This. Book! Do you ever find yourself scratching your head and wondering why in the world a person, an organization, or even a whole society acts the way they do? Are you interested in people and what makes them tick? Dr. Rapaille has some fascinating insights into this.
So, what is the Culture Code and what does it have to do with nourishing body and soul? The Code is, "the unconscious meaning we apply to any given thing--a car, a type of food, a relationship, even a country--via the culture in which we are raised." (pg.5, The Culture Code) The connection with nourishing ourselves comes through the understanding we can gain by learning about the impact our culture has on us.
The tag line on the book reads, "An ingenious way to understand why people around the world live and buy as they do." While this book is undoubtedly valuable to those involved in marketing, it's so much more than that. Dr. Rapaille shares how he is able to understand a person's core beliefs, often using as examples how he has assisted corporations with marketing various products. As we understand cultural beliefs, we can then question the impact those beliefs have on us personally.
Let me give you an example.
The Code for health and wellness in America is MOVEMENT. Considering that, it's easier to see why so many Americans want to live at a faster and faster pace, filling every spare moment with something that appears to keep their lives moving. It also explains why so many are burning out and why we're seeing a backlash against that in the form of more and more people longing for slower activities like yoga and meditation. Yet even as more people long for slowing down, they feel a degree of guilt if they actually do.
Related to health and wellness are those we've put in a position of caring for our wellness: doctors and nurses. The Codes for doctor and nurse are HERO and MOTHER, respectively. Can we appreciate the depth and power of those words? If we view doctors as heroes, why are there so many people who dislike and distrust them? On the surface that doesn't seem to make sense, but if we think about it, it's likely that our viewing them, consciously or subconsciously, as a hero is precisely why we have issues with them. Doctors are human; they make mistakes. But heroes don't. Our hero is supposed to be perfect. If they are ever wrong, or even just unsure, we resent them for not living up to our belief.
Once we know the code for health, doctor, nurse, or anything else, we can then question whether we want to continue buying into them. We can ask ourselves if MOVEMENT is what represents health and wellness to us and if we want it to. Is there a different view that would serve us better?
The more we learn about what our cultural codes are and how they impact us, the better we will become at recognizing this aspect of why we behave the way we do. From there we can decide if these codes are working well in our lives or if we want to make a different choice.
If this gets your brain cells firing like it does mine, if you're curious about the codes for other things like love, seduction, sex, beauty, fat, home, dinner, money, and so much more, read this book. It will broaden your mind, for sure.
I'd LOVE to hear your thoughts on this intriguing topic.