Last time, I promised to share with you what I actually DO everyday to build resilience and achieve a great quality of life. So here it is...
Keep in mind that this is just one example of how to go about it. Other Warriors will do lots of things differently. Moreover, my own personal program is a work in progress, so none of this is carved in stone. This should just stimulate your thinking;-)
Why would I do this? Simple - by keeping up this simple, easy and quick baseline of training, I can keep myself in a state of superb health, physical fitness and inner
balance without losing any time for other things.
I can pretty much guarantee that if were to track your time for an average day, you'd see you're wasting more time on useless activities than I'm spending on training ;-)
After just ONE DAY of a regime like this, you'll feel:
- Stronger
- Healthier
- More confident
- More balanced
- More in control of your life
Sound good to you?
So here's a typical day's training:
0300-0330: SSDN (meditation, which can include any type of meditation or prayer discussed in The 5 Pillars of Life)
0600-0630: SSDN, followed by the Self-Massage Set Qi Gong (5 minutes) and Fitness Routine of 30 reverse push-ups, 20 forward push ups, abdominal exercises and 25 squats (5 minutes)
0800-0845: Walk, including deep breathing exercises, uphill sections with heavy pack - I use this time to practice noetic prayer and some visualization
0845-0900: Reading inspiring material, Fitness Routine for second time.
1000-1005: Muscle-Tendon Changing Qi Gong
1100-1105: Practice one martial arts technique
1200-1210: SSDN
1400-1405: Do a short Tai Chi form
1500-1505: Fitness routine for third time
1600-1605: Breathing portions of Iron Shirt Qi Gong
1630-1700: Walk without pack - deep breathing, uphill and downhill
1700-1710: Fitness Routine with addition of situps and bridging
1710-1720: Martial arts with the punching bag (whose name is Bob, after a particularly obnoxious person I used to work for ;-)
2100-2110: Qi Gong (whatever type comes to mind)
2110-2140: Readinge
2140-2200: SSDN
There you have it. This may look like a lot, but when you actually do it you'll realize you're getting enormous results from activities that take VERY little time. You don't lose much working time and what you do lose is more than made up for by working much more effectively because you've had the good sense to shut your brain down and engage your body for a few minutes.
So I encourage you to take some of these 5-minute chunks out of your day and fill them with any activity that increases your resilience, whether that's sit-ups, meditation or reading something that inspires and motivates you.
If you want to learn the world's top methods for doing all of this, you need to get over to this page:
http://www.warriorcoachinginternational.com/BlackBelt/index.php
- Dr. Symeon Rodger
Saturday, 24 October 2009
*RESILIENCE* - Turn Your Life Around Through Training
Two of my favorite "warrior" movies are "300" and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy because, if you look closely at each, you'll find some profound lessons on life. Yes, Hollywood occasionally gets it right ;-)
In "300" there's a scene where a large formation of Athenian soldiers come to the aid of Spartan King Leonidas and his smaller group of 300 men. The Athenian commander jokes that he has contributed more men to the battle than Sparta. Leonidas then asks a few of these Athenian soldiers what their profession is and gets answers like "merchant", "potter" and "blacksmith". Turning to his own men, Leonidas yells, "Spartans, what is your profession?" The Spartans' yell in response indicates that "warrior" IS their profession, so Leonidas turns back to the Athenian commander and says, "You see, I HAVE brought more soldiers than you!"
Of course, OUR Warriorship isn't necessarily about combat at all - it's about developing RESILIENCE on every level so that you can enjoy great health, immunity and longevity, cultivate deep inner peace, reconnect your mind and body, embark on a fulfilling spiritual life, become much more effective in our careers, and form loving and lasting relationships with everyone around you.
If that sounds good to you, you're still faced with the basic question - will you take the "Spartan" approach or the "Athenian"? Will you pursue this as an ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF WHO YOU ARE, or will you just do a bit here and there?
THE INDESCRIBABLE VALUE OF CONSTANT TRAINING
What most distinguishes a "Warrior" from the rest of humanity? Is is fitness or inner peace or having their act together? No. It's that the Warrior is as serious about personal development as the Olympic athlete is about his or her gold medal.
The "hobbyist" approach never lasts long or achieves much. If you're not SERIOUS about the quality of every area of your life, you'll just muddle through, practicing a few things in a haphazard way and having little to show for it.
Your conscience will convict you, telling you that you can do far better, yet you'll always feel as though you just "can't find the time" to meditate, to work out, to read inspiring material, etc.
