The Swiss Zone

Women's Cirlce Part 1: Feminine versus Masculine Approach?

2012-04-04T00:38:00.000-07:00

Heya lovely ladies,

Petra, Candice and I wanted to thank you from the bottom of our heart for your attendance and your presence on Saturday, March 31st, 2012. It is a very amazing experience for us to share this topic with you, where we collectively delve and engage into the "deeper truth" of who we are...where we inquire about the essence that lies at the chore of our being, that part of ourselves that lives beyond the conditioned personality we have adopted and constructed so as "to make it" in this society. In short, this is a collective journey of "locating and observing and re-positioning" ourselves inside the dynamics of our family, our society, our culture and the current power system at play...by making aware where we have been giving our personal and collective power away.

The intention of our monthly gathering is to generate and provide a safe and loving "container" for each one of us to re-connect to our own deeper truth, value and self-worth. It's re-entering your own space of "self empowerment", basically establishing a new, healthy, empowered relationship to the Self. We briefly touched that topic when we talked about the establishment of a self-parenting model between our Younger Self (YS) and the Adult Self (AS).

We will start out by exploring our own masculine versus feminine approach and process that we draw upon as we go about creating things in life. From there we then will peel off layer by layer of conditioned residue that has fogged up and severed the connection to our own value, self-worth, power, confidence and clarity of our Chore Self. To do so we first have to make aware which space we are currently most identified with, meaning, which space do we mostly operate from as we go through our daily lives?

In preparation for a real juicy, stimulating, enhancing, and developmental conversation I invite you to ponder, reflect and journal the questions below. I have a feeling that you may need a bit of inspiration to get started, so here are two of my postings I wrote on the topic of feminine / masculine approaches. I hope they will help establish a context for you:

• Reassessing my relationship with power (shorter version):

• Is today's recession a he-cession? (longer version)

1) Reflection question:

What do you believe is your current approach in life so as to create and generate "things" in your life? In other words, "how do you get things done"? Do you think you engage in a more masculine approach, or a more feminine approach?

To reflect and answer this question it might help to state your current assumptions about the difference between a masculine and feminine approach.

2) Practice becoming aware:

For the next 3 weeks, can you notice which energies / qualities / approaches you catch yourself engaging in order to access THE POWER TO CREATE things in life?

The intention for this question / practice is to become aware where you are sourcing POWER from. I carry a journal with me, it really helps to write down my observations as I suddenly become aware of them.

3) Noticing the impact:
The questions above and the time line 'til our next gathering are set up to be EXPERIENTIAL. Meaning, over time as you reflect on No. 1 and practice No. 2, you will have certain "EXPERIENCES" of awareness and insights (mentally, physically or both). These in turn will function as your own personal experiential platform to draw from, and grow from and share from as it relates to building self-awareness. This is what I meant by "sharing from your own experience". So, having said that...

...can you start noticing in which areas you show up more in the masculine, and in which areas you show up more in the feminine? What are the gains of being in the masculine / feminine? What are the costs of being in the masculine / feminine?

Alright, I think that was a mouthful, and should definitely keep you busy 'til we meet again on APRIL 28TH! Please mark this day on your calendar. I will also send out an official invitation shortly.

Also, please note, this is not mandatory home work in order to be part of our woman's circle :-). Feel free to engage as much or as little as you wish, or, not at all, it's really up to you. If you would like to share and post your thoughts and insight you can do so on this thread. If you feel comfortable enough, feel free to post your share under the "comments" box below (you can create an anonymous account), or simply bring your shares to our next gathering.

So long ladies,

Tatjana

Let's have a synergistic, developmental conversation!

2012-03-17T16:55:00.003-07:00

Heya there,

It has been a long time since I've blogged. It also has been a long time since I've organized and hosted an event. So, I'm very excited to announce an upcoming event my friend Petra and I decided to collaborate with each other. This is a women's event only. It's our first gathering by women for women to come together inside a structure of what we call "empowering, developmental conversations".

Intention:

The intention is to create a safe and synergistic space with other women who are interested in exploring their own personal growth & potential as it relates to having discussions, brain storming sessions, and collaborations about topics such as love and relationships, family and children, work and career, health & wellness, food & community, and social and environmental issues on a local and global level. The difference for this women's set up is that we are doing so inside a "developmental context". By "developmental" we invite and guide you to shift perspective on what we perceive as issues, challenges, obstacles, set backs, disappointments, failures or challenges inside the topics listed above and start exploring them as "opportunities" to grow from. In other words, what if we could step into this idea that events, failures, disappointments, and break downs are actually "developmental platforms" for us to become that which we sense ourselves to be deep down, and that they key for growth and evolution lies in how we navigate and work with these "obstacles"? How would you relate to these “obstacles” if you could see them as absolutely critical to the unfolding of your potential you sense deep within, yet haven’t found the clarity and confidence to express?

Where and when:

If you are excited and interested about the potentials of being part of a synergistic women’s network please join Petra and me on Saturday afternoon, March 31st. (Sorry, I won't be listing my address here. If you are in Los Angeles and interested in attending please send me an email to: tatjana at theswisszone dot com).

What to bring:

This is a potluck style event, and we would love for you to bring food to be shared that is ORGANIC, and prepared or purchased in a way that supports the local community. Please do not bring any Styrofoam containers, as this is an environmentally friendly organized event :-). I will have dishes, utensils and glassware available.

Invite others:

Feel free to invite any of your female friends (this is a women’s event only).

Looking very much forward to our first women's gathering, a space to support, grow, foster, nurture, and collaborate in discovering the depth, strength and wisdom of our collective Essence!

Tatjana

P.S. To be notified about further events simply click on the RSS feed. See panel to the right, top.

Snippets: Reassessing my relationship with power

2011-08-14T00:28:00.000-07:00

Snippets from my correspondence with other women

SUBMITTED BY SWISSMISS ON AUGUST 13, 2011 - 11:22PM.

Heya Ladies,

I really was pondering quiet a bit about our "homework" this weekend. In doing so I was exploring the possible effects and shift in power from males to females in terms of our economic, social and political landscape as we know it today, and all that triggered by an article I read on "The death of the macho; is today's recession a he-cession"? The article is basically talking about a shift in proportion of power from males to females as there was a large percentage of male unemployment due to mass lay-offs in male-dominated industries such as construction, real estate, manufacturing, financial world, etc.

