– Heartwood Path Waypoint 1.43 –

Levels And Forms

Combine All Levels Of Personal Development — Archaic, Mythic, And Rational -- With Higher, Trans-personal Forms Of Thinking, Speaking, And Acting
​

The Heartwood Path is a route of study, worship, service, wealth (not just monetary), fulfillment of desires, right livelihood, and liberation of the Soul. Along this path, you will discover how to move from dependence to independence to interdependence. It is this last stage that makes this pathway unique.

Typically, self-help books encourage us to think of ourselves as individual agents needing improvement to succeed. This is true, but incomplete. We also need to work to improve the environment in which we live and we need to open ourselves up to the nurturing embrace of Nature. The Heartwood Path uses Nature’s gifts and the concepts of self-help, relationship improvement, and environmental protection to create a new way to benefit humaNature.

The Heartwood Path is routed to allow a person to leave behind endeavoring in fear and dependency. The Heartwood Path helps people trade such striving for arriving at a “place” where love overcomes fear.

For those who find themselves at the mythic level of personal development and therefore have a certain set of religious-based responses, the frequent praising of The Absolute (which, by definition, can include the Judeo-Christian God) along the Heartwood Path will be welcome. While much of this course will be framed in rational and secular terms, it recognizes that to be fully developed one needs to integrate archaic, mythic and rational (scientific) modes of expression.

Embracing all levels—archaic (nature worshiping), mythic (deity worshiping), and rational (reliance on the scientific method) —within one’s personal development leads, after the kinds of practices described in this series of courses, to a personal trans-rational transformation. Thus, the Heartwood Path does not encourage the denial of magic, myth, or reason, but a going beyond all shallower levels to deeper trans-personal forms (modes) of thinking, speaking and acting. These modes will be described later in this series of courses.

Those who do not undertake a spiritual quest such as the one undertaken along the Heartwood Path often end up feeling numb, traumatized, and valued for what they do rather than for who they are. Those who shun such pilgrimages may end up living their lives on distorted beliefs and with low self-esteem.

In doing the activities that follow, be sure to remember not to be self-critical.  Inner peace comes from acceptance of your current qualities while also identifying, not in a harsh way, what aspects of your life you could stand to improve.

To A Look At Self-esteem…

​HumaNatureConnect Activity
​

If this is not a day when you prefer to spend time in nature without an agenda, do the following activity:
​​​

Start-up Protocol
​

• 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 The Rift Between Where You Are And Where You Would Like To Be Regarding Self-esteem
​

For this activity, use the clarity and calmness imparted by your chosen natural being to help you assess your self-esteem. Write down where you are with self-esteem now. Then write down in your journal where you would like to be with self-esteem in the not-too-distant future. If you have difficulty or would like a second opinion, assume the essence of your chosen natural being and, as it, tell yourself what you need to know about your self-esteem. Identify the rifts between where you are now and where you want to be as either “Expansive,” “Workable,” or “Inconsequential.” These are assessments of quality and not quantity.  Affirm that your positive self-esteem makes you happier and, since you are not fighting low self-esteem with the false-comforts of excess consumption, your positive self esteem makes the environment more sustainable. 

​​​​Follow-up Protocol
Natural Systems Reflection Process
​​

     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.
​

Journal Components
​

• 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
​

• 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

​​​

Your input is vital. Enjoy sharing!

Heartwood Path Axioms:
Key Assertions From Waypoint 1.43

1.43.1.
The Heartwood Path uses Nature’s gifts and the concepts of self-help, relationship improvement, and environmental protection to create a new way to benefit humaNature.

1.43.2.
Embracing all levels—archaic (nature worshiping), mythic (deity worshiping, and rational (reliance on the scientific method) —within one’s personal development leads, after the kinds of practices described in this series of courses, to a personal trans-rational transformation.

1.43.3.
Those who do not undertake a spiritual quest such as the one undertaken along the Heartwood Path often end up feeling numb, traumatized, and valued for what they do rather than for who they are.

1.43.4.
Those who shun pilgrimages may end up living their lives on distorted beliefs and with low self-esteem.

Nocturnal Pilgrimage 1.43:
Tend To Your Dreams Before Heading To The Next Waypoint

Tonight, when you dream, and tomorrow, when you record your dreams, approach the images with an open, accepting, dreamlike attitude.  Notice how this approach to dreams brings them to life.  After making notes about your dreams in your journal, move to the next waypoint: “Stirring Irritations.”

Click here to go to 
the next waypoint:
"Stirring Irritations"

You have now completed 43 out of 117 waypoints in Kosmos.