I'm here today to tell you that's almost always B.S. There's always time. Did you know that you only need 5 minute blocks scattered throughout your day to:
1. Build and maintaing deep inner peace
2. Whip that wet noodle of a physique into the to 10% of fit people on the planet
3. Design and stick to a super nutritional regime
4. Increase your immunity and resistance to disease
5. Double your effectiveness through visualization
6. Nuke negative emotional states and replace them with positive ones
People who get results know this. They train themselves to do this ALL DAY LONG. They don't need a gym, a meditation class, a Yoga or Qi Gong class, because they've transformed their DAILY LIFE into their classroom.
So can you. To learn more about how to do that, you can go here:
http://www.warriorcoachinginternational.com/BlackBelt/index.php
NEXT TIME, I'll share with you exactly how I personally train all day long, and the wonderful effects that has on my life. This will be a unique INSIDE look at the life of a Warrior, at how anyone can achieve PERSONAL RESILIENCE no matter how busy they are.
See you then!
- Dr. Symeon Rodger :-)
In "300" there's a scene where a large formation of Athenian soldiers come to the aid of Spartan King Leonidas and his smaller group of 300 men. The Athenian commander jokes that he has contributed more men to the battle than Sparta. Leonidas then asks a few of these Athenian soldiers what their profession is and gets answers like "merchant", "potter" and "blacksmith". Turning to his own men, Leonidas yells, "Spartans, what is your profession?" The Spartans' yell in response indicates that "warrior" IS their profession, so Leonidas turns back to the Athenian commander and says, "You see, I HAVE brought more soldiers than you!"
Of course, OUR Warriorship isn't necessarily about combat at all - it's about developing RESILIENCE on every level so that you can enjoy great health, immunity and longevity, cultivate deep inner peace, reconnect your mind and body, embark on a fulfilling spiritual life, become much more effective in our careers, and form loving and lasting relationships with everyone around you.
If that sounds good to you, you're still faced with the basic question - will you take the "Spartan" approach or the "Athenian"? Will you pursue this as an ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF WHO YOU ARE, or will you just do a bit here and there?
THE INDESCRIBABLE VALUE OF CONSTANT TRAINING
What most distinguishes a "Warrior" from the rest of humanity? Is is fitness or inner peace or having their act together? No. It's that the Warrior is as serious about personal development as the Olympic athlete is about his or her gold medal.
The "hobbyist" approach never lasts long or achieves much. If you're not SERIOUS about the quality of every area of your life, you'll just muddle through, practicing a few things in a haphazard way and having little to show for it.
Your conscience will convict you, telling you that you can do far better, yet you'll always feel as though you just "can't find the time" to meditate, to work out, to read inspiring material, etc.
I'm here today to tell you that's almost always B.S. There's always time. Did you know that you only need 5 minute blocks scattered throughout your day to:
1. Build and maintaing deep inner peace
2. Whip that wet noodle of a physique into the to 10% of fit people on the planet
3. Design and stick to a super nutritional regime
4. Increase your immunity and resistance to disease
5. Double your effectiveness through visualization
6. Nuke negative emotional states and replace them with positive ones
People who get results know this. They train themselves to do this ALL DAY LONG. They don't need a gym, a meditation class, a Yoga or Qi Gong class, because they've transformed their DAILY LIFE into their classroom.
So can you. To learn more about how to do that, you can go here:
http://www.warriorcoachinginternational.com/BlackBelt/index.php
NEXT TIME, I'll share with you exactly how I personally train all day long, and the wonderful effects that has on my life. This will be a unique INSIDE look at the life of a Warrior, at how anyone can achieve PERSONAL RESILIENCE no matter how busy they are.
See you then!
- Dr. Symeon Rodger :-)
Sunday, 18 October 2009
The ONE-DAY RESILIENCE CHALLENGE
You can read this post or listen to it here:
There's probably no other quality as important to your overall enjoyment of life and to the progress you make in every area of life than resilience.
The dictionary defines RESILIENCE as:
1. the power or ability to return to your original form,position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched;
2. ability to recover readily from illness, depression,adversity, or the like;
Not surprisingly, the word comes from a Latin verb, "resilire", meaning to "spring back".
All of your life is on a continuum, and you can give different sets of names to it...
