Dr. John Demartini

Yeah, great question.

So we often tune more into what's missing than what's present.

So if what's missing for me is resource, then I imagine if I had resources, I would be happy, which is why some people are stunned to discover there are wealthy people who are depressed, right?

They're like, you know, why would they, you know, seek out therapy or why would they struggle with confidence when they quote unquote have everything?

But it's like, but it's not everything.

But it sure looks like everything if those are the pieces that are missing.

So, you know, we can be tricked by performance or presentation.

And especially in this time of social media, we use this term compare despair.

It's so easy to say like, oh, look at them.

And we're looking at like their curated life, right?

It looks well put together.

It's well presented or like the matching pajamas, but people are struggling.

So

We get pulled into the performance and think like, if my picture looked like that, surely I would be joyful.

The other piece, which I do think is important in liberation psychology, we talk about the importance of not only looking at the individual, but looking at context.

Because if we just put it on the individual, then we won't pay attention to the ways in which systems affect people's peace or happiness.

And then we'll just say, it's an inside job.

Don't worry about those things.

You should just meditate more.

And so it's a both and.