Richard Taite

Yeah, you know, I do think there's a way out, you know, and I do think that there is a way, and I don't want to be just like an optimist, but I mean, I think this is realistic optimism.

You know, I think we've been going on a path before social media, before the pandemic, before artificial intelligence that was in the wrong direction.

And so I actually see these challenges as a wake-up call.

to really identify what really matters.

So one thing that really matters is an internal sense of integration that you're pointing out, this way of being in touch with the inner world, which has been kind of leaving us in modern culture.

And at the same time, be aware of the importance of compassionate, connecting relationships.

So, you know, I mean,

Those two things, the inner and the relational, then can guide us to how we use this artificial intelligence, how we use this moment of social media challenging us in so many ways, to have people go inward.

And in the inward journey, what's been fascinating for me as a scientist and a therapist is there is a way of bringing resilience

through this integrative practice, where you basically take consciousness and you pull it into two parts, the knowing of consciousness, like if I say hello, and the knowns of consciousness, like the word hello.

So when you can distinguish the knowing, which is something called awareness, from the knowns,

magic starts to happen inside the individual.

And when they come from that, I call it a hub of a wheel.

So the knowing is the hub and the outside rim are the knowns.

When you learn to cultivate this distinction between the knowing and the known, when you bring that open, spacious knowing to your relational connections, to people and to nature, even in the face of artificial intelligence and even in the face of all the difficulties we're having with social media, it gives you a kind of internal compass

that I think is gonna have us go in the right direction.

And so I'm actually very hopeful that these challenges

can be seen as opportunities for growth of our human family rather than, oh my God, this is a disaster and it's all terrible.

Of course, potentially it could become that, but we can actually see it as, okay, what's the dance we do today of this challenge rather than, oh my God, this is a threat and my whole nervous system is on threat mode.

You can actually take the stance, I'm turning this state I'm in to a challenge mindset