Millennials: The MeMeMe Generation or the golden builders of tomorrow? July 21, 2013

image by axinia

It’s always been “Damn young people these days” out of the Mouths of Age.

“The world is passing through troublous times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behavior and dress.”

—Peter the Hermit, 1274 (!)

We all know that, and yet every generation seems to be quite different from the previous ones, hand in hand with the evolution of humanity.

Recently many articles have been written about the so called Millenials (birth rates from the early 80s to the early 2000s)- I have summarized what I found interesting and made my conclusions. 

Jean Twenge, the author of the 2006 book Generation Me, considers Millennials along with younger Gen Xers to be part of what she calls “Generation Me”.^[26] Twenge attributes confidence and tolerance to the Millennials but also a sense of entitlement and narcissism based on personality surveys that showed increasing narcissism among Millennials compared to preceding generations when they were teens and in their twenties.

So what do we know about these new people so far?

1.Millennials are the first generation to have a global identity and not a national identity.

2. Every generation has been the “Me” generation at some point. The only major difference now is that millennials have Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to highlight their me-ness.

3. Millenials say: “The olds are calling us narcissistic because we don’t worship children or the corporate workplace, two American religions based on the morality of self sacrifice. We also are extremely well versed in social bullshit and prize self-awareness. We play with that and it looks like narcissism. It’d be more accurate to call us the Theater Generation.”

4. Millenials say: “At any rate, what looks vapid to the outside eyes is really just the self-promotion we HAVE to do in order to get jobs and keep them. What looks like Special Snowflake Syndrome to the outside eyes is really just how we’re trying to stick out in a terrible job market. What looks like laziness and lack of commitment (all those stats about how we are not marrying and not having kids) is the huge economic insecurity we’re all living with.”

5. At a time when our society is in total tilt, the emergence of a paradigm shift centered around joyfulness is a phenomenon that we should be paying serious attention to. This isn’t just a hippie ideology reincarnated in millennial “entitlement.” Joy is an economic force that makes sense. Innovative companies are expanding their definition of profit and are making tangible investments and partnering with groups such as the Kantian Advisors, a consulting firm established by millennial co-founders Alexandra Douwes and Nellie Morris to help integrate purpose in their work because all signs suggest that purpose is the future (source: here)

6. Millennials are sometimes referred to as the Peter Pan Generation, because of the members’ perceived penchant for delaying some rites of passage into adulthood, longer periods than most generations before them. These labels were also a reference to a trend toward members living with their parents for longer periods than previous generations. Many Millennials are delaying the transition from childhood to adulthood as a response to mistakes made by their parents. “In prior generations, you get married and you start a career and you do that immediately. What young people today are seeing is that approach has led to divorces, to people unhappy with their careers … The majority want to get married […] they just want to do it right the first time, the same thing with their careers.

7. Generation MeMeMe has led a trend towards irreligion that has been growing since the 1990s. It also found that a third do not believe in any god and that 41% thought religion causes a lot of evil in the world.

8. Since millenials do not respect authority, they are not outraged by it. That is why they are the first non-riotin teenagers. «MTV has always been a territory free from the parents, -says the president of MTV Stephen Friedman, which now includes parents in almost each of his shows. – One of our studies showed that today’s youth delegate its superego to parents. Even when it comes to the simplest decision – our audience seeks advice from mom and dad. ”

9. Millenials use their communication advantage to knock out the best conditions for themselves to work with traditional institutions. Harry Stiteler, who is recruiting since 15 years into the U.S. Army sincerely admires millenials:
“When I first started watching recruits, it was a generation that had to be constantly told what to do. But a new generation understands everything else before you opened your mouth. They are three or four steps ahead. They come in and say “I will do this, and then I’ll do that, but then I want to do also this and that “.

10. Millenials are persistent and optimistic.  They are  thinkers, rather than dreamers, they are Life hackers. They have no leaders, and that’s why Tahrir Square and Occupy Wall Street had even less chance for success than any of  previous revolutions. However they can be dangerous to the establishment because they don’t believe in it.

11. Psychologists agree on one thing: millenials are sweet. They are friendly and positive. In the recent decade they changed the emotional content of Internet! Internet has always been  50% positive, 50% negative. But today, the ratio of 90 to 10 in favor of the positive.

By reading all that and corresponding it to my experience with this generation (which i am not part of :)) I came up to two main points:

The Millenials are collective and not interested in power, they are not keen on leaders and politics. That is highly interesting because all previous generations starting from Baby boomers seem to have come to break down the System, to riot, to change the whole world order in a dramatic or even aggressive way. The Millenials seem to be much more peaceful and positive.

