Just Three Things…Twice
BREATHE!
“If you’re still breathing, you have the power to take control of your life — to take control of the world.” — John Landry
The Three Gates and Three centers, together, are the simplest, broadest and deepest life development and success system I can imagine. There are vast arenas of discussion to be had, but I see no major flaws.
- Belly Brain. Starting with health, and connecting to the physical world.
- Heart Center. Self-love and love of family. Gratitude.
- Head Center. Building a map of the world, and the error-checking system that grounds it all in basic physics and biological imperatives. “Problem solving” and the wisdom to know which problems to prioritize.
While it is possible to screw up everything, I’ve yet to meet someone with real problems where there wasn’t an obvious disconnect in one of these.
“Is it True?” Ah. We started at the bottom, went to the top. Now we’re looking at the top. Perhaps. “Truth” could be considered part of problem-solving, or it could be considered a call to ground your epistemology in actual experience. Experimentation. I like thinking it is “Head Center” stuff.
“Is it Kind?” Obviously heart-center, no matter which way you put it. If one believes that “all is love” then, as long as you are wired into your survival drives, there is nothing wrong with considering LOVE to be the ultimate reality. Some of the world’s greatest warriors have suggested this, so it would seem foolish to think this is risky…as long as that survival drive is alive.
“Is it Useful?” Frankly, I can connect ANYTHING I do to my survival needs (including napping or watching Tubi), so “Belly Brain” works great. All you have to do is remember the definition of success: “Health, Love, Money, and time to enjoy them” or the meaning of life: “Escape suffering, embrace joy, and be of service.”
If you can master the Five Minute Miracle (sixty seconds of deep, slow, diaphragmatic breathing at the top of the hour) you prevent stress from becoming strain.
If you broaden this into FIREDANCE, you take your vision of the perfect life, and use MAGIC to break it into the component parts. Your intent is to BECOME the person who can exemplify the values and perform the actions necessary to walk the most direct path to your destiny.
Are there GUARANTEES you’ll reach it? Heck no. I can’t even guarantee you’ll wake up tomorrow. But if your REAL goal is to walk a path of integrity with all three centers, all three gates, escaping pain, embracing joy and being of service…you can do this every day of your life. The days themselves, lived in integrity with your animal, human, and spiritual aspects, are their own reward. You get to end every day perfectly sanguine with whatever happens next.
And isn’t that as fine a definition of success you can imagine?
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Just being aware of these balances will give you an advanced map of what it is to be a human being. Your struggles to balance your life will give you empathy for others. Dealing with the demons that try to convince you that honesty or kindness are impractical will help you understand how others stumble into crime and cruelty. Grasping how reluctant we REALLY are to evaluate what is “useful” in terms of real-world results will tell you how really, really smart people get lost in life.
And that wisdom will inform your writing, as well as your daily existence. Even with “average” talent you can compete with superior talents who lean on being “clever” rather than honest.
And that can be your advantage in life, and in the market.
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Oh! Check out this video Tananarive and I did about how our dreams can help fight our nightmares! Science Fiction/Afrofuturism for the win!
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We’ll discuss this and other things on LIFEWRITING LIVE! (our new name for the FIREDANCE group) tomorrow, Friday February 7th at noon Pacific on Zoom!
Steven Barnes is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Firedance Recurring
Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet anytime
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