Learned helplessness defines a behavior that has been conditioned by stressful or traumatic experiences, often originating from sustained anxiety or depression. With chronic anxiety, a person might eventually give up or avoid treatment because they believe their condition cannot change. Any situation where a person believes they are helpless or cannot overcome the challenge can lead to the avoidance of performing calculations or creating strategies that might lead to resolution or a better outcome.
There are three components to learned helplessness: contingency, cognition, and behavior. Contingency is the belief we cannot control the outcome. I can’t leave my house or I will get a virus is an example of contingency. Cognition is how the mind explains or justifies the contingency, which relates to understanding. Behavior is the response created by the first two, such as quitting due to the consequences of something outside our control that leads to failure.
Once something is deemed uncontrollable, the negative emotions of anger and resentment, lead to anxiety with a tendency to avoid all aggression. Learned helplessness carries with it low self-esteem and personal responsibility for failure, usually outside one’s control. To stop the perception of imminent failure, it becomes easier not to try at all. Research on this topic has led many to believe learned helplessness begins in childhood and is greatly influenced by caregivers. Let’s turn to a spiritual caregiver to learn more about this subject.
The Earth is the realm of testing, so it is easy to become discouraged in the face of an increased adversity. Oscillating frequencies create vibrations which can entrain the human body. Lower or negative emotions can condition a person to a constant state of anxiety. Higher vibrations can follow the thread to divine love, connectedness, and peace. The environment that holds the dominant vibrations can condition a person to patterns of reactions and behavior.
Human energy is always looking for movement or a place to go. When there is no movement, stagnation can occur. Consciousness energy has unlimited potential and does not remain in a fixed state. A person can go from blissful joy (high vibration) to contracted states of fear, anxiety, or depression (low vibration) in an instant. The more trauma and abuse a person suffers, the greater the tendency to lose hope. Learned helplessness is a contracted state of being. Operant conditioning has led to a learned behavior or familiar feeling of withdrawal.
Awareness that consciousness energy has shifted into a lower vibration is the first step toward changing the behavior. Small steps toward finding a resolution will give the energy body a taste of hope. Prayer, meditation, movement, and activities that make the heart sing and dance will increase the vibration, creating a shift in consciousness. Love for life, love for other humans, love for self is living in higher alignment with one’s birth template. The experience of connecting with divine love opens the door to remembrance of the exhilaration felt when accepting the opportunity to enter the body after falling to the Earth.
With every challenge is an opportunity to shift the conscious state of being to a higher vibration. One experience builds on the next to create character virtues and a zest for living.
Bring joy, ease suffering and create beauty, then dance like you mean it!
Blessings, Russell
“All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.” Noam Chomsky