STRENGTH - WEAKNESS
GROWTH - STAGNATION
PROGRESS - REGRESSION
PERSONAL POWER - DISEMPOWERMENT
...and you could probably add a few.
In my special report on this a while back, I called resilience "Gong-Fu". Basically, resilience is your ability to "absorb incoming force" and to "emit force outward".
One of the examples I used in the special report wasa military one: in the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi T-72 tanks (Russian built), were incapable of seriously damaging American M-1 Abrams tanks, whereas the Abrams could totally destroy the T-72 at any range.
So, in this example, the Abrams prevailed as the more resilient vehicle.
How does that affect you in YOUR daily life? Consider the following. Suppose you're going for a job interview for a job you really want...
Will you be able to absorb the stress of the interview and of any tests or other requirements of the hiring process?
And when it comes time to speak, will you have enough personal power to "knock 'em dead", to impress the interviewers enough to get hired?
When your office colleagues start getting sick this flu season, will you sail through unharmed or become another statistic?
Fact is, the answers to these questions will be predetermined... by YOU. You see, every thought you think, every decision you make either makesyou stronger or weaker, more resilient or less.
The sum total of those decisions has a NET EFFECTof building up your resilience or tearing it down.
Naturally, anything you do that accords with how your mind-body organism is designed to function will make you stronger.
Trouble is, most people go through every day tearing down their resilience through ignorance, laziness or plain stupidity.
The doesn't have to be you. You can CHOOSE to be a high performer in life and to take the steps to build yourself up to the top 10 percent of resilient people... if you WANT TO.
THE ONE DAY RESILIENCE CHALLENGE:
Good thing there's a way to know for sure if you're headed in the right direction, if you're building up your resilience or trashing it...
It's called the ONE-DAY RESILIENCE CHALLENGE, and here's how it works:
For each day this week take a separate piece of paper and divide it down the middle into two columns. At the top of the left hand column, write "Stronger" and at the top of the right hand column write "Weaker".
Then, as you go throughout your day, you put a check mark or "X" or whatever you want to signify whether your thoughts, actions and failures to act are putting you in one column or the other.
For example, empowering thoughts and emotions such as joy, optimism, love, kindness, affection, admiration, patience and the like all go under the "Stronger" column. So does food and drink that contributes to your health, along with exercise, meditation, prayer, deep breathing, reading inspirational material, etc.
Of course, under the "Weaker" column you would have all disempowering thoughts, including blame, anger, guilt, criticism, judgment, fear, self-loathing, and a bunch of others. Then there's indulging in a double fudge sundae, eating other junk food, smoking, drinking to excess, not getting enough exercise, not taking time for spiritual life, etc., etc.
Two caveats.... First, remember you aren't responsible for the thoughts that come to you; only for what you do with them. So if you REJECT a disempowering thought, put that in the "Stronger" column. Second, as you can see, this takes into account not only what you DO, but what you fail to do, such as getting proper exercise.
So try this for a day and see what results YOU get!
Just so you know, this method is found far and wide in the ancient world. You'll find it among the "desert fathers" (and mothers) of 4th century Egypt as well as in the highlands of Tibet. Of course, since they didn't necessarily have paper readily available, they would improvise and use white stones for "Stronger" and black ones for "Weaker".
Now get out there and have some fun with this ;-)
~ Dr. Symeon Rodger
Warrior Coaching International - transforming your mind, body and spirit into SOLID STEEL......wrapped in cotton ;-)
There's probably no other quality as important to your overall enjoyment of life and to the progress you make in every area of life than resilience.
The dictionary defines RESILIENCE as:
1. the power or ability to return to your original form,position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched;
2. ability to recover readily from illness, depression,adversity, or the like;
Not surprisingly, the word comes from a Latin verb, "resilire", meaning to "spring back".
All of your life is on a continuum, and you can give different sets of names to it...
STRENGTH - WEAKNESS
GROWTH - STAGNATION
PROGRESS - REGRESSION
PERSONAL POWER - DISEMPOWERMENT
...and you could probably add a few.
In my special report on this a while back, I called resilience "Gong-Fu". Basically, resilience is your ability to "absorb incoming force" and to "emit force outward".
One of the examples I used in the special report wasa military one: in the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi T-72 tanks (Russian built), were incapable of seriously damaging American M-1 Abrams tanks, whereas the Abrams could totally destroy the T-72 at any range.
So, in this example, the Abrams prevailed as the more resilient vehicle.
