– Heartwood Path Waypoint 1.34 –

Introspection

Assess Your Spiritual Fitness
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Without the ability to listen or to be introspective, one misses vital signals the universe sends on one’s behalf. When, metaphorically speaking, the dripping faucet of life’s little warning signs fails to motivate us to do the preemptive work of a person-perfecting plumber, life sends a tidal wave just to stir us out of our slumber. Introspection, a crucial task of those who follow the Heartwood Path, is important because the fabric of life in the outer world is a precise weave of the thoughts and feelings in one’s inner world.

Experiencing one’s own inner world is a silent activity. Silence gives access to a clear mind; which, in turn, allows one to be more aware of the ebb and flow of energy and of the penetrating and projecting qualities of energy. Silence also allows for the revelation of negative energy often hidden by the clamor of life. Once revealed, negative energy can be processed and released. Thus, silence is not only golden; it is inspiring, as well.

Processing one’s own psychological pain or emotional suffering brings a bonus. When those who have not engaged in such processing face danger or disaster they tend to panic and fail. Conversely, those who have already experienced and processed calamities garner the necessary inner strength to overcome adversity, succeed in their outer world goals, and grow towards spiritual maturity (perfection). 

​Such experiences and processing affect or indicate one’s spiritual fitness. Assess yours in the following activity.

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To Assess Your Present Spiritual Fitness...

​HumaNatureConnect Activity
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If this is not a day when you prefer to spend time in nature without an agenda, do the following activity:
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Start-up Protocol
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• Read The Text — Use your literary sense, your mind sense, and your reason sense  to read your way towards happiness and sustainability but do not just be an arm-chair traveler. Use your other natural senses as you also spend healthful, fun, and productive time in nature on your way to Gladandgreen Junction.
• Attractive Natural Being — With pen and journal in hand, go to a natural area and look around to find a natural being that is attractive to you.
• Appreciation and Gratefulness — While admiring your chosen being, appreciate it with your inhalations and give it gratitude with your exhalations.
• Consent — Once you find an aspect of nature that is attractive to you continuously for at least ten seconds, think of your continued attraction as your consent to have a connection experience that will lead to your optimal functioning.
• The Natural Senses — After gaining consent to enter into a connection experience with the natural being, have available the list of Natural Senses. Mix it up by using at least one radiation sense, one feeling sense, one chemical sense, and one mental sense, to widen your perception, and add variety to your experience.
• HumaNatureConnect Activity — After reading the text, finding a natural being, appreciating it, gaining its consent, and scanning the list of natural senses, use your heightened awareness and nature-induced optimal functioning to do the following activity and engage in as many follow-up components as you see fit.

Assessing Spiritual Fitness
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For this activity, use a scale where 1 is strongly disagree, 3 is neutral, and 5 is strongly agree with the following statements aimed at assessing your spiritual fitness: Your life has lasting meaning. Your life is connected to all of humanity and the whole world.  Your job has lasting meaning. Look over your responses and write in your journal what they say about your spiritual fitness.

​​​​Follow-up Protocol
Natural Systems Reflection Process
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     For best results, write down your impressions of this activity in your journal using as many of the following components as you see fit, afterwards, share your interpretations with others.
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Journal Components
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• General Description — writing a general description of how you did the activity and what happened.
• Freeform — writing, in freeform, what you found attractive about your natural being.
• Three Qualities — writing down three qualities you found most attractive about your natural being.
• Three Learnings — writing down three things you learned from this activity.
• Self-esteem & Trust — writing down how, if at all, this activity changed your self-esteem or trustfulness of Nature.
• Changes To Self — writing down what aspects of your self, if any, were changed by this activity.
• Honor Yourself — praising yourself and your commitment to making another stop along the Heartwood Path good for yourself and the world.
• I’m A Person Who . . . — writing down three different so-called “G/G Statements” using the following format: “This connection experience tells me that I am a person who__________.”
• Feelings If Activity Taken — writing down a sentence about how you would feel if you lost your ability to experience this connection.
• Two-Word Summary — writing down two words that summarize your response to this activity.​

The Heartwood Path Exchange:
Swap Your Ideas, Impressions, Photos, And News With Others
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• Post your impressions and photos in the Comments at the bottom of the page
• Engage with others in your Heartwood Path course or salon
• Create your own salon that meets regularly online, by phone, or in person
• Discuss your impressions with trusted family members and friends
• Post your impressions and photos in our EartHeart Networking Forum
• Post your impressions on this specific waypoint on our Facebook Page
• Join the broader conversations on our Facebook Page
• To see what conversations you can inspire, share your photos and impressions about anything pertaining to your journey down the Heartwood Path on your Facebook page, on Instagram, and on other social media accounts. If you like, include “#heartwoodpath” and “#waypoint(insert waypoint number here)” wherever pertinent

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Your input is vital. Enjoy sharing!

Heartwood Path Axioms:
Key Assertions From Waypoint 1.34

1.34.1
When the dripping faucet of life’s little warning signs fails to motivate us to do the preemptive work of a person-perfecting plumber, life sends a tidal wave just to stir us out of our slumber.

1.34.2.
Silence gives access to a clear mind; which, in turn, allows one to be more aware of the ebb and flow of energy and of the penetrating and projecting qualities of energy. 

1.34.3.
Silence also allows for the revelation of negative energy often hidden by the clamor of life.

1.34.4.
Once revealed, negative energy can be processed and released.

1.34.5.
The fabric of life in the outer world is a precise weave of the thoughts and feelings in one’s inner world.

Nocturnal Pilgrimage 1.34:
Tend To Your Dreams Before Heading To The Next Waypoint

For some time now you have been practicing dream association––correlating your dreams as signs of repressed anger or hidden wishes.  You have also been amplifying your dreams, growing them into universal symbols, well known stories, and archetypes. Now it is time to start practicing the third way of dream tending.  This stage, called “animating,” will the most important way we will be tending to your dreams as you progress down the Heartwood Path.  To animate a Dream Image, “you bring it to life in the here and now, rather than associating to the past or amplifying it into a myth of story” (Aizenstat, 2009, p. 23). Notice what the image is doing, how it is moving, how it is interacting with you, and how it affects you. Write your impressions in your journal.  You are now ready to continue this course. Move to the next waypoint, titled “The Journey,” and prepare to grow up more fully. As an alternative, go someplace else and hope that you somehow learn how to act right in public. As we all know, it is not productive to fret over the good ole days. Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.

Click here to go to 
the next waypoint:
"The Journey"

You have now completed 35 out of 117 waypoints in Kosmos.