Healthy boundaries arise from the level of our instinct. They are our deeper wisdom's way of telling us what we need to do or say in order to preserve our well-being. As humans we spend a lot of time and resources creating and maintaining boundaries toward others and toward nature. We spend relatively little time and resources setting inner boundaries toward ourselves. It is the latter kind of boundary that hones our maturity - Continue Reading
How to Use the ‘Map of Emotions’ – The Steps
____________ Why are we not taught this in kindergarten? This is absolutely essential in the 'guidebook' of how to successfully be a human. ____________ Step 1. Become self-aware. Notice how you are feeling. Does it feel good? Does it serve you? Does it inspire you? Does it support your mental, emotional and physical health? If you are already feeling good - great! You may wish to improve it. If Continue Reading
The ‘Map of Emotions’ – #10 – Neutrality
Neutrality is like sitting on a mountaintop. For a moment, it seems there's nowhere to go. All is bliss. Neutrality is the rare experience of unattachment - neither here nor there. From neutrality we collect our inner resources and wisdom for the ascent to the top. For a brief instant, step into the energy field of neutrality. Memories may flash in you, like snapshots on a movie screen. You may feel sensations in your body or hear Continue Reading
3 Purposes of Anger – #2
2. The second way in which most people - as they become more sensitive and alert to the nuances of anger - begin to recognize that they are experiencing anger is this: Before a boundary is about to be breached. They are attentive enough to their inner guidance - their inner wisdom - to recognize that their anger is a premonition. It is giving them foresight, encouraging them to erect a boundary before it is overstepped. As people Continue Reading
3 Purposes of Anger – #1
There are three distinct reasons why anger arises. Anger is an intelligence. It is our higher wisdom - our soul, our 'higher self' - speaking to us. Until now, we've not recognized this. And so we've not realized what it is saying. 1. The first way in which most people begin to recognize that they are experiencing anger is this: After a boundary has been breached. The purpose of anger in this case is to alert them to where Continue Reading
Abdication of Power – Part 2
When we retain our power, on the other hand, we become response-able again. We both maintain within ourselves the wisdom that is always there, that always knows, if we listen deeply enough, what it that we must do to pro-actively ensure our well-being and responsively course correct when it is amiss. And we retain the 100% responsibility for our outcome. This is frightening for many people simply because they haven’t practiced Continue Reading
Abdication of Power – Part 1
We have been taught – at least since several generations back – to abdicate our power and thus our responsibility to others: to others ‘outside’ of us, rather than to rely on and trust our own innate abilities, wisdom, and discernment. We have been taught – without even a word being spoken – at an early age to acquiesce the well-being of our body to a doctor; our teeth to a dentist; our mental health to a psychologist; our Continue Reading
Gandhi – Self-Reflection as a Way of Leading (Part 1)
What’s so intriguing about Gandhi is how he transformed himself. One of the most influential people of all time, he didn’t lead a nation of 400 million Indians to freedom and self-government as the man he was when he began this epic journey. He led it as the man he was committed to becoming. Gandhi’s story – and his incredible and timely / timeless example to us – is that if something isn’t working, we must become what can allow Continue Reading
It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way – Part 2
This is the apparent opposite of how we in our culture currently live. We cannot survive without the infrastructures of our society and the skills of countless other people. At the same time so many of us feel disenfranchised and purposeless. How can we remedy this? Begin to rediscover your survival skills: Learn how to garden, how to build a fire, how to create a natural shelter, how to collect fresh water, how to bury Continue Reading
It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way – Part 1
When I was a young child, I had many insights. I still do. One of my earliest insights arose from a deep, embodied discomfort with how the world is. Before I knew language to describe adult systems I knew that, "It doesn't have to be this way." One of my early childhood Visions / Knowings was this: We would experience complete global harmony if everyone contributed their gifts. And in exchange for everyone Continue Reading