How does that affect you in YOUR daily life? Consider the following. Suppose you're going for a job interview for a job you really want...
Will you be able to absorb the stress of the interview and of any tests or other requirements of the hiring process?
And when it comes time to speak, will you have enough personal power to "knock 'em dead", to impress the interviewers enough to get hired?
When your office colleagues start getting sick this flu season, will you sail through unharmed or become another statistic?
Fact is, the answers to these questions will be predetermined... by YOU. You see, every thought you think, every decision you make either makesyou stronger or weaker, more resilient or less.
The sum total of those decisions has a NET EFFECTof building up your resilience or tearing it down.
Naturally, anything you do that accords with how your mind-body organism is designed to function will make you stronger.
Trouble is, most people go through every day tearing down their resilience through ignorance, laziness or plain stupidity.
The doesn't have to be you. You can CHOOSE to be a high performer in life and to take the steps to build yourself up to the top 10 percent of resilient people... if you WANT TO.
THE ONE DAY RESILIENCE CHALLENGE:
Good thing there's a way to know for sure if you're headed in the right direction, if you're building up your resilience or trashing it...
It's called the ONE-DAY RESILIENCE CHALLENGE, and here's how it works:
For each day this week take a separate piece of paper and divide it down the middle into two columns. At the top of the left hand column, write "Stronger" and at the top of the right hand column write "Weaker".
Then, as you go throughout your day, you put a check mark or "X" or whatever you want to signify whether your thoughts, actions and failures to act are putting you in one column or the other.
For example, empowering thoughts and emotions such as joy, optimism, love, kindness, affection, admiration, patience and the like all go under the "Stronger" column. So does food and drink that contributes to your health, along with exercise, meditation, prayer, deep breathing, reading inspirational material, etc.
Of course, under the "Weaker" column you would have all disempowering thoughts, including blame, anger, guilt, criticism, judgment, fear, self-loathing, and a bunch of others. Then there's indulging in a double fudge sundae, eating other junk food, smoking, drinking to excess, not getting enough exercise, not taking time for spiritual life, etc., etc.
Two caveats.... First, remember you aren't responsible for the thoughts that come to you; only for what you do with them. So if you REJECT a disempowering thought, put that in the "Stronger" column. Second, as you can see, this takes into account not only what you DO, but what you fail to do, such as getting proper exercise.
So try this for a day and see what results YOU get!
Just so you know, this method is found far and wide in the ancient world. You'll find it among the "desert fathers" (and mothers) of 4th century Egypt as well as in the highlands of Tibet. Of course, since they didn't necessarily have paper readily available, they would improvise and use white stones for "Stronger" and black ones for "Weaker".
Now get out there and have some fun with this ;-)
~ Dr. Symeon Rodger
Warrior Coaching International - transforming your mind, body and spirit into SOLID STEEL......wrapped in cotton ;-)
Monday, 12 October 2009
Does God Really Want You to Be Healthy and Wealthy?
Hi all,
This great question just came in from one of our members:
"The pentecostal 'health and wealth' gospel emphasizes the idea that God wants us to be healthy and wealthy. Does God actually want us to be healthy and wealthy, or is this based on some flawed presuppositions?" - Jason C.
When it comes to the Law of Attraction (LOA), you have some pretty sharp disagreements out there - I suspect most Christian groups would denounce it as a demonic fabrication, whereas at least some Protestants and lots of people with New Age inclinations claim it's true.
However, the truth here may be more complex than either of those groups believes:
In my book, The 5 Pillars of Life, I introduced you to "Authentic Ancient Traditions" (AATs), spiritual traditions that can prove they get the results they claim. The original Christian tradition, preserved in the East, and several other traditions worldwide fit the criteria of Authentic Ancient Traditions.
One thing AATs have in common is they see the whole purpose of human life as "self-transformation" - a total transformation of mind, body and spirit that goes beyond anything we can imagine in our current state, a transformation that is itself union with God, with the "Absolute Reality" behind our visible universe.
In fact, everything they teach has only one purpose - to bring about this transformation.
A logical corollary of this is the teaching that in our current, untransformed state, we're not "normal" at all. Quite the opposite; we're suffering from serious delusions about the nature of reality based on a chronic self-aborption and ego-centrism.
Since this is the case, it would be ludicrous to believe that God, the Absolute, wants us to get what we want all the time, since many of our wants are going to be self-destructive in the long run, no matter how good they would make us feel right now.
