Page 188 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

a dmi ni st ering sacr e d nu rs i ng a ct s
A person’s need for activity-inactivity is fundamental and central to
one’s life, as it affects the ability to move about and interact with his or
her environment and to control one’s external and internal surround-
ings. Activity and meaningful work and service through activity bring
satisfaction and purposive meaning to life. Just as all human needs are
holographic and each one affects the others, one’s activity-inactivity
need affects the ability to express oneself freely. Motion and activity
are channels for expressing a broad range of emotions and abilities in
the world, affecting one’s behavior, lifestyle, communication, work,
service, and so on.
This activity-inactivity need is connected energetically and meta-
phorically/metaphysically with being “grounded” in the earth plane,
in that it encompasses physical body and support. It includes the spine,
legs, and feet, which are connected with one’s ability to provide for
life’s necessities: ability to “stand up” for self. In addition, this need is
physically associated with the muscular and skeletal systems.
In alignment, this need for activity-inactivity contributes physi-
cally and energetically to one’s ability to trust life, to see larger pat-
terns related to values, ethics, courage, and selflessness beyond self
(Myss 1996).
The integration of this basic need is tied to personal development,
learning to make choices and to take responsibility for one’s actions in
the world that go beyond group-mind. In other words, it is linked to the
maturity to metaphorically and metaphysically “stand in place” in one’s
world, with coherent actions, beliefs, courage, strength, and integrity.
Activity-inactivity at the biological level channels energy construc-
tively for efficacy, maturation, novelty, mastery, competence, and vari-
ety. In activity-inactivity, the need for relaxation, sleep, rest, reading,
meditation, and so on, replenishes one’s source and store of energy.
Both activity and inactivity are crucial to human existence, and the
expenditure of energy in ways that are nourishing, fulfilling, meaning-
ful, and so on, is an important consideration. One wants to be cogni-
zant of how one uses life energy; it can be channeled in ways that are
restorative and replenishing, nourishing to self. Without being atten-
tive, however, one can dribble life energy away on activities that are
not meaningful or constructive for well-being.

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