. Here the constituents of the reality of the surrounding world acquire an individual meaning for it. This dimension of human life can also include the attitude of a person to faith and religion. The spiritual world is a very important basis for a person and determines his interaction with the world. The search for and knowledge of their values helps a person to navigate in the world around him and to establish relationships with people. Often times, when a crisis arises, it is important for a person to make a choice between defending their beliefs and retreating. If a person himself doubts his ideals and values, it is difficult for him to defend and defend them, in addition, having his own ideals means taking responsibility for his own moral judgments and decisions. If a person knows his values, principles and beliefs well, then this leads him to a clearer and more confident position of himself in the world, and also helps him in the social world.

All four dimensions of our being complement each other and create a complete picture of our existence. It often seems to a person that he is experiencing difficulties in one dimension. But in order to be convinced of this, it is necessary to turn to others, since one can entail the other. Only when all four dimensions of life are harmonized does a person get the opportunity to live an intense and full life.

Notes:

1. Empathy (from the English empathy) - sympathy, empathy, the ability to put yourself in the place of another person

2. In preparing the article, the materials of the book "Practical Existential Counseling and Psychotherapy" were used by Emmy van Dorzen