All these AATs teach from their own experience that love and compassion are fundamental to the very fabric of reality. It doesn't take a genius to realize that if the Absolute IS love, then giving us what we "want" all the time would not be a loving act. We don't do that for our own kids and parents who do this are actually harming their children.
So contrary to what certain Christian and New Age authors will tell you, "what God wants" is not necessarily identical to what you "want" at any given moment and certainly isn't restricted to a particular idea like wanting everyone all the time to be healthy and wealthy. If the real purpose of human life is self-transformation, then what people need at any given moment is what leads them in that direction.
Obviously, health or wealth could be spiritually helpful to some people at certain stages of their spiritual development and spiritually harmful to others. Like nearly everything in human life, health and wealth are neutral - the use we make of them determines whether they help us or harm us.
The GOOD news here, though, is that God doesn't have an agenda to keep you sick, miserable and impoverished either. And that's really important to know, since some Christians think a pious Christian life has to be sick, broke and miserable and that suffering is somehow the purpose of human life. There's a whole mistaken theology behind this I won't get into now.
Now, the Flip Side...
Does the LOA actually exist? Well, everyday experience suggests it does. So without getting into the latest discoveries of quantum physics and all that, we can definitely say this: anyone with any experience in counselling people will come to the ironclad conviction that how we think about ourself and our life determines what our reality looks like.
We are all the victims or beneficiaries of deeply ingrained belief systems from early in life. Some of these beliefs propel us to our greatest successes while others make us miserable. What examples can you come up with from your own life?
So, not surprisingly, AATs put a huge emphasis on faith, on believing in the reality of your spiritual work so that it has the intended effect. This is not "faith" as in an abstract belief in the invisible that you can only confirm when you die. No, this is faith as in trusting in the Absolute until you come to a genuine and irrefutable experience of It.
If you look at some of the ancient spiritual teachings on prayer and meditiation from various traditions, you'll be struck by how similar they look to the LOA. Take these words on prayer by St. John of Kronstadt from late 19th century Russia:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The main thing in prayer is a lively and clear faith in the Lord. See him vividly before you and in you, and then ask Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit for whatever you desire and you will obtain it. Ask simply, without the slightest doubt, then God will be everything to you, instantly accomplishing great and marvelous things."
"When we pray, we must believe in the power of the words of the prayer, so as not to separate the words from the deeds they express. We must believe the deeds follow the words as surely as a shadow follows a body, for the word and the deed of the Lord are indivisible: 'He commanded and they were created.' And likewise, you must believe that what you ask for in prayer will be done."
"To God all things are possible and nothing is difficult. So when you pray, be firmly convinced the Lord can do everything you ask in a moment. Do not ascribe your own inability to God."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bottom line? Reality is very complex and we simplify it at our peril. On the one hand, the universe is not a cosmic vending machine designed to fulfill your every whim. On the other, the universe will deliver what you think about most of the time, for good or for ill, and it IS set up to look after your long term welfare. And God is most definitely not out to keep you sick, broke and miserable.
So there is far more truth to the LOA than its detractors claim, but much more nuance involved than its proponents are often telling you.
Hope that helps!
- Dr. Symeon Rodger
This great question just came in from one of our members:
"The pentecostal 'health and wealth' gospel emphasizes the idea that God wants us to be healthy and wealthy. Does God actually want us to be healthy and wealthy, or is this based on some flawed presuppositions?" - Jason C.
When it comes to the Law of Attraction (LOA), you have some pretty sharp disagreements out there - I suspect most Christian groups would denounce it as a demonic fabrication, whereas at least some Protestants and lots of people with New Age inclinations claim it's true.
However, the truth here may be more complex than either of those groups believes:
In my book, The 5 Pillars of Life, I introduced you to "Authentic Ancient Traditions" (AATs), spiritual traditions that can prove they get the results they claim. The original Christian tradition, preserved in the East, and several other traditions worldwide fit the criteria of Authentic Ancient Traditions.
One thing AATs have in common is they see the whole purpose of human life as "self-transformation" - a total transformation of mind, body and spirit that goes beyond anything we can imagine in our current state, a transformation that is itself union with God, with the "Absolute Reality" behind our visible universe.
In fact, everything they teach has only one purpose - to bring about this transformation.
A logical corollary of this is the teaching that in our current, untransformed state, we're not "normal" at all. Quite the opposite; we're suffering from serious delusions about the nature of reality based on a chronic self-aborption and ego-centrism.
