Familiarity
Know Yourself
Photos by Don Pierce.
To control the mind, control the breath. For eartHearts, it simply will not be enough to allow the eyes to take them into the world; they need to learn to truly use the ears so that the world can come into them. Sound begins as a vibration of matter and ends as a vibration with meaning––which is why it can be said that “Hearing makes matter...matter.”
One’s self-image determines how one acts. It affects one’s ability to be satisfied, educated, creative, happy, and organized. One’s self-image has four components:
movement—temporal and spatial changes in breathing, eating, speaking, blood circulation, and digestion;
sensation—the five senses plus the kinesthetic sense which allows us to be aware of pain, orientation in space, the passage of time, and rhythm;
feeling—joy, grief, anger, self-respect, inferiority, sensitivity, and emotions; and
thought—imagining, classifying things, recognition of right from wrong, recognizing rules, and all functions of the intellect.
One needs to be self-aware before one can work on self-development. Once one is self-aware one can develop a proper balance of feeling, senses, thought and movement. Without this balance, a person will be limited in his or her ability to create, discover, change, and know. We need to balance the concepts of the cranial brain with the feelings of the enteric brain. We need to sometimes sit still and use our fifty-plus natural senses (described in an earlier course) and, at other times, experience feelings that can only come from movement. Movement without feelings is nothing more than transportation. Feelings without movement is limiting, often too conceptual, and promotes both physical and emotional lethargy. Movement raises one’s energy to levels where a greater variety of feelings can be tapped.
The process of self-awareness requires the answering of a set of questions, as is done in the following activity:
To Self-knowledge…
HumaNatureConnect Activity
Becoming Self-aware
For this activity, work on becoming more self-aware by answering the following questions:
Where do you prefer to focus your attention?
In what ways are you attuned to the external environment?
In what ways are you sociable and expressive?
In what ways are you drawn to the inner world?
In what ways are you private and contained?
How do you take in information and find out about things?
Do you focus on what is real, actual, and concrete; or do you focus on possibilities, abstractions, and the theoretical?
How do you make decisions?
Are you analytical, tough minded, and reasonable; or are you sympathetic,
tenderhearted, and compassionate?
Nocturnal Pilgrimage 2.49:
Tend To Your Dreams Before Heading To The Next Waypoint
Prepare yourself for a good night of dreamful sleep. Wake up and tend to your dreams before you get out of bed.
Think about how the sustainability of the planet is not solely about recycling and doing the other things that make you a good “green” citizen. The sustainability of the planet is ultimately about perpetuating an intimate relationship with nature. Research shows that to truly care about being “green” one has to have meaningful exposure to nature. (Selhub & Logan, 2012, p 3).
How do you orient yourself to the outer world—to externality?
Are you scheduled, organized, methodical, and prefer closure; or are you spontaneous, open-ended, flexible, and like things open to change?
By answering the kinds of questions found in the previous activity you will understand better how your mind functions. You will be able to identify potential problem areas in your personality. You will be able to check communication patterns. By knowing the answers to the previous questions, your reactions can be anticipated, and tasks not suitable to yourself can be better allocated to people with preferences and skills best suited to the job.
Nocturnal Pilgrimage
Prepare yourself for a good night of dreamful sleep. Wake up and tend to your dreams before you get out of bed.