After the Warrior-archetype of the Baby Boomers, the Millenials are clearly a Child-Archetype, they are infantile and sweet, seeking the true joy and friendship. They are not such desperate seekers as we have been. Are they born already with the Knowledge of Truth?

Whatever it is, if these are people who will run the world community in 10-20 years then we will most probably live in a happier world!

LOVE
axinia

How to enjoy yourself during troubles July 17, 2012

image by axinia

The idea for this post came from my recent holiday experience where due to some technical problems many things went wrong and various difficulties had to be fought.

I noticed with surprise that despite the complicated situation I remained peaceful and yet dynamic and took right and benevolent decisions. Somehow I was not at all bothered, although at times the situation was a total disaster. At some point I realised that this is what my Guru Shri Mataji used to underline many a times: ” you have to enjoy yourself, then nothing can upset you”.  And I was indeed enjoying!

Since my life is in general free of problems, I seldome have a chance to experience it so clearly. However last week I was lucky enough to undergo a good test…  And I found out how easy it is, to enjoy myself in every situation. How did I reach this state? – no idea, most probably thanks to the years of meditaiton :).

LOVE; axinia

What and whom you cannot forgive April 1, 2012

Forgiveness has become a popular topic. Sooner or later you come across this word on the way of personal development.  Many psychologists, healers, spiritual leaders and practitioners will tell you: If your head is full and you are suffering from unclear emotional heaviness you just have to forgive. 

In the classical sense one can/should forgive if one was badly injured (physically or emotionally, often in cases like betrayal). Luckily not everyone has experienced such heavy pains. But the head is still full and life has no joy…what’s the reason then?

I fount out that Forgiveness has a much wider relevance.

 Basically you need to forgive

• when you keep coming back to a certain situation, keep analyzing or criticising others or your own behaviour

• when you keep arguing in your head with a person you had a serious talk even when days, weeks or months already passed

• when you regret you did not find the right word in a situation and you think !oh, i should have said that…next time I will say so and so”

In fact what happens is that your head gets stuck like a computer when it hangs. It just cannot continue working properly!  – Just think of it every time you catch yourself on perpetual one-thought thinking.

How to attain peace, wealth and power? March 19, 2012

Man wants peace, wealth, power, etc., but God is the origin of all these. 

Then why should there not be the desire for God?

Shri Mataji 

 

The top 10 of my strenghts January 3, 2012

It’s time for introspection. Let’s see what we have here. I suggest introspecting on strengths, not on weaknesses. Here is my list. 

1. I am forgiving. Or better to put I have no issue of forgiving because I never feel offended. This such a relaxing point for my brain: I do not hang on any person or situation.

2. I am giving and sharing.  Presents, attention, time…just love doing it!

3. I love people, this means I love to meet, to take care, to enjoy, to support, I took sincere interest in their lives.

4. I live in the present. I enjoy whatever I am doing at the moment. And I do it with dedication, keeping my full attention on the action. This brings great results. Seldom do I think of the past or future, this is not interesting for me.

5. I am self-disciplined. I am very determined as far as my tasks are concerned. At the same time I never set up any goals and never think of what I want to achieve in the future. Whatever comes my way I just follow and fulfill.

6. I manage things fast and in high quality, trying to fix every task as soon as it arrives. I know that procrastination is a tricky thing and once delayed something, it is hard to get on track with it.

Sufism on educating an Infant April 29, 2011

A highly insightful and interesting not only for parents read from Hazrat Inayat Khan.

It is never too soon in the life of a child for it to receive education. The soul of an infant is like a photographic plate which has never been exposed before, and whatever impression falls on that photographic plate covers it; no other impressions which come afterwards have the same effect. Therefore when the parents or guardians lose the opportunity of impressing an infant in its early childhood they lose the greatest opportunity.
In educating the child the first rule that must be remembered is that one person must educate it, not everybody in the family. It is a great mistake when everyone in the family tries to train the infant or to take care of it, because that keeps an infant from forming a character. Each one has his own influence and each influence is different from the other. But most often what happens is that the parents never think of education at all in infancy. They think that is the age when the child is a doll, a toy; that everyone can handle it and play with it. They do not think that it is the most important moment in the soul’s life; that never again will that opportunity come for a soul to develop.

Should the father or the mother educate the child? A man’s life demands all his attention in his work; the mother is born with the sense of duty towards her child, and therefore the mother has the first right to educate it. The mother can also quiet the child in the first days of its life, because the child is a part of the mother, and therefore the rhythm of the mother’s spirit is akin to the rhythm of the child’s spirit. The soul that has come from above is received and is reared and taken care of by the mother; and therefore the mother is its best friend. If there is anything that the father can do, it is to help the mother or the guardian to educate the child. If the child in its infancy were given entirely into the hand of the father, there would be little hope that it would come out right; because a man is a child all his life, and the help that is needed in the life of an infant is that of the mother. Nevertheless, later in the life of a child there comes a time when the father’s influence is equally needed; but that time is not in infancy. As the Brahmin says, the first Guru is the mother, the second Guru is the father, and the third Guru is the teacher.