Since this is the case, it would be ludicrous to believe that God, the Absolute, wants us to get what we want all the time, since many of our wants are going to be self-destructive in the long run, no matter how good they would make us feel right now.
All these AATs teach from their own experience that love and compassion are fundamental to the very fabric of reality. It doesn't take a genius to realize that if the Absolute IS love, then giving us what we "want" all the time would not be a loving act. We don't do that for our own kids and parents who do this are actually harming their children.
So contrary to what certain Christian and New Age authors will tell you, "what God wants" is not necessarily identical to what you "want" at any given moment and certainly isn't restricted to a particular idea like wanting everyone all the time to be healthy and wealthy. If the real purpose of human life is self-transformation, then what people need at any given moment is what leads them in that direction.
Obviously, health or wealth could be spiritually helpful to some people at certain stages of their spiritual development and spiritually harmful to others. Like nearly everything in human life, health and wealth are neutral - the use we make of them determines whether they help us or harm us.
The GOOD news here, though, is that God doesn't have an agenda to keep you sick, miserable and impoverished either. And that's really important to know, since some Christians think a pious Christian life has to be sick, broke and miserable and that suffering is somehow the purpose of human life. There's a whole mistaken theology behind this I won't get into now.
Now, the Flip Side...
Does the LOA actually exist? Well, everyday experience suggests it does. So without getting into the latest discoveries of quantum physics and all that, we can definitely say this: anyone with any experience in counselling people will come to the ironclad conviction that how we think about ourself and our life determines what our reality looks like.
We are all the victims or beneficiaries of deeply ingrained belief systems from early in life. Some of these beliefs propel us to our greatest successes while others make us miserable. What examples can you come up with from your own life?
So, not surprisingly, AATs put a huge emphasis on faith, on believing in the reality of your spiritual work so that it has the intended effect. This is not "faith" as in an abstract belief in the invisible that you can only confirm when you die. No, this is faith as in trusting in the Absolute until you come to a genuine and irrefutable experience of It.
If you look at some of the ancient spiritual teachings on prayer and meditiation from various traditions, you'll be struck by how similar they look to the LOA. Take these words on prayer by St. John of Kronstadt from late 19th century Russia:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The main thing in prayer is a lively and clear faith in the Lord. See him vividly before you and in you, and then ask Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit for whatever you desire and you will obtain it. Ask simply, without the slightest doubt, then God will be everything to you, instantly accomplishing great and marvelous things."
"When we pray, we must believe in the power of the words of the prayer, so as not to separate the words from the deeds they express. We must believe the deeds follow the words as surely as a shadow follows a body, for the word and the deed of the Lord are indivisible: 'He commanded and they were created.' And likewise, you must believe that what you ask for in prayer will be done."
"To God all things are possible and nothing is difficult. So when you pray, be firmly convinced the Lord can do everything you ask in a moment. Do not ascribe your own inability to God."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bottom line? Reality is very complex and we simplify it at our peril. On the one hand, the universe is not a cosmic vending machine designed to fulfill your every whim. On the other, the universe will deliver what you think about most of the time, for good or for ill, and it IS set up to look after your long term welfare. And God is most definitely not out to keep you sick, broke and miserable.
So there is far more truth to the LOA than its detractors claim, but much more nuance involved than its proponents are often telling you.
Hope that helps!
- Dr. Symeon Rodger
Sunday, 4 October 2009
The "Shame-Blame-Guilt Game"
This may seem like a strange thing for a priest to say, but nothing turns people into emotional wrecks quite aseffectively as religion.
It's true. Of course, you have to keep in mind I've defined "religion" in a particular way (in my book, The 5 Pillars of Life) and that "religion" is not thesame as an "authentic ancient tradition of self-trans-formation".
This comes from Philip, one of our members, who sent in this excellent question, preceeded by a couple of paragraphs from an article he had just read. Be sure you read it through first, then go to the bottom and turn up your speakers to find out the answer:
----------------------------------------------------------
This morning, I was leafing through a yoga magazine in anacupuncture waiting room when I came across an article that interested me. It was about guilt, and in it, the author distinguished 3 kinds of guilt: natural (feeling guilty about something immediate and specific, which can be repaired), toxic (festering of natural guilt, nagging, non-specific) and existential (not about anything we've done personally, or about the state we're in, but rather about the state of something external (the poor, the environment, etc.)).
