Artful Self-Stewardship and Adventure through a Personal Principles and Habits (PPAH) Tool: Insights from First-Generation Immigrant Americans Stories
- E.J. Bahng (Iowa State University)
- Carmen Gomes (Iowa State University)
Abstract
As a citizen of the 21st century, the need for sustainable and reciprocal relationships with self, others, and the world has become essential for humanity’s well-being and for humanity’s survival. Drawing from the literary, philosophical, and scientific quests of Leo Tolstoy, Ken Wilber, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, we conceptualized that “focus and communication” reside at the junction of I (self), We (culture), It (behavior), and Its (various systems, including nature). We propose that a simple tool can be used to live at the junction of these four worlds. As a practical step, we will introduce a Personal Principles and Habits (PPAH) tool in the pursuit of the gift-based reciprocal state of mind for one’s artful self-stewardship and adventure. Stories from first-generation immigrant Americans will be shared and mapped with the PPAH tool, which was inspired by Robert Ardrey’s and Etienne Wenger’s thinking on the nature of human being and human community. The PPAH was developed and based on three questions: What grounds me (security)? What characters do I practice (identity)? and What animates me (stimulation)? Finally, the PPAH tool urges session participants to think of meaningful and personal ways to “be broadly beneficial.”