With the above context in mind I came to realize how essential it is to go through the process of consciouss-ening, meaning to do this self-reflection, re-examination, dis-identification (from old), and re-positioning / re-orienting 1) my relationship to power as a women, and 2) make aware which approaches (masculine/feminine) I currently conduct and operate from in relation to myself, and to others?

If I continue to draw upon my masculine qualities as I'm navigating through our patriarchal system, how then can I possibly contribute to a new paradigm as I'm operating from the same old, conditioned one? So I can conclude that creating a different system is not gender based, but rooted in the mindset. Now put the masculine/feminine qualities in the context of power: If a women in power continues to execute from a patriarchal, masculine mindset she may end up producing equal or more destruction than her male counterparts. Hence, I can totally see the value in re-evaluating my relationship to power (as a woman) by asking:

1) Have I abused power so as to execute it over others?

2) Do I have do be afraid of power as I'm fearful of being overpowered by others?

3) Do I have to be afraid of being powerful myself?

Imagine if all of us 1,300 women here participating in this course are coming to grips with our current unconscious relationship to power, and infuse the world with feminine qualities such as nurturing and fostering deeper levels of love, care, relatedness, health, well-being, creativity and goodness, etc, just imagine the kind of shift we could contribute to in areas such as politics, economy, social systems, finance, and mother nature!

So perhaps this economic crisis and recession (consider the he-cession here) that initially left me (I don't know about you) with an identity crisis after I got laid-off myself from my corporate and social identities (or shall we say patriarchal identity), may after all provide an opportunity to infuse the current system with a new kind of power, one where men and women empower each other, versus powering over each other...and keeping mother nature in mind all along.

Tatjana

Snippets: Gary Zuka - Aligning our personality with our Soul

2011-08-14T00:21:00.000-07:00

Snippets from my correspondence with other women

SUBMITTED BY SWISSMISS ON AUGUST 13, 2011 - 8:37PM.

Hi “M”,

Thank you so much for the reference. I will go and check out Gary Zuka's website. As for "authentic power "aligning our personality with our soul", it reminds me of a book I recently read by James Hollis PH.D.:

"Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life - How to finally grow up".

Hollis talks about distinguishing which space we are operating from, the ego space, or from the soul space. I have come to my share of realization & awareness about my "operating system". Then he talked about the dis-identification process of the ego (which I experienced as dissatisfaction, unhappiness, restlessness, depression, lack of purpose/fulfillment, yearning for something bigger, etc, which manifested all up into a mid-life crises).

In other words he says that a mid-life crises is the ego's dis-identification process. I guess you could call it the death of the ego's "selfish" powers. In short, after going through this dis-identification process, the ego is not dead, through awareness we simply reposition its "strength and power" so as to serve to the emergence of our soul or authentic self. Or in Gary's words, realign our personality (ego) with our soul. I found this insight fascinating!

It's kinda’ similar what we are doing with the masculine/feminine reflection assignment. Which qualities are we drawing upon to access power to create X, Y, Z? If I take it a step further, how about asking: Have I drawn upon power so as to serve my ego (-demands), or to serve the emergence and expression of my soul/authentic self? This is all so interesting to me!

I am doing this teleseminar with two other girlfriends, hence the three pictures :-). Since we are doing this in collaboration "with" each other I thought it would be something new and different to display all three of us in the picture.

It is such a pleasure to be with all of you during this journey of stepping into uncharted territory. Let's see what we can do all together in collaboration!

Tatjana

Snippets: Sharing excitement

2011-08-14T00:16:00.000-07:00

Snippets from my correspondence with other women

SUBMITTED BY SWISSMISS ON AUGUST 11, 2011 - 4:25PM.

Hello fellow Ladies,

I am so excited to be part of this. I have been listening to about 35 of Katherine and Claire's past interviews with all of these amazing, wise female guest speakers. Listening to these audios has assisted me greatly in gaining a wider context about the "transition" I went and still am going through. It has been of great insight to listen to the wisdom of these mature women, and to learn from their experiences, as I did not have any other resources at my disposal to compare my experiences to.

In addition they assisted me greatly in finding the vocabulary of what I could not verbalize prior. Also, I got to realize that I'm not alone with what seemed confusing, conflicting feelings at times in my life, and that the drive for "bursting my windows" was the start of my Ego-Dis-Identification process as I was (and probably still am) transitioning into the next developmental stage of my life, namely developing a sense of self that comes from an internal space (I call it soul, or my authentic self), versus navigating life solely from my egoic space.

I'm doing this course with two other girlfriends. None of us is able to participate in the live sessions, so we all are very much looking forward to the recorded audio of session 1 :-)

Tatjana

Snippets: Get paid with the things I love doing

2011-08-14T00:13:00.000-07:00

SUBMITTED BY SWISSMISS ON AUGUST 11, 2011 - 6:03PM.

Hi "E",

I so totally identify with you saying "to figure out how to get paid with the things I love doing". I myself have been struggling with how to merge those two worlds; the external world of economic survival and necessities, and the integration of my inner authentic self into my external work life.

So far it seemed to be either or. If you go for authenticity and integrity we might go broke. Yet, now that I have fully tasted my authentic self, it's even harder to stay "submissive, quiet".
I guess now it's a matter for me to locate a work environment that values and nurtures authenticity and integrity. Unfortunately, the current economy is tough. I have experienced layoff's and unemployment myself since 2008, and recently was lucky to get "back into another job", at the cost of selling my soul. Bring forth possibilities on merging my authentic self and my vocation is why I signed up for this course. I think we will be in for an interesting journey :-).

Tatjana

Snippets: 3 observations I got present to today

2011-08-14T00:10:00.000-07:00

Snippets from my correspondence with other women

SUBMITTED BY SWISSMISS ON AUGUST 11, 2011 - 10:52PM.