There are five different subjects in which an infant must be trained in the first year: discipline, balance, concentration, ethics, and relaxation.

White frost: when Nature is a painter January 1, 2011

The phenomenon of frost has been fascinating me since ever…it is so fragile and fine, and yet very powerful because it transforms the whole surrounding and makes a true masterpiece out of every leaf ( of cause any leaf is a masterpiece already, but we are used to their common look)!

It has been a long time dream of mine to capture this moment of white frost in the nature, and I am glad I finally got it! – althouhg, honestly, these images are so far from the real beauty the Mother Nature created and my eyes could see…

All these images I have taken on the 31st of December 2010 – my present to myself for the New Year 🙂

LOVE, axinia

Wonders December 26, 2010

image by axinia

Man looks for wonders; if he only saw how very wonderful is the heart of man!

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There is no source of happiness other than the heart of man.

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He who makes room in his heart for others, will himself find accommodation everywhere.

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There is no greater phenomenon than love itself.

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Love develops into harmony, and of harmony is born beauty.

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In beauty is the secret of divinity.

 

The words of widsom by Hazrat Inayat Khan

The amazing Guru of two religions November 17, 2010

This post is dedicated to the upcoming birthday (21. Nov) of a great Master, Guru Nanak.

 Guru Nanak was born in 1469 in Talwandi, Pakistan and was called a father or what was later called Sikhism. This movement was begun by the Guru Nanak as a challenge to a medieval world dominated by Hindus and Muslims. The Hindus upheld caste law, separating people according to social class. Meanwhile, the Muslims worshipped Allah with little room for tolerance of non-Muslims. Even more important to Nanak than social reform was his belief that his god should be worshiped not through ritual, but through continual prayers to the “True Name.” Nanak believed he could reconcile both Hindus and Muslims to a better path of worshipping the true god who could never be named.

Guru Nanak

By all accounts, 1496 was the year of his enlightenment when he started on his mission. His first statement after his prophetic communion with God was “There is no Hindu, nor any Mussalman.” This is an announcement of supreme significance it declared not only the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God, but also his clear and primary interest not in any metaphysical doctrine but only in man and his fate.

So he began his missionary tours. Apart from conveying his message and rendering help to the weak, he forcefully preached, both by precept and practice, against caste distinctions ritualism, idol worship and the pseudo-religious beliefs that had no spiritual content. He chose to mix with all. He dined and lived with men of the lowest castes and classes Considering the then prevailing cultural practices and traditions, this was something socially and religiously unheard of in those days of rigid Hindu caste system sanctioned by the scriptures and the religiously approved notions of untouchability and pollution.

He spent twenty five years of his life preaching from place to place. Many of his hymns were composed during this period. They represent answers to the major religious and social problems of the day and cogent responses to the situations and incidents that he came across. Some of the hymns convey dialogues with Yogis in the Punjab and elsewhere. He denounced their methods of living and their religious views. During these tours he studied other religious systems like Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Islam. At the same time, he preached the doctrines of his new religion and mission at the places and centres he visited. Since his mystic system almost completely reversed the trends, principles and practices of the then prevailing religions, he criticised and rejected virtually all the old beliefs, rituals and harmful practices existing in the country. This explains the necessity of his long and arduous tours and the variety and profusion of his hymns on all the religious, social, political and theological issues, practices and institutions of his period.

Guru Nanak’s gospel was for all men. He proclaimed their equality in all respects. In his system, the householder’s life became the primary forum of religious activity. Human life was not a burden but a privilege. His was not a concession to the laity. In fact, the normal life became the medium of spiritual training and expression. The entire discipline and institutions of the Gurus can be appreciated only if one understands that, by the very logic of Guru Nanak’s system, the householder’s life became essential for the seeker. The primacy of the householder’s life was maintained. Everyone of the Gurus, excepting Guru Harkishan who died at an early age, was a married person who maintained a family.

How to easily solve conflicts June 5, 2010

This is an old good tick in case you may need one day to make peace between two fighting parts.

The trick is of a purely psychological nature, and thus can be widely applied (there are some other non-psychological  more efficient tricks but they can be only applied by a person who can work with vibrations).

It is an old wisdom but it comes up very fresh even in modern times…

So basically if you have two people hating each other… just start telling each of them separately that the other one was just praising him/her for something (what can be realistic in that case). It is amusing to see the happy and astonished face of the person who hears that… 🙂 It is important to start the procedure simultaneously, so that the both rivals can change their emotions at he same time.