“In April, we cannot see sunflowers in France, so we might say the sunflowers do not exist. But the local farmers have already planted thousands of seeds, and when they look at the bare hills, they may be able to see the sunflowers already. The sunflowers are there. They lack only the conditions of sun, heat, rain and July. Just because we cannot see them does not mean that they do not exist.” ~~Thich Nhat Hanh
This message above from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh reminded me of the notion of living into our purpose. Easily said and challenging to achieve, especially when we may not understand who we are and what our purpose is. We are the sunflower and our purpose is to become the sunflower; whether or not we can see it or believe it, it is true. To quote from the lyrics of Chris Smither’s song “I am the Ride,” “it’s just like gravity I said, it’s not a product of my head, but nonetheless commands attention.” So, I’m striving to get out of my own way to simply allow myself to become the unique sunflower that I am. I have discovered a few tools that are assisting me along my journey and I thought I’d share them with you.
One ancient tool I’ve been exploring is the Enneagram personality typing system, having been introduced to it during my coach training program in fall 2005. Recently I finally was able to identify my type, a Six (“the loyal person”); it took me 3+ years. The purpose of most personality typing systems is to help you to understand the certain box you are living within so that you can select methods of working with yourself based on your type to help you grow beyond the current boundaries of your box. The Enneagram system resonated with me for two reasons: first, it looks beyond the “behaviors” of your way of being to the deeper motivation beneath the behaviors and second, due to the work of Helen Palmer and her way of using the narrative tradition for sharing and understanding of the system. The first step is awareness as they say, next is ownership. The latter one I’m struggling with…more to come with that journey in other blogs.
Another ancient tool is the Labyrinth. It is a design that has been found as early as 3,500 B.C. on coins from the island of Crete and more “recently” found in medival churches (~1,200 A.D.) in Europe such as the Chartres Cathedral just outside of Paris, France. The design though has been found in many cultures such as in the Celtic and Hopi traditions. It is very different than the maze, which is created for the purpose of confusion with many paths with dead-ends and cul-de-sacs and ultimately only one of those paths lead to a separate exit. On the other hand, the labyrinth is a singular circuitous path that when followed travels around a center in which you ultimately find yourself and from which you follow the same path outward to find yourself at the begining of the path again. A friend introduced me to the labyrinth in 2006 and my first walk was the prairie grass labyrinth of Toby Evan’s in Sibley, MO (if you are interested, you can read a published article of my experience here). Finding this path was an answer to a deep desire I had to bring mindfulness into my life after experiencing a walking meditative walk at a seven-day silence retreat. It allows for me to practice a mindfulness meditation allowing for self-reflection, self-discovery, self-healing and transformation. There will be more about my labyrinth journey’s in future blog’s.
A more recent tool is called the Wheel of Life. I was introduced to this one through my coach training program through New Ventures West. It was very helpful for me to become aware of my level of satisfaction in core areas of my life. I use it infrequently to check-in with myself, both of an indication of how things may have changed but also as an indication of my perception of things as well. We’re all influence by many filters, such as overall mood and momentary emotions that can cause us to color our perceptions. A nice segue into my next subject.
You can track your level of positivity online confidentially and for free at www.PositivityRatio.com (click on “Take the Test”). Why bother? It’s creator, Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, has recently published the book “Positivity” of ground breaking research which shares what she found. Specifically, that if people maintain a genuine and heartfelt focus of attention and experience on positivity over negativity to a ratio of 3 to 1, they summit a tipping point and gain access to a resource of life benefits. Positivity builds psychological strengths, good mental health, social connections and physical health. I was involved in a meditation study in fall 2005 by Dr. Fredrickson when she was a working in the Psychology Department at the University of Michigan. By tracking myself in this way for six weeks, I began to understand there was a distinction between the way I was evaluating what I was experience versus what I was allowing myself to experience in the first place; an important part of my journey thus far.
Well, I’ve shared a great deal here and as it is getting late, I’ll end this entry now. As I said, more to come. Namaste.
1 Comment
May 13, 2009 at 4:53 am
So good to see that you are “showing up,” Kathy! You have much to offer and the world needs your light, your positive voice, your wisdom and compassion… Thank you for sharing! Namaste!