I'll reproduce what the author had to say about the second category, "toxic guilt":
"Toxic guilt is what happens when natural guilt festers. It manifests as a nagging feeling of pervasive but nonspecific badness, as if your whole life has something wrong with it. This type of free-floating guilt is the hardest kind to deal with, because it arises from lingering patterns, of samskaras, lodged in your subconscious.
"How can you expiate your sin or forgive yourself for something when you don't know what it is you did - or when you believe that what you did is essentially irreparable? To some extent, this particular type of guilt seems to be an unintended by-product of Judeo-Christian culture, a residue of the doctrine of original sin.
"Tantric traditions especially are known for looking at the world through a lens that sees all life as fundamentally divine. Your attitude toward your guilt will undergo a huge change when you begin to follow a spiritual teaching that - instead of assuming human beings are intrinsically flawed - teaches you to look beyond your flaws and helps you to know your deeper perfection."
(Philip goes on to say) I'm now reading "The Way of a Pilgrim" (an Eastern Orthodox spiritual classic from 19th century Russia, currently published by Shambhala). In it the author frequently refers to himself as "a sinner" and as being "unworthy". According to the yoga author's viewpoint, it would be hard to see his spiritual state as a healthy, evolved one, but rather it would seem benighted. At the same time, this character experiences life as wonder and joy, shows resilience to hardship, and never seems to feel sorry for himself, or "spiral into a pattern of self-destructive action".
So what's the truth here??
--------------------------------------------------------
~ Dr. Symeon Rodger
Warrior Coaching International - transforming your mind, body and spirit into SOLID STEEL......wrapped in cotton ;-)
It's true. Of course, you have to keep in mind I've defined "religion" in a particular way (in my book, The 5 Pillars of Life) and that "religion" is not thesame as an "authentic ancient tradition of self-trans-formation".
This comes from Philip, one of our members, who sent in this excellent question, preceeded by a couple of paragraphs from an article he had just read. Be sure you read it through first, then go to the bottom and turn up your speakers to find out the answer:
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This morning, I was leafing through a yoga magazine in anacupuncture waiting room when I came across an article that interested me. It was about guilt, and in it, the author distinguished 3 kinds of guilt: natural (feeling guilty about something immediate and specific, which can be repaired), toxic (festering of natural guilt, nagging, non-specific) and existential (not about anything we've done personally, or about the state we're in, but rather about the state of something external (the poor, the environment, etc.)).
I'll reproduce what the author had to say about the second category, "toxic guilt":
"Toxic guilt is what happens when natural guilt festers. It manifests as a nagging feeling of pervasive but nonspecific badness, as if your whole life has something wrong with it. This type of free-floating guilt is the hardest kind to deal with, because it arises from lingering patterns, of samskaras, lodged in your subconscious.
"How can you expiate your sin or forgive yourself for something when you don't know what it is you did - or when you believe that what you did is essentially irreparable? To some extent, this particular type of guilt seems to be an unintended by-product of Judeo-Christian culture, a residue of the doctrine of original sin.
"Tantric traditions especially are known for looking at the world through a lens that sees all life as fundamentally divine. Your attitude toward your guilt will undergo a huge change when you begin to follow a spiritual teaching that - instead of assuming human beings are intrinsically flawed - teaches you to look beyond your flaws and helps you to know your deeper perfection."
(Philip goes on to say) I'm now reading "The Way of a Pilgrim" (an Eastern Orthodox spiritual classic from 19th century Russia, currently published by Shambhala). In it the author frequently refers to himself as "a sinner" and as being "unworthy". According to the yoga author's viewpoint, it would be hard to see his spiritual state as a healthy, evolved one, but rather it would seem benighted. At the same time, this character experiences life as wonder and joy, shows resilience to hardship, and never seems to feel sorry for himself, or "spiral into a pattern of self-destructive action".
So what's the truth here??
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Now turn up your speakers and I'll tell you the TRUTH about all this. And it's not likely what you're expecting to hear ;-)
~ Dr. Symeon Rodger
Warrior Coaching International - transforming your mind, body and spirit into SOLID STEEL......wrapped in cotton ;-)
Take Charge of Your Health-Immunity-Longevity NOW
My wife and I recently had dinner with an old friend from out of town, a middle aged guy who, on the outside, looks healthy enough. Turns out he wants to drop about 20 pounds, so we asked him what he's doing about it. He said, "I'm doing a lot of walking, but for some reason I'm not dropping any weight."
