FIREDANCE: YOU need you!
FIREDANCE: YOU need you!
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Yesterday, for the first time in weeks, I blew my morning ritual. Right after I woke up, I got into an intense conversation with Tananarive on an issue I’ve been chewing over, and by the time I looked up, I didn’t feel I had time for my various morning activities: joint mobility, Sun Salutation, L-sit, and Firedance Tai Chi.
Bounced into my day with a sense of urgency. So much to do! Things to do, people to help. And I blitzed through my day, getting a LOT done, taking business meetings, returning email, working on the business…
And then at about 3:00 I noticed I was scattered. Times and dates were getting mixed up. I was irritated by small things. We had a WONDERFUL business day yesterday, and I didn’t celebrate at all. And by 5:00 I realized I was seriously out of alignment with my heart.
I felt urgency, but no gratitude. Without gratitude, my sense of faith diminished. Challenges seemed overwhelming. Jason wanted to talk to me about the personal philosophy he is developing, and I felt myself TOLERATING the conversation rather than relishing it.
And I knew at that moment I had fallen off the horse. So…I stopped and breathed. Did a “movement snack” with Rope Flow (which I really love!) and powered through the rest of the day, then quit. My brain had gone down the wrong tracks, and I needed to STOP, back up, get back on the right path.
In this case, it was “persuading” myself that I needed intervention. Remember the NLP “Persuasion” framework?
- Built Rapport
- Interrupt Pattern
- Connect new behavior to desired goals.
ANY TIME I need to clear the fog, all I have to do is think of the love for my family. I understand myself there very well. There is always love there, always caring and gratitude. Rapport, with my own deep self, through love.
Then I interrupted the pattern with movement. Remember that emotions are created by focus, movement, and language. A couple of minutes of Rope flow made me focus — especially when I got rope-whacked a couple of times. Survival does that! Pain does that!
At that point, I was ready to access my higher and deeper commitments. My purpose. My mission in life: to delivery my son safely to his vigorous adulthood. To help one million people escape suffering, embrace joy, and be of service.
I thought back, and realized I’d missed the morning ritual, my time to align body, emotions, actions and intents. To feel GRATITUDE and quiet the voices in my head. I hadn’t taken the time to connect with my deep self, my TRUE self, and so was riding on ego. And ego got a lot done…until I got tired. Then the fear and confusion bubbled up, sapping my energy.
So…I quit for the day, having gotten the most important 50% done (I didn’t get any fiction writing done, but DID organize to create a pitch and return some provocative emails on a potential project. Not enough, but decent enough not to get a “zero” in “action”)
Ah…so in terms of MAGIC, I was following my mentors (Steve Muhammad was shaking his head at me), taking “enough” action. I connected to my Gratitude the instant I realized how precious it was that Jason wanted to talk to me, and how much I will miss him when he moves out. My INTENTION to embrace joy and be of service helped clarify the fact that I was not leading. The ONLY way to be confident in leading others is to take them along a path you already follow.
And C is for Core. Who am I? At the deepest level? I am a father, a warrior, a griot, a healer. I know that no one can be perfect 100% of the time, and so forgave myself. Laughed about it: even off-track, my discipline and momentum had created a very good day.
And watched CROSS, and a horror movie I barely remember, booked my tickets to see GLADIATOR today, and realized that the very problem I had would be a gift to my FIREDANCE students today. All I have to offer them is honesty about how it feels, what I see and experience as I walk this path. The OBSTACLE became the OFFERING as soon as I contextualized it, and used my little grey cells to solve the problem (intelligence is problem solving. Wisdom is solving the right problem).
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Out of this came a commitment to simplifying the morning program. What do I REALLY need? And how can I address it with the greatest efficiency and effectiveness? I love pieces like the “L-Sit” and Prasara and joint mobility….
Simplify. Simplify.
So this morning I woke up and meditated. Aligned the internal light and “vibe”, the thing worked on in Chi Gung, the energy you take into the Firedance form (Wu style Tai Chi). Then a little joint mobility. Then brushed my teeth and put in my contact lens (I only take out one at night, alternating). Then…Ashtanga yoga. There is a 15 minute “short form” created by one of J. Patthabhi Jois’ senior students, Richard Freeman. And it begins with five “A” salutations and three “B” salutations. The normal sequence has “3” and “2”. So…I did that, 3 and 2. The “B” salutations contain forward lunges that seem to unlock my hips in a healthy way. I will slowly increase the number of poses I practice, but 3 and 2 felt solid. Then…Firedance. Tai Chi with chanting, visualization, and flooding myself with gratitude.
It felt GREAT. If I want to use other techniques, I’ll do that later. Yoga and Tai Chi are tied into THOUSANDS of years of tradition, and there is a vast body of knowledge about them. I trust them both. And it seems a little silly that I’ve never directly connect them.
Got up, and into the world, ready for my day.
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Today, on Firedance Zoom at 12 noon Pacific, I’m going to reinforce the basics:
- The Five Minute Miracle
- The Morning Ritual
Done properly, they avoid stress from becoming strain, warm up and strengthen your entire body (depending on the movement pattern you utilize), flood your day with gratitude and faith, raise your energy, feel the “vibration” of your mentors (do this properly, and you can “feel” your way through the day), connect with long-term goals and how your daily activities represent movement along the path…
Considering that “success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal” and that we feel happy to the degree we can see how our actions actualize our intents and deep self…it is a program THAT GUARANTEES SUCCESS.
How does that sound? To both take real steps toward your goals, and START your day with the positive feelings most people hope they’ll feel at the END of the day…if everything goes right.
NO!!! Don’t “succeed to be happy.” Be happy, and then use that joy to create success. “Discipline is doing what you hate, as if you love it” — Mike Tyson.
But here’s the thing…if you fully associate your actions with your intents, you DO love it the things other people struggle with. You “chop wood, carry water” not grudgingly, but with gratitude that you are caring for your family, and have a body strong enough to do this work. That there IS water to draw and wood to chop. You can become overwhelmed with the simple sweetness of life, and just the ability to WORK is its own reward, its own victory.
You live in the moment. And in the intensity and wonder of the day. And a succession of perfect days make a perfect week, and fifty-two perfect weeks make a perfect year.
And at some point, you look up, and the people who insisted that you were being obsessive, or foolish, or a pollyanna, begin to claim you must have had privilege. Some advantage over them, someone’s shoulders to stand on.
Yes. You were privileged to have someone tell you that the strength you seek is within your own heart. And a mind scientific enough to say “let me test this hypothesis” and the courage to say “Maybe my ego is wrong. Maybe I don’t need excuses…I need to humble myself so that I can serve the world.” Maybe the shoulders you stood on were the teachers you sought out, each of whom sought out THEIR teachers, who sought out THEIR teachers…all the way back to someone who was taught by direct observation of nature.
Yes…the “privilege” is your commitment to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to escape suffering. WHATEVER IT TAKES to embrace joy. And WHATEVER IT TAKES to be of service to their tribe.
If you are willing to commit to helping 100 people walk this path, we will do all in our power to help you. The world needs you. And…YOU need you, in order to feel fully alive.
You need you.
Namaste
Steve
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Steven Barnes is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Firedance Recurring
Time: Friday Nov 22, 12 Noon Pacific
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 823 9051 3179
Passcode: 597329
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