Everyone wants to understand themselves more deeply and realize the meaning of life situations. Self-knowledge will help you reach a new level of understanding and come to freedom from past barriers. There is a methodology.
How do we perceive what we see or hear? For example, when looking at a painting or photograph, we first distinguish for ourselves the objects and elements that form the main plot (figure), and then the surrounding details (background). But the image is perceived by us as a whole.
When we walk down the street and see a group of people, our brain organizes them into a coherent unit – a crowd. You perceive it as something unified, not just as individuals.
When listening to music, we distinguish individual notes and sounds, meanwhile the brain assembles them into a sequence to create a melody as a complete musical form.
And we see the horizon, where the sky meets the earth, by uniting heaven and earth.
It’s a Gestalt approach. It helps us to perceive and understand the world as a whole, not as separate elements. It is a psychological theory developed in the early 20th century by German psychologists Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt Koffka. The word “gestalt” means “structure” or “form” in German.
Gestalt theory emphasizes the importance of perceiving the wholeness of objects and phenomena, not just the sum of their constituent parts.
The Gestalt approach has had a significant impact on various fields of psychology, art, design and culture and has helped to explain how people interpret information from the world around them, as well as how perception, attention and understanding are formed.
But of greatest interest is Gestalt theory as applied to understanding human behavior. It is important to know that behavior and mental processes are organized as holistic structures, forming “gestalts”, which are also a sum of components. It should be noted what connection exists between the Gestalt approach and needs, how the human psyche organizes behavior and reactions on the basis of inner desires.
We know that needs can be physiological (e.g., hunger, thirst), emotional (e.g., need for security, belonging), or psychological (e.g., striving to achieve personal goals).
But how do these needs shape our behavior and how are they organized into coherent situational or contextual structures? It turns out that our reactions to various situations, our attention to certain aspects of events, and our behavior are organized around how we perceive and understand our desires and goals.
We want something all the time, and at different points in our lives, certain desires become prioritized.
Often we don’t emphasize a separate need of our own, but see it as part of the bigger picture of our lives. It’s a “psychological gestalt.” As long as the need is not satisfied, it continues to exist, although it goes a little into the background, displaced by other desires, but does not give the person peace of mind, because the goal is not achieved, the action is not finished. That is, the gestalt is “not closed.” The psyche demands that the situation be logically concluded. In the absence of this, she feels discomfort. So because of one unsatisfied desire the whole picture of life is disturbed, we suffer. This means that the human psyche seeks to complete an action or achieve a goal in order to “close the gestalt” and release the negative reaction.
Incomplete gestalts can remain active for a long time and influence our behavior and emotional state – anxiety, dissatisfaction or worry.
An unfinished movie, an unfinished project, an action not performed in time, a reaction to an event not shown. It would seem that this is all in the past. But…
All of this remains active in the psyche and affects our emotional state. We feel an incomplete picture of our lives without it. Like lost puzzle pieces, gaping voids in our minds.
More often than not, communication comes to the rescue in these situations. Talking to another person can complete the unspoken, and their response makes up for the unheard. The right environment helps to finish what has not been done, to realize what has been planned, i.e. “closes the gestalt”. It is important that the environment be non-judgmental and non-judgmental. When you feel accepted for who you are, you can be more forthcoming.
This is not an easy process and it is divided into several stages. The first is to figure out what situations are left unfinished and what emotions they evoke. Reflect on why they are so important to you and how they might be affecting your life now. The second is to speak and communicate your thoughts to others. The third is to put in writing your feelings thoughts and desires related to unfinished situations. Even if you don’t intend to send those letters, writing can help you clarify your feelings. The fourth is to forgive yourself and others. You can’t change the past, but you can learn to forgive yourself and others for mistakes and misunderstandings. The fifth is to reset the gestalts with positive meaning: “Since this happened, it’s better for me.”
But the most important step in this process is the closing of unfinished gestalts through spiritual development, which will help to free oneself from emotional burdens and find harmony within oneself and with the world around us. Spiritual development provides an opportunity to understand ourselves more deeply and to realize the roots and meaning of unfinished situations. Self-discovery and self-development will help you reach a new level of understanding and free yourself from past barriers.
And caring, kindness and love will create a supportive and positive environment and inspire a beautiful new positive picture of being. And, even though in our lives we are faced with the unfinished, unresolved, unspoken, unfinished and unheard unfulfilled, we must remember that there is a possibility to free ourselves from all these gestalts with the help of a close environment, showing care, kindness and love to everyone, even those who are not around. And then the mindfulness of existence and emotional freedom will take over.