Well, that was my first clue, so I asked him what he eats... and that's when it all came out - junk food, too many carbs of the worst kind and absolutely no regard for food combining. Hardly a surprise, alas...
He was actually proud of his recent switch from regular Pepsi to diet Pepsi! It's enough to make a health coach drive his head into the nearest two-by-four ;-)
Anyway, given our short time together and where he was at, there wasn't a lot we could do. My wife taught him how to maximize the weight loss from his walking and gave him a diet that will almost certainly get him to his goal of losing those 20 pounds.
THE STUPIDEST THING YOU CAN DO IS THIS...
...to focus narrowly on "losing weight", rather than on your overall health and immunity. And that's especially the case if you're looking to lose less than 50 pounds or so. The ironclad law here is this: Focus on your overall health and immunity first, and only then worry about the rest.
The most common stupidity I run into is that people haven't a clue about the exercise they need most. Our friend is typical - he thought that by going for a walk every day he had covered his bases. And then you get other people who only run or only lift some weights or only swim. Why's that a problem?
Well, the Taoist longevity masters, who figured outhow to RELIABLY GET YOU PAST YOUR 100TH BIRTHDAY IN GREAT HEALTH, knew the ONLY approach to exercise that really works. They knew about the "7 Deadly Spirals of Disease" and how to avoid them all. And they knew that just "staying active" and getting conventional exercise didn't cut it.
And here's the system they came up with:
http://www.warriorcoachinginternational.com/RSHQG/details.php
It has worked for them for the last 15 centuries or so and it can work for you. This is the cornerstone of their health-immunity-longevity system.
And here's the GOOD NEWS: If you grab a copy this week, we'll send you a FIFTY DOLLAR rebate off the posted price. So don't wait. Learn the most important facts and take charge of your own health, immunity and longevity today.
Or you may want to give it as a gift to someone who,like our friend above, is on the wrong track at the moment. Just because our friend and millions like him are on the wrong track doesn't mean you have to be!
http://www.warriorcoachinginternational.com/RSHQG/details.php
To your health!
~ Dr. Symeon Rodger
Warrior Coaching International - transforming your mind, body and spirit into SOLID STEEL......wrapped in cotton ;-)
Well, that was my first clue, so I asked him what he eats... and that's when it all came out - junk food, too many carbs of the worst kind and absolutely no regard for food combining. Hardly a surprise, alas...
He was actually proud of his recent switch from regular Pepsi to diet Pepsi! It's enough to make a health coach drive his head into the nearest two-by-four ;-)
Anyway, given our short time together and where he was at, there wasn't a lot we could do. My wife taught him how to maximize the weight loss from his walking and gave him a diet that will almost certainly get him to his goal of losing those 20 pounds.
THE STUPIDEST THING YOU CAN DO IS THIS...
...to focus narrowly on "losing weight", rather than on your overall health and immunity. And that's especially the case if you're looking to lose less than 50 pounds or so. The ironclad law here is this: Focus on your overall health and immunity first, and only then worry about the rest.
The most common stupidity I run into is that people haven't a clue about the exercise they need most. Our friend is typical - he thought that by going for a walk every day he had covered his bases. And then you get other people who only run or only lift some weights or only swim. Why's that a problem?
Well, the Taoist longevity masters, who figured outhow to RELIABLY GET YOU PAST YOUR 100TH BIRTHDAY IN GREAT HEALTH, knew the ONLY approach to exercise that really works. They knew about the "7 Deadly Spirals of Disease" and how to avoid them all. And they knew that just "staying active" and getting conventional exercise didn't cut it.
And here's the system they came up with:
http://www.warriorcoachinginternational.com/RSHQG/details.php
It has worked for them for the last 15 centuries or so and it can work for you. This is the cornerstone of their health-immunity-longevity system.
And here's the GOOD NEWS: If you grab a copy this week, we'll send you a FIFTY DOLLAR rebate off the posted price. So don't wait. Learn the most important facts and take charge of your own health, immunity and longevity today.
Or you may want to give it as a gift to someone who,like our friend above, is on the wrong track at the moment. Just because our friend and millions like him are on the wrong track doesn't mean you have to be!
http://www.warriorcoachinginternational.com/RSHQG/details.php
To your health!
~ Dr. Symeon Rodger
Warrior Coaching International - transforming your mind, body and spirit into SOLID STEEL......wrapped in cotton ;-)
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