I just listened to the recorded audio, and there are 3 observations I got present to about myself:

1) For some strange reason I got emotionally touched during the welcoming of all the participating women. Hearing the names and countries of everyone participating brought tears to my eyes, I don't really know why. There was a sense of.....don't really know, I will keep exploring that one.

2) The reason why I registered for this course is because I felt that I needed to connect, surround and expose myself for guidance to those who already have made the "reconnection" (Claire and Katherine) as well as hold that intention with all of you participating. I felt that this would be vital for me in making the transition into my own authentic power. I wasn't sure if I could hold the clarity to make the transition on my own, and also remain centered and grounded in it considering that we still have to live and work with one foot in the current patriarchal system out of economic and survival necessities.... until we are able to transform the system collectively :-)

3) As for living in a time now where women have the freedom and liberty like never experienced before in history.... I’m actually wondering if freedom and liberty may be the root of the challenge to find one's authentic self? We women have such infinite choices and possibilities now, is that why some of us cannot pin point our purpose yet? Is it possible that we are so overwhelmed with all these free flowing, liberated energies that we don't know what to do with all of these choices and possibilities, that we don't know yet how to channel/manifest them into this world?

Those are some thoughts, questions and feelings that came up for me during session 1. Thought I would share :-).

Tatjana

Snippets: I wonder who I am

2011-08-14T00:06:00.000-07:00

Snippets from my correspondence with other women

SUBMITTED BY SWISSMISS ON AUGUST 12, 2011 - 12:52PM.

Hi “A”,

I totally appreciate you sharing "I'm learning to be me for the first time. I still have moments in which I don't feel the ground under me - I wonder who I am".

I too, was going through a phase of "who am I" after I got laid off from my social and corporate identity I have been operating form during the economic crash that started in 2008. I felt stripped off the social identity I have been living from, standing there bare-naked down to the bone. Overnight I suddenly had no identity at all (well, in ego-terms) as all roles, duties and responsibilities vanished in seconds. Although it was economically and financially a very hard time to survive, the crisis provided me with an opportunity to get in touch with my "authentic depth and powers".

First I dwelled in my self-pity-party (victimhood) over what has been done "to" me. That actually helped me in becoming present to my emotions. From there I seemed to move on to connecting inwards, a journey of self-discovery. Listening to Claire and Katherine's women dialogues/interviews over the last two years has greatly helped me to locate myself, to verbalize my emotions, feelings and experiences as I was able to listen in to other women's experiences and wisdom.

Tatjana

Snippets: Setting an intention

2011-08-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

Snippets from my correspondence with other women

SUBMITTED BY SWISSMISS ON AUGUST 12, 2011 - 12:27PM.

Hello everyone,

Thank you “L” for your wonderful and inspiring welcome post. My name is Tatjana Luethi and I live in Los Angeles. Originally I'm from Switzerland and moved to Los Angeles 16 years ago. I've done many things in my life, but always have been missing a sense of purpose, mission, and fulfillment in most of those areas. It seemed to be an "either, or" scenario, either it would be a job and make money, but wouldn't provide meaning/purpose/fulfillment. And or if I was on a path of purpose and meaning I couldn't make a living with it.

I think in looking back I have definitely mostly operated from the masculine qualities, and listening to Katherine and Claire's dialogue interviews with all these amazing women over the last 2 years has definitely helped "locating and observing" myself in this society. Now I think it's simply a matter of finding my authentic and autonomous voice in the world. I kinda’ feel I already have stepped into my authentic power, but, how do you put that into words? How do I verbalize, specifically pin point what my authentic self is? I almost feel it's formless, and cannot be verbalized, but only be "stepping into" as it seems to be a "space or power". And maybe from there it then can find varies "expressions" in the world…maybe in forms of projects, societal movements, change, inspiration etc., I don't know yet. I wonder if wanting to give it "form" (meaning verbalizing, pin pointing) may actually derive from my masculine reference point, how ironic, right? So I think I'm going to change my vocabulary from authentic self, to "my authentic power".

So, here is one out of my intentions I created for our 7-week workshop:

1a) I feel there is a split between what I am on the inside and the behavior that I have to display in the working (patriarchal) world. Therefore, I'm yearning to merge/align my authentic and autonomous powers with a work life that turns a mundane job/career into a meaningful vocation that then will allow me to cover my economic necessities and survival while initiating, catalyzing and expressing projects in ways that will contribute to a new structure, society, paradigm in this world.

So long...

Tatjana

Today's recession a He-cession?

2011-08-13T01:07:00.000-07:00

Heya,

So, check this out, in my last blog I ended by asking if men are currently also going through some sort of re-orientation process? I was exploring the economic struggle, the inner conflicts and the overall identity crises that I, from the perspective of a women have been experiencing inside a masculine-dominated world since the economic crash in 2008. For one reason or another, unexplainable to myself, it always led me on the path of searching for 1) my own autonomy and true authenticity, and 2) my femininity. I don't know why, but especially the topic of femininity has been the recurring topic ever since my identity crises of 2008. So, if men are also going through some sort of re-orientation process, what does that look like? Are they looking for their manhood? Are they at all inclined to inquire into their authenticity? And if so, how does a man experience and handle that transition given that we are living inside a patriarchal system?

So, ironically today I came across an article by Reihan Salam about "The Death of Macho", where he talks about today's recession being a He-cession. He explores the possibilities of how men in a men-constructed and men-dominated world are affected by today's recession, as well as the possible consequences. I'm not going to create a recap here of his article, feel free to read it yourself. More so, however, Salam inspired me to explore and think about the possible effects and shift in power from males to females potentially changing the economic, social and political landscape as we know it today.

So, let me say a word about power. But before I get into that, you may need to know that I have been emerging myself a great deal into conversations about the rise of the feminine. Just like I didn't want to regurgitate Salam's article right now, I also don't want to make this blog about what "the rise of the feminine" means to me. I feel I'm not ready yet to fully share my explorations. I'm still traveling the path of my experiences within that context. When the time is right I will be happy to share my experience in full.

