The ancient Stoic philosophers used discipline as a tool in their journey towards a life lived well. Epictetus listed three disciplines: Amor Fati, or the loving acceptance of one’s fate, which was for living in harmony with the nature of the universe as a whole; Hormê, or the impulse to ethical action, for living in harmony with humans; and Sunkatathesis, which is mindfulness, for living in harmony with our own essential nature, with reason and truthfulness in both thoughts and speech.
I long for better discipline - to give me stability and structure, and help me to be responsible; to allow me to keep promises to myself and to others, and maintain the integrity and self-control that I want; to empower me to grow and reach my dreams. But I also hope that this growth in discipline might lead to a transcendent state where I no longer rely on discipline because I love and understand myself enough to follow the right path naturally!
Agenda Today:2. Read "How to Manifest"
3. Make a full effort plan
4. Write a mission haiku
I'm reading a book called "How to Manifest", by Laura Chung; it's a 40 day program to "Make Your Dreams a Reality".
This second part of the book (Week 2) is about alignment, which she explains as "remembering who you are at the soul level"; to connect your mind, your body, and your soul.
Day 8 - Recognizing the Illusion: "We deeply crave acceptance - we want to be seen, heard, and validated. So, often we wear masks and hide who we are so that we are accepted by our people." She challenges me to ask myself why I believe the things I believe, and why I want to manifest the dream I have ... Am I confident that this is my authentic desire? Am I willing to be vulnerable and accept criticism?
These questions are the same ones I started this post with, the challenges to my integrity of ignorance and lethargy. If I'm uninformed, I cannot be truly conscious, and if I delay, I'm not acting in the now. She suggests practicing a dream discernment meditation, asking myself, "What are my dreams? and how do I see myself living my life?" and I found that very helpful.
I'm thinking today about full effort as a researcher, the part of teaching I love the most. I love to grow in skills, and to become expert in something new. If I want to teach Medicine Art for unity with nature, I need to know more about the science, but also discern the love and respect parts.
My missions are my various big projects or directions in life. Today I'm going to continue to look at my mission of LEARNING. I'll write it as a haiku, because a poem has a unique ability of getting to the core of a Truth. Here's the steps I use:
4. Write a mission haiku
1. Journal queries:
Today, at the first quarter moon, I prepare to give full effort to my priorities. I remember that for each opportunity in life there is a challenge. The challenge to integrity is ignorance and lethargy. If I'm uninformed, I cannot be truly conscious, and if I delay, I'm not acting in the now. Practice seeing clearly and taking one step at a time.
What potential challenges, restrictions, limitations, and obstacles do I face this week and month? How can I best meet these challenges?
Where do I need to shine the light of Truth?
How can I find the passion to be persistent?
From my journal: I still feel pinched by time and energy - my week is dominated by children, so my adult activities (studio time, reading and writing, peaceful time in the garden) feel curtailed. But it's only an illusion, and a matter of priorities; I just need to embrace the adult time I have with full effort, and take things one step at a time!
2. Read "How to Manifest":
Manifestation is such a fad word, and I like to just use CREATE. I have one big dream that I'm making slow progress on -- to Teach Medicine Art -- and this book has successfully kicked me in to action!
This second part of the book (Week 2) is about alignment, which she explains as "remembering who you are at the soul level"; to connect your mind, your body, and your soul.
Day 8 - Recognizing the Illusion: "We deeply crave acceptance - we want to be seen, heard, and validated. So, often we wear masks and hide who we are so that we are accepted by our people." She challenges me to ask myself why I believe the things I believe, and why I want to manifest the dream I have ... Am I confident that this is my authentic desire? Am I willing to be vulnerable and accept criticism?
These questions are the same ones I started this post with, the challenges to my integrity of ignorance and lethargy. If I'm uninformed, I cannot be truly conscious, and if I delay, I'm not acting in the now. She suggests practicing a dream discernment meditation, asking myself, "What are my dreams? and how do I see myself living my life?" and I found that very helpful.
Day 9 - Giving and Receiving: In this chapter she explores the idea that you will receive whatever you are giving ... "You are a gift that you will give the Universe, and giving starts with radical authenticity: being completely honest with yourself about who you are and living in alignment with that truth, which are critical first steps toward manifesting."
She suggests that we be process-oriented, and live in service to our dreams. Ask, "What do you want the quality of your life to be?"; if you are content and fulfilled, your energy and confidence will increase, you will give more to the world, and will therefore receive what you desire...
She talks a lot about money, which is not part of my dream, and the whole premise is simplistic, so it's difficult not to be skeptical, but I sense a grain of truth.
Day 10 - Self-Worth and Love: We can't manifest our dreams until we feel worthy. Rather than focusing your attention on longing for something, give all your attention to loving and caring for yourself. "You have to feel so full and whole that you have more than enough time to give to others. You have an abundance of love, energy, and time, and the people around you get the benefits."
This strikes a chord with me because I often feel short of time and energy, and begrudge (a little bit) the chunks of me that I donate to others. But when I'm able to pour time into doing what I love - research, writing, and teaching - I am energized for the other parts of my life. Self care for me is taking time to learn new things and get excited by them.
3. Make a full effort plan:
I'm thinking today about full effort as a researcher, the part of teaching I love the most. I love to grow in skills, and to become expert in something new. If I want to teach Medicine Art for unity with nature, I need to know more about the science, but also discern the love and respect parts.Full effort requires attention; you remember your intentions - what it is you want to do and your deepest reasons why - and also notice your emotions, energy, challenges, etc.
My intention is to study and learn about nature, science, permaculture, and transformative eco-justice, bit by bit, so I can share what I know from my unique viewpoint as a Quaker artist.
I've been dabbling in a seasonal way: a bit of study about grain and leaves last fall, birds in the winter, butterflies this summer... going wherever my interests take me. Maybe that's a good enough process, but I'd like to have a set of guidelines for my study.
My plan: Choose a focus and dig into these areas:
- Science - gather books, other resources, and take classes, and glean enough to be an amature enthusiast.
- Permaculture - how does it relate to me and my garden, and what skills do I need for day-to-day unity?
- Transformative Eco-Justice - what is the shift we need to make? What does nature need from us?
- Quaker perspective - discern (with others) how to carry my leading forward. Utilize queries and worship.
- Symbolism - how humans have appropriated nature for our own uses, and how I can shift to offer love and respect.
- Art, folk art, craftivism - how can I honor the subject and show support with my art?
3. Write a Mission Haiku:
My missions are my various big projects or directions in life. Today I'm going to continue to look at my mission of LEARNING. I'll write it as a haiku, because a poem has a unique ability of getting to the core of a Truth. Here's the steps I use:1. Write a brief, evocative sentence or two describing this top mission in my life, and the significant issues that surround it:
I intend to study and learn new information and skills every day for my whole life, with curiosity, passion, and tenacity, because learning gives me the gifts of greater effectiveness, better relationships, and continual growth towards enlightenment.
2. List the most exciting or pleasing verbs that describe what I want to do with this mission:
Research, investigate, paraphrase, stretch my mind, broaden my views, experiment, explore, discern way forward
3. Next, list some core values that go with this mission:
Love, Creativity, Learning, Purpose, Unity with Nature, Witness, Celebration and Play
4. Turn these sentences, verbs, and values into a haiku, an unrhymed poetic form consisting of 17 syllables arranged in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively (or a Cinquain, which is five lines, with 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables), that gets to the core of my mission, and gives me a framework for my actions.
Explore the vastness-
transformative connections;
Discern with nature.
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