Scrutinize
Follow But Keep Your Eyes Open
To be a good follower, commune with nature* and then consider how you can recognize the need for leadership, manage your expectations so you are not wanting too much, determine what part in an enterprise you can perform, and give helpful feedback.
Unless I am one of your cherished long-term buddies, you do not know me well enough for me to be a trusted model or mentor. Writing this book does not qualify me for being a sage. My experience tells me what things are impossible to achieve. While sounding like a skill, this perspective is a fault. It is far better to be so naïve that you go ahead and muddle your way to impossible achievement.
Unless you are one of today’s youth, who tend to claim to know everything, don’t try to give consultations. In most matters, be a coach rather than a consultant.
Fortunately you do not need to know everything to be a good life coach. That job requires an ability to ask questions, not to answer them.
Everyone ought to know that I would not make a good guru because I am not young enough to know everything. Still, what I write here deserves to be scrutinized and applied to your life in ways you determine to be suitable. Subject all that I say to critical analysis. And accept or reject my message on the basis of your own understanding.
To Enthusiastic Adherence…
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.
Following With Open Eyes
For this activity, become a good follower by 1) recognizing the need for leadership, 2) making sure you are not wanting too much by managing your expectations, 3) thinking about your part in the enterprise plus whatever may be good for the whole enterprise, and 4) giving reasonable and helpful feedback.
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.
Nature Compared To Self — creating a sentence that reads: “I love this (insert words that identify the attractive natural being) because it is (insert words that refer to the qualities you like about the natural being).” Then, creating a parallel sentence that reads: “I love (insert the word “myself”) because I am (insert the same qualities as before).” If only one follow-up component can be done at any one waypoint, do this one. It reveals a lot about the participant quickly. In group settings it is a very good way to get pertinent conversation underway.
Ride The Green Wave — determining whether you understand and agree with all of the Ten Green Wave Validation Statements. In your journal, give yourself a plus sign (+) if you do agree and a minus sign (-) if you do not agree. Do not worry if you do not give yourself a plus sign (+). These notations are merely for your own information. Regardless of your own plus or minus assessments, you are always free to move on; or, if you are attracted to do so, you can always revisit the waypoint, ask for Guidance, and/or redo the activity.
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 2.68:
2.68.1.
Experience tells you what things are impossible to achieve.
2.68.2.
It is good to be so naïve that you go ahead and muddle your way to impossible achievement.
2.68.3.
Being a good life coach requires an ability to ask questions, not to answer them.
2.68.4.
Accept or reject any other person’s message on the basis of your own understanding.
Nocturnal Pilgrimage 2.68:
Tend To Your Dreams Before Heading To The Next Waypoint
Ways To Perform A Reality Check
Number Four: Be Present.
Two ways to do so come to mind, one positive for your dreaming time world and one negative for your waking time world. By getting in the habit of looking for nice things in your waking time you will carry that habit to your dreaming time. Doing so will, at once, make your dreams more pleasurable and remind you to wake up to your lucid dream. By getting into the habit of looking for unpleasant things in your waking time or dreaming time, you receive prompts that can lead to greater compassion.
The misery of millions is not a cause for pity but it is a cause for compassion that begins by reflecting on how your own actions affect other people’s hearts. What a miracle it is to peer into the eyes of a brokenhearted person whom you are assisting!
You also have the option to do nothing; but, if this is your constant option, do not expect to find uncommon happiness. As we all know, if you don’t seem concerned about the plight of the needy and anyone says you lack empathy just tell them that you do not care. True or not, employ dreams for healing purposes again. When you are ready to continue, move to the next waypoint: “One’s Shoes (Part One).” There, you will learn what it takes to become more empathetic—that is, capable of feeling and understanding the emotions of others.