I think there is a difference of how men and women relate to power. For men the word power probably implies power "over". Women, on the contrary, may relate to power as "power with", meaning using power "with others", in collaboration, in service of, for the benefit of something greater than oneself. Did I always think so? No. Recently, I have become interested in learning more about women history, about the inquisition, women rights, social systems inside patriarchy, etc. I still have ways to go in educating myself historically. So it wasn't really until about 2-3 years ago, again, triggered by my experiences of layoff's, unemployment and consequent identity crises in 2008 and 2009, that I started to fully grasp that I am living in a patriarchal system. So that then brought my attention to explore and distinguish male and female qualities, not just within myself but also within economic, societal and political systems. So, I can conclude that until recently my relationship with power was pretty much male-infused. How could I possibly have a different one, let's say, a feminine influenced one, given that I have been born into a world that has been constructed by a male mindset, a world that values masculine qualities? And after 5000 years of walking and living and adopting to patriarchy it kinda' makes sense that we women forgot about our own essence and qualities. Not to mention the fear we developed...holding onto our powers, stepping up or speaking up during the times of inquisition resulted in tortured, forced betrayal of our sister, and ended up in death anyway. So we have learned the lesson to devalue our feminine powers, suppress feminine qualities, and live a life under male oppression.

So, here we are, in a time of freedom and liberty women may have have never experienced before, well at least for the last 5000 years, where we get an opportunity to reconstruct not only our relationship with power, but a relationship with all the female qualities that lie at the essence of being a woman. I wonder if it is this newly gained freedom and liberty that may be at the challenge to find one's authentic self today? We women have such infinite choices and possibilities now, is that why some of us can not pin point our purpose yet? Is it possible that after generations of oppression we are simply overwhelmed with all these free flowing, liberated energies that we don't know what to do with all of these choices and possibilities, that we don't know yet how to channel/manifest them into this world? No wonder it is kinda' confusing to make sense of all that upheaval and stirring inside of us. It has definitely been of value to expose myself to all these varies books, women interviews and online forums of women from all walks of life to gain insight, receive guidance and recognize that it is normal to experience confusion, fear, depression as we enter uncharted territory internally and externally. It helped me verbalize the things that I'm experiencing as I encounter shifts and transitions in my life.

Anyhow, Marilyn Nyborg, feminist and spiritual activist, talks about the process of experience being impacted by our biology. How does a men experience power if considered within the context of his biology? How does a woman experience power if you consider her biology? Biologically women receive, we carry, we birth, we give life, we nurse, we nurture, we mother, we care. I thought it was interesting when Nyborg distinguishes that we don't need to abandon the masculine energies (after one delves deeper and becomes conscious and nurtures ones feminine ones), but rather we want to draw upon the masculine qualities so as to channel / express / manifest the feminine into this world. So, I guess it's about balancing the masculine and the feminine. We women need both, so do men. Eventually, she hopes, we may encounter a culture when a woman won't be called a bitch or a man won't be called a fag for embracing the opposite sex's quality. Nyborg refers to it as unplugging the patriarchy. Salam calls it a new model of manhood.

So, I can see how a dramatic decrease of male population on the market place can proportionally affect male power and influence. Salam points out that "women will gain more of the social, economic and political power they have long been denied, it will be nothing less than a full-scale revolution the likes of which human civilization has never experienced". In fact, he goes as far as calling it the end of a male dominated area, or The Great Recession. The question he raises "will men adapt and embrace women as equal partners and support them in creating feminine sensibilities", or will men resist, fight, venting their anger into extremism? Let's hope this will not lead to another ugly, violent repetition of history.

We don't want to trade power and follow the darkness of history, that's why it is so important for us women to explore our own assumptions about the masculine and the feminine. I'm participating in a workshop right now about, well, take a guess...yup, Awakening Feminine Power: The Essential Course for the Avakening Women with Claire Zammit and Katherin Woodward Thomas, founders of "Women on the Edge of Evolution". It's a mouthful, I know. There I'm being asked to evaluate "When do I engage in which qualities to access the power so as to create things in my life? Are they masculine? Feminine? Do they feel familiar? Foreign? Which one do I identify and draw most upon? What have been my judgments about the ones I feel less familiar?

I think we can safely say that women in power will not instill a new system of equality, co-creation and collaboration if they are still operating unconsciously from a masculine-infused value system, meaning still identify solely with their masculine side. So one can see the importance of self-reflection, of evaluating our current relationship with power as a women, and that it is essential to recreate a new relationships to power that is fueled with female, caring, all-encompassing, holistic qualities. Then maybe we might find ourselves in a world where power is created in collaboration with men and women, with life, and with mother nature in mind. I'm just not sure if it will be for us to experience, or if we are the generation to still sacrifice so as to lay the path for future generations?

Here is the link to Reihan Salam's article about the Death of the Macho:
http://newamerica.net/node/9258

So long....

Tatjana Luethi

Midlife Crisis or Dis-identification process of the Ego?

2011-08-09T23:10:00.000-07:00

Heya there,

So, let's continue on my big epiphany I shared last time where I discovered a process called "dis-identifying from one's ego". I mean, really, who ever laid out the cards for us and enlightened us on "Well, first, when we are born, we will begin life by going through a pre-egoic stage. Then we will enter a phase where we will construct and form a separate sense of self, known as the formation of the Ego. And yes, we have learned that the ego's function is quintessential to our survival, so the Ego is not something to get rid of, but merely needs to be "repositioned" for the next phase in our life. And that process is called the Ego Dis-Identification process (for reference check out James Hollis: Finding Meaning In The Second Half Of Your Life, How To Finally Grow Up). Or traditionally known as the ALL-THREATENED MID-LIFE CRISIS! Wow! Like I said, that was a huge epiphany for me. Let me explain.

I pretty much figured that over the last 2-3 years I was going through a mid-life crises. There were so many changes and challenges! For specifics and details, see prior blogs where I'm questioning life and the world. Most of the time you don't know you are going through a crisis while you are in the midst of it. You are just full of dissatisfaction, unhappiness, depression, etc. Friends would advise "maybe you should see someone", or "just be happy, at least you have a job in this economy", or, "here read this book", etc. Now, instead of calling it a mid-life crises, I prefer Hollis's label, the Ego-Dis-Identification process. Verbalizing it that way allows for a space to engage with my experience, explore it, process it, and (hopefully) evolve from it. Calling it a mid-life crisis feels somewhat dead-end, limited, non-organic, it somehow has a bad reputation as associated feelings and emotions like depression and unhappiness get viewed as something negative. From an evolutionary perspective though, depression, unhappiness and dissatisfaction are all symptoms of entering a different stage of development. Perhaps you may already be well familiar with all of this, but as for me I don't have a degree in psychology (although I'd be interested), nor did anyone in my immediate environment enlighten me about this. Therefore, coming to this conclusion was a world-revolutionizing discovery for me.

