Work provides us with time structure, it provides us identity, it provides us purpose and it also provides us social interactions with others. When you lose all that, it creates a lot of difficulties for people. People with fewer financial resources and those who perceive more financial strain from unemployment are less satisfied with their lives. Reframing is a technique used in therapy to help create a different way of looking at a situation, person, or relationship by changing its meaning. Distorted thinking can cause psychological distress and contribute to mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety. When you can’t change a situation and suffer from being trapped reframing can help you gain some peace and insight into your problems. A lot of self help books are based on reframing and terrible anecdotal stories; so why bother reading them when you already know the ending to their stories and their agenda. Religious books and philosophy books also promote reframing by changing the way you think about your problems. People are by nature walking talking problems; one mans peace is another mans misery and vice versa. One man sees only the negative in the world another sees awe and beauty. Although things may never change in your favor it’s better to make the best of a bad situation rather than let it slowly destroy who you. Choose to reframe.
In fact never stop learning!
And always work
Its funny i was literally just reaearching manual work in the monastic life then i came here and saw this post
It’s difficult to reframe poverty where you have no income, food, or shelter security. Where you don’t have security of access to your medications or needed health care. Whatever problems I have from the stress of working, I’ll take them over the stress that accompanies poverty.
Mental illness is often associated with a trapped state of poverty. I agree it is difficult to reframe poverty. Some religions do a good job reframing poverty to give hope to the hopeless. Seeing the kindness of strangers versus ruthless capitalists. Eventually all of that change could lead to a better life or an escape from ones troubles lessening their burden if even for a moment.
Is there ever a right time to see the good in the world? When is that time? Should we all be realists and not idealists? Should we only see the good in the world when it coincides with our definition of good?
There is a time when things will be good… all with be made well
I think poverty is not the real bottom rung of human society but that it is kept there to make an example of the sick, idle, lazy, undisciplined, disabled etc. and held as an example of failure like an image of hell to scare people straight into desired behavior. But I don’t think poverty has to exist in modern human society, in fact I think a basic standard of living can be attained for everyone, that might not take the form of UBI, it could mean building lots of housing to decrease the cost of housing, and making basic food like grains, vegetable, fruit, and beans and milk guaranteed for everyone with basic food vouchers, but people have to pay for a more varied diet.
I’m not sure I can digest a Christian view. I am a recovering Catholic as I like to call myself
The reframing advice is brilliant
I would love to get a part time job working in a book or media store.
But public transportation is just terrible in my city.
A fifteen minute car ride is like an hour and a half on the bus.
Plan for the best and prepare for the worst. Idealism is generally a luxury of people who have privilege and resources. The closer you get to the bottom, the less manners matter as you’re just trying to stay alive and to minimize suffering.
I think poor people are realists but I also think they’re the biggest idealists. They all believe they’re gonna win the lotto even if the chances are 1 in a billion. Is that realism?
Is that hope or desperation though? Some of the biggest dreamers, and the most influential people have come from very humble roots. I guess it’s a question of moral poverty vs Financial poverty?
It’s not the words I’m looking for, but I can’t think right now
Or another one: poor people dream of meeting a rich spouse to take care of them: it’s an archetype deeply imbedded in our culture. It’s idealistic.
I respect your opinion but the truth is that poverty is not some kind of artificial institution that is kept in place. (per se). Poverty is lack of money! And lack of opportunity. Lack of resources that turns into an endless cycle of families unwillingly repeating the same things their parents lived through that keep them from climbing out of it.
Yes, in some countries the poor are victimized by the privileged who make it almost impossible to get out of the cycle of living in squalor and disease and having nothing. Your ideas about solving poverty are not unfamiliar. Using the United States as an example, our government may be in the best position of any other country to solve poverty. Not taking into account the economic impact of COVID, we had more natural resources in our country that most nations. More opportunities.
The state of poverty has been around since civilization began. We’ve tried to fix it for many years. Even in this day and age where “the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer” and we have the people at the top keeping those at the bottom down, our government still tries to help the disadvantaged in this country.
Look at everybody on this site. We may be below the poverty line but where else in history are the poor able to afford the luxury of the equivalent of a computer?
Anyways, there’s no easy fix for poverty. It is entrenched in so many areas.
It’s funny how when people in poor areas loot stores during riots, they generally don’t take things one would associate with an idealistic lifestyle.
Ha. I think we hit reductio ad surdum