As I said, calling this transition the Ego-Dis-Identification process implies an evolutionary/developmental context, one of process and growth. It's the transition where we let go of the essential skills that once served us during the early stages of constructing and navigating life from our Ego. However, just like James Hollis mentions in his book, in the second half of life those very same ego strengths will betray us, hinder, perhaps even limit us later in life if we keep on employing the very same Ego assets, considering we are entering/living in a different stage of life. I guess you could call them outdated, perhaps even primitive? They are no longer of service as a sole resource as we transition into a new space, namely developing a sense of self that comes from an internal space (from within), versus an external one as we did during the egoic phase. The self has matured enough, and gained the confidence where it no longer seeks validation from the outside, the external world. Has it finally grown up?

I guess you could consider it "finding home". It's the process of developing a different kind of sense, or perhaps a new sense of self, or should we say finally arrived at one's true, authentic self...ones soul. I have a much clearer perspective now, but for the longest time it has been a very confusing journey. I am not sure what will happen next. I will navigate it with the same kind of curiosity and exploration as I have traveled the first path of my self-discovery so far. The only difference is that my next stage of life will (hopefully) be generated from this new reference point. Let me just say that I hope that there will be no further "selves" to come. Really! Through how many more cycles of new self-identification processes do we really have to go through? Can you imagine how complicated this would get?

Anyhow, since I'm a female it could be all about finding a deeper authentic self that is centered around the context of "the feminine", considering that the previous stage of developing my egoic self took place in a time period that is still engrossed in a masculine, patriarchal value system. At least that's what Katherine Woodward Thomas and Claire Zammit from Women On The Edge Of Evolution are suggesting. By now I have probably listened to about 30 of their amazing free "online women interviews". See, we all have been entrenched in a masculine dominated value system for so long, that in order for us to rewire our neurons into a new value system, we have to align ourselves with those who already have made the reconnection. We have to expose ourselves and engage in conversations with those who already are living outside of the current paradigm the rest of us is trying to get beyond. You can't do it alone. Think about it, how are you going to evolve into a new space of knowledge, if your entire database of knowledge and experience resides within that very same space you are currently operating from? In fact, I wonder how many people actually get "lost in transition" and end up stuck in between those two developmental stages, hung up on prescription drugs, alcohol or any other sort of addictions so as to deal with their "midlife crises"? Also, it may be helpful to get some historical perspective on the topics of submission, oppression and suppression of the feminine. I highly recommend to check out the 55 minute documentary The Burning Times. There was an enormous split between men and women throughout history (hence all the talk about us entering a new age of co-creation between men and women, between the masculine and the feminine). No wonder we women still carry this cellular fear in us to step out and up into our own power. This documentary really hit home for me!

You know, I have always been a curious spirit when it comes to self-growth and development. And I have been exposed to many different books, people and even workshops that introduced me to new ideas, philosophies, vocabulary and therefore new possibilities, like consciousness, awareness, emergence, ego, soul, source, just to mention a few,. I took it all in and somewhat managed to get a sense about this other kind of existence that seemed to be emerging from the depth within. However, somehow it still was all kinda' confusing. Regardless, I listened, I participated and practiced merely out of trust to the best of my "awareness". Yet somehow I was lacking that big picture perspective of getting it all, because you don't really get it until you have lived it. Experience still is the most profound teacher, and going through the experience of my described mid-life crises is what brought it all together for me. You need to live it in order to understand it, otherwise it remains all theory. So it seems, a mid-life crises is something to be embraced. It's a symptomatic effect, and part of life. In fact it is part of the process to evolve, just like the egoic phase was.

I have to thank James Hollis for his book I mentioned above, as well as Claire and Katherine for sharing these amazing audio files online. They have assisted me greatly in gaining a wider context about the "transition" I went through. It has been of great inspiration to listen to the wisdom of these mature women, and to learn from their experiences as I did not have any other resources at my disposal to compare my experiences to. I got to realize that I'm not alone with what seemed confusing, conflicting feelings at times in my life, and that the drive for "bursting my windows" was the start of my Ego-Dis-Identification process as I was (and probably still am) transitioning into the next developmental stage. Now, not only did I find clarity and comfort about my own process and transition as an individual at this time, but also there seems to be a collective transition taking place amongst women across the globe as pointed out by Claire and Katherine. Or said differently, this transition of moving from an ego-referenced life, to a soul-referenced life seems to be taking place on a micro level, individually, and on a macro level, collectively. I'm wondering if this development, this process has existed in prior generations, or are we looking at a new stage of evolution here?

Also, I'm kind of curious if men are going through a similar kind of re-orientation process? No, I'm not saying that a mid-life crises is gender bound. What I mean is that since we women seem to be making that transition into our true authentic voice within the context of the feminine inside a patriarchal society, what does that transition look like for men who already are navigating from inside the masculine?

So long....

Tatjana Luethi

Finding Meaning In One's Vocation

2011-07-08T11:31:00.000-07:00

Hello there,

Wow, it has been a while since my last blog, almost one year. Crazy! How is that possible? Well, a lot changed....again. I no longer distribute compostable food service containers to the local food service industry. All noble intentions aside, I never really got it to the point where I could make a living of it. So much for my attempt to regain a new sense of (my)self during the economic crash that started in 2008 and all the while trying to save the world from styrofoam and plastic pollution. Well, it’s not that I was actively seeking to re-invent myself. It’s just that I wasn’t really sure who I was after I got laid off from “my corporate and social identity”. Let’s call it a corporate or career dis-identification process. In retrospect, I entered a new cycle of experience, one that gave me a new sense of awareness, not only in the context of my personal vulnerability on the “market place”. But also it led to a cycle of acceptance, surrender and submission to my ego as I will explain in the second half of today’s blog. Basically, today’s writing is an attempt to make sense of the happenings of the last 3 years. So as usually, my blog takes a bit time to read and process, so grab that cup of coffee, make yourself comfortable and let’s go for a ride:

It all began in 2008, as I was going through a company mass lay-off while in the midst of building our first home. I got hit the second time in 2009. Seems like we are rather disposable as employees. To top it off my hubby left his employer at the beginning of 2010, to give birth to his authentic self, or in other words, pursue his dreams.

So, given the circumstances I had to come up with an action plan, as I really didn’t know how long it would take to get another job. To be honest though, I really didn’t want just another job that would totally disregard a work-life with meaning, energizing my spirit. You know, I’m talking about something I could do with full authenticity, passion, excitement, well, bottom line...purpose. A culture of purpose can impact profitability, but for some reason our corporations, our employers, just don’t seem to get that. People work different when working for a purpose, they bring passion to the table, they care what they do, they work more deeply, thoroughly, effectively, with authentic energy. I have been struggling to find this authenticity within the system that in practical terms will also pay my bills. How then do you execute that transition, or at least contribute to a new structure, a new culture of meaning and purpose while facing the grim necessities of economic survival? Will we ever evolve into creating a structure that supports our material existence yet also provides fulfillment on the inside? Or are we damned to work in a dull, mindless, robotic, mundane fashion ‘til the day we die?

As Malcom McLaren points out in his TED Talk it seems that we “creative” people are struggling with how to authenticate an inauthentic culture. Yeah, no sh#%$! I like that one.....how to authenticate an inauthentic culture..... He talked about his declaration of war against in-authenticity. He pointed out that the struggle to find something authentic is actually part of our individual, personal evolution...at least for those of us who choose to embrace that challenge. It’s not that I am even seeking that challenge. It seems that this question for greater meaning and fulfillment at work, or general in life, is consistently crossing my mind, involuntarily, regardless if I like it or not, it’s just there...all the time!

Maybe because I have not found a work environment yet that values the GNH versus the GDP. GNH meaning Gross National Happiness factor...at work. McLaren compared it to having a choice between a life of authenticity, or one of a reality that is free of the responsibility to contribute to one’s own evolution and growth. McLaren talked about that the best eduction being experience itself. And that to fully live your life you want to aim for becoming a magnificent, flamboyant failure versus settling for ordinary success. Failure at least shows you are trying to aim for something more then the ordinary. To fully experience life authentically and autonomously you gotta become fearless and go beyond today’s definition of success. To find your own authenticity you ought to go out there and embrace the unknown without having a clear map. That’s taking responsibility and aiming for what you can become, versus adhering to the reasonable voices of a conditioned culture. Okay, I hear you Malcolm, I can relate to most of what you say. But somehow I feel I need a bit more of a context here. Who or what is behind that motivation to go beyond?

Well, either way, the past 3 years did feel like an adventure with no clear map. There was no financial security. Each one of us who experienced layoff’s and didn’t get back into another job right away had to become comfortable with not knowing what tomorrow would be like. Will I be able to pay the rent, or the mortgage? Will I be able to pay my bills? Will I be able to bring home food? Everyone has a different story, but what remains the same is how humbling this experience has been. I had to learn to think more short term, and not to worry so much what the future will bring. Feelings of financial, personal, or emotional security became all a tail of the past, or maybe they were illusions all along? Out of all of this I became way more present and grateful...to my husband, and his love, present to myself, well present to life itself, and what the two of us as a team were capable of doing. Loss and attachment seem to be the price of abundance (James Hollis, PH. D., Finding Meaning In The Second Half Of Your Life - How To Finally Grow Up). It made me realize that every day is a gift, a treasure...in a world of fleetingness... regardless the circumstances. As a result, I find myself living every day with a much deeper sense of appreciation, and grace, one I didn’t have before.

Also, it’s as if the time off from the system gave me an opportunity to take a step back. It allowed me to become an observer watching from the outside in. But who or what was watching? I no longer was part of playing the expected corporate and social games, at least for a while. Inch by inch I moved a bit closer towards my own unique, independent, autonomous voice and power. It was as if something got set free. What part of me was it that felt freer, and happier? I also got healthier, I got to take care of my self and attended health issues I have not had time to nurture before. I got more sleep, I ate smarter, I exercised more, was overall way less stressed, and found myself in better shape then I was in my Twenties!

However, the fact was I was unemployed, and I really didn’t know what the future would bring. I took my share of responsibility of what was, and set out foot to craft a new reality for my self. I took another shot at becoming an entrepreneur. This time however, I was serious about becoming a catalyst for generating a structure that would somehow contribute to a new environmental consciousness or nurture social responsibility, with the hopes that this would take my life into a new direction that would actually make an impact. That’s how Afford Eco came about.

Yet, as I was working on growing Afford Eco, my passion and energy seemed to take a dive as I was facing financial and economic survival challenges, and therefore old doubts re-surfaced. My newly found serenity was overhauled by economic necessities. I realized, it would take a long time before I would become financially stable. Here it was again, financial survival was jeopardizing my vision, my idealism. Vision of what? Whose ideals were crushed? Regardless, I saw no other solution, but was forced to find another 8-5 job. Yikes, really? It seemed that I just went through full circle, forced to repeat the same vicious cycle again, but this time it was much harder to re-enter the work force for as now I have tasted the freedom, happiness and health working from the comforts of my home.

1 ½ years into it, and approximately 500 job applications later I found myself back in the corporate world as a design, branding and communications professional. It happened all overnight. I was re-employed as fast as I got laid off. Like I said, overnight. And honestly, it had absolutely nothing to do with any of my networking efforts, referrals or friends. It was pure luck. It was one out of many emails I received on a weekly basis from my creative employment agency. I responded, with the usual expectation that it will not lead to anything, just like all the other 499 jobs I applied for over the past year. To my surprise, they thought I was a match, and therefore submitted my resume. I got called for an interview. After 10 minutes of 6 eyeballs starring at me, I was asked if I could start the very same afternoon. Here I was after 3 years of going through two lay-offs’s, recruiting my own clients, building a house with my husband, establishing an environmentally conscious business, well, somewhat, and attending weekly green business networking events, joining the local chamber of commerce, actively hosting and organizing events that promoted a sense of community, nurtured social responsibility and environmental consciousness, training for and competing in International Latin Ballroom dancing, and all the while trying to search my soul so as what to make out of all of these changes and challenges of the last 3 years!

So, McLaren would probably shake my hand as I have failed, magnificently, flamboyantly failed....after all I went for it, I gave it my all, once again (I’ll spare you my prior entrepreneurial adventures). So shouldn’t I be congratulating myself? How then do you explain those feelings of a potential midlife depression I currently seem to be experiencing? I feel tired, lazy, bored, headaches, and constantly longing for something else in the arena of my work life. I feel like my idealism got greatly crushed.

Then, I came across a book by psychologist James Hollis, PH. D., Finding Meaning In The Second Half Of Your Life - How To Finally Grow Up. Hollis says that these feelings are part of the process of one’s individual evolution, one’s growth. He suggest that the development of one’s personality goes hand in hand with the suffering experienced for passively complying to familial, societal and cultural values. In his book, he talks about a sense of restlessness and depression after the achievement, or the failure to achieve, one’s ambitions, driving powers, or in short, facing the world...as all of those are in the service of building one’s ego. In fact, according to Hollis, the main task of the first half of life is to actually build ego-strength so as to engage in relationships, social roles and expectations, and to support oneself economically, basically to face the world. But then, at some point we over-identify with those very same ego roles that provided the initial success and survival (well, in the ordinary sense from an ego’s perspective). What initially served us in the first half of life will betray us in the second half of life, as to be witnessed in the depressed business man, abandoned spouse, or frustrated homemaker, he says. So in other words the very same strongsuits that made us successful in the first place seem to be responsible for the misery experienced in the second half of our lives. Hollis says that the ambitions, and goals of the first half of life were fueled and energized by our past conditioned images and complexes, as he calls it. Complexes meaning the choices we made in reaction to early observations, conditioning, and or family or socioeconomic or cultural expectations...which are not related at all to one’s own personal destiny...or the fulfillment of one’s soul. Or expressed differently, all those choices, ambitions, etc were not ours. So, in order to make sense of one’s life, we need to factor in another element...the human soul. The source of origin, that other energy that just is... prior to being conditioning.

Over the last couple years I've become aware of something called the consciousness, awareness, soul, God, Buddha, etc, or whatever you want to call it, by reading books and watching documentaries. But somehow I was missing that larger context as what to make out of this thing called consciousness. Also, I guess you could say I've been living with the belief that the self consisted only of one energy. The ego, and that it needed to be tamed, controlled, perhaps destroyed and replaced with something else, after all it seemed to be the source of all my suffering. Now, that I was reading Hollis's book, I'm coming to the conclusion that I am consisting of at least two energies that are trying to get my attention simultaneously. That in turn then explains the struggles I feel from within, between the wants and demands of my ego, and the yearning of my soul. Going forward, I might conclude there are additional energies at play, but for now to coop with the current process of my journey, let's just keep it at two :-), the ego and the soul (or the heart and the head, or God and you, whatever terms work for you).

As I was coming to this new conclusions, I felt like all the missing pieces of the puzzle were suddenly falling into its place, providing a bigger picture of the human journey. I concluding that I’m going through some sort of transition known as “the mid-life crisis” in my career. Thinking that having kids could fill the void is just another foul play by the ego. Hollis was able to verbalize an aspect of myself and provide a perspective of what I have been feeling but didn’t really understand. I highly recommend his book. He says that those feelings of restlessness, doubt or depression are actually part of “growing up”, it’s a letting go of childhood complexes, it’s the process of “letting go” of what comforts, validates, reinforces, strengthen one thing, the ego. Or in other words, those feelings of suffrage are experienced by the ego which is now being forced to , finally, grow up. In fact, he is saying that these feelings stem from the process of the ego dis-identifying with those goals, ambitions, as we are becoming aware that we are more than economic animals. He says, what we are experiencing as a sense of depression is simply another call to serve. It’s a call to serve in the service of our soul, to serve the individuation of our soul, the fulfillment of our own personal destiny (versus a life serving the values and expectations of mom, dad, society, tradition or our culture). It’s about becoming autonomous and authentic. It’s still a cry from within, however this cry is rooted in the depth of our soul asking us to wake up, to grow up, to let go, and become ourselves. This takes quiet a bit of awareness, and the ability to distinguish between the demands of the Ego, and what he categorizes as the calling of the soul.

Hollis says that during the second half of life, the Ego will be asked “to accept the absurdities of existence....” Yep, I agree, it feels as if I just went through a cycle of surrender and acceptance. Initially I was not sure what surrendered. Now I can see it may have been the ambitions, ideologies, aspirations, goals and dreams deriving from my Ego (after all who doesn’t want the 15 minute fame), versus the calls in the service of my soul that constitutes my “individuation”. Hollis says that ultimately our vocation (not conditioned carreerism) is to become ourselves....”becoming ourselves actually requires repeated submissions of the Ego”. However, he says, it takes quiet a bit of awareness to distinguish when we are serving the soul (individuation) versus the needs for ego reinforcements, as ego constantly seeks comfort, control, dominance, security, approval of others, etc. “It’s challenging to distinguish our rebellion against social norms believing this is individuation, when it is merely self-indulgence masking our difference. The seduction is so easily achieved because the ego wishes to serve itself and avoid service to the soul. What pulls us out of false rebellion or the easy torpor of the familiar is that the soul’s protest has grown painful to ignore”. “In the end, the meaning of our life will be judged not by our peers or their collective expectations, but by our experience of it...”. If we don’t make that distinction between ego and soul we will eventually betray ourselves, resulting in a life of misery, lack of fulfillment and meaning, well, depression. I don’t know if we can ever control our ego, as it seems to be as important and essential to our survival, at least initially....in the first half of life. Yet, Hollis says, we can reposition our ego in the second half of life, and use its strength in the service and fulfillment of our soul. The solution might just be found in the set up of an empowered relationship, between ego and soul, between masculine traits and feminine ones.

So maybe that’s what McLaren was talking about. The driving motivator behind a life that goes beyond ordinary success is the soul, or consciousness, or whatever you wanna’ call it. The observer that was watching from the outside in trying to make sense of the system, may after all have been my soul. Initially, I simply couldn’t distinguish if the motivation, vision, dreams and despair I experienced were part of the narcissistic demands of my ego, or arising from the land of my soul knocking at my door...asking to wake up. Now, the next question is how do you bring forth, how do you nurture, cultivate, fuel that energy called the soul in the second part of your life?

So long......

Tatjana

What’s lurking in your cosmetic and skin care products?

2010-06-18T14:26:00.000-07:00

Today's rather short blog will be more of interest to my female readers. I apologize to my male readers, but I don't think you care much for the topic of safe cosmetic and skin care products...although I think you should :-), especially if you have daughters.The hazard and toxicity found in today's skin care and cosmetic products is grotesque to say the least.

Yesterday I hosted a woman's event at my house in collaboration with Jay Coelho from A.I.P. Entertainment, featuring two fabulous speakers: Ashley Beckman from Golden Path Alchemy, and Elizabeth Golden from Golden Earth were sharing with us the journey of their wellness business, while educating our group on the hidden chemicals that are lurking in today's skin care products. Delicious vegan food was sponsored by The Vegan Joint, and beverage was provided by Guayaki Yerba Mate.

The whole point of my monthly events in collaboration with other men and or women is to provide a hub in our immediate community to foster and support each other on multiple levels; personal, societal, and or environmental. Each month we have a different event. Sometimes we have 10 people, sometimes we have 100, it all depends on type and topic. If you would like to be included in my invitations database, please contact me at tatjana (at) affordeco (dot) com.

As a result of yesterday's educational skin care event, I would be interested in hosting another event that focuses on safe cosmetics products. If you know anyone that represents brands such as Jane Iredale, Dr. Hauschka, Honeybee Gardens, etc., please contact me so I can organize an event with such speakers and their products. Let me know if there are any other brands that you think should be part of such a presentation/event.

I am not that much of a "facial cream person". On that topic, I "live" very simple, I use Egyptian Magic Skin Cream as my morning and night moisturizer, as well as my eye make-up remover as I found it to be the only one that would not "blur" my eyes. There is lot's of information online, just simply google the product. It is very affordable, one entire jar lasts for 6 months. I buy it down the street from Rainbow Acres for $33. I found that Rainbow Acres in general has great deals on lotions, skin care and vitamin supplements. As for cleaning my face, I have been using different facial scrubs, mostly from Alba and Alba Botanica. But they do have a few questionable ingredients. Price is around $10 - $16, depending where you buy them from and lasts for about 3 months. I am still exploring some other safe options that don't cost a fortune. What is your favorite facial soap / scrub that is non-hazardous to ones health? Then I usually use Witch Hazel Facial Toner to make sure I get all remaining traces off my face! You have to make sure you get the "facial toner", the regular will burn and dry out your skin. Price ranges from $3 - $5 depending where you shop at. Again, a bottle will last me about 3 - 4 months. So my facial products are rather affordable.

As for make up, I really love Dr. Hauschka's translucent make-up. Most of the time I have my German friends bring a few tubes from Germany as it is much cheaper to buy them in Europe, but you might be able to find good deals on Amazon. One tube will last for about 2 - 3 months. I know that Wholefoods carries the product, as well as local health food stores and some homeopathic pharmacies.

As for facial powder, I recently discovered two from Jane Iredale: 1) PurePressed Base Mineral Powder, and 2) Base Loose Mineral Powder, absolutely love it! But I'm still confused about the "mineral content". Some people say that minerals in your cosmetics are the worst for your skin, others swear that this is the way to go! What the heck is it now after all? Anyone? As much as I love the product though, especially the loose powder, it is expensive, holly molly!!!!! $49 for the pressed powder and $50 something for the loose powder. I buy all of my Jane Iredale powders on Amazon, you find much cheaper deals (once you know which color tone to buy). I did not care much for Jane Iredale's eyepencils and mascara. The eye pencil didn't apply well, and the mascara brush had these little tiny hairs that kept on getting into my eyes. Also, my eyes would start burning by using her eyeproducts. So shortly after, I found a really affordable brand called Honeybee Gardens, highly rated as safe on http://cosmeticsdatabase.com. However, the pencils keep on breaking when sharpening and or applying on the eye. Also, it doesn't last that long, so you you may need to re-apply in the afternoon. Cost: $6.00, very affordable (on Amazon). The mascara applies very subtle as well, so you won't get the full black look if that's what you want. However, it was the only mascara I could find without parabens. Cost: $9.00. I have been using Honeybee Gardens for about two years now. I going to do some research on Dr. Hauschka's mascara, and see how that will work out.

As for eye shadow, I am still using Mac...I know I know.

Here is another little favorite of mine. I don't use deodorant anymore, it's full of aluminum, and all kinds of toxic ingredients. Yet, at the same time I am not one of those people who can be without it either. I pretty much have tried everything that's on the market. I swear, noting worked...or let's say "lasted". So about two years ago I discovered "baking soda". If you can eat it, why not apply it externally to your body! It lasts all day, no matter how much you sweat as a dancer, athlete, gymnist, or an office clerk. You get the idea. After you shower, put a handful into both of your hands, and tab it into, well, your arm pit area. I follow up with a few spritzes of Weleda Wild Rose Deodorant (again purchased from Amazon). So that's the secret to staying fresh all day!

That's about it for today. I would love to hear from you about your knowledge of safe cosmetic and or skin care items. Also, please share your favorites, and or your "not so favorite" skin care and cosmetic items you have tested yourself so we can help each other with this taunting educational process of finding safe skin care and cosmetic items.

To view pictures from yesterday's event click here: http://www.affordeco.com

So long,

Tatjana Luethi

Part 2: Navigating today's Economy while regaining a sense of self

2010-05-18T22:21:00.000-07:00

The recent collapsing of our economy, specifically the real estate and banking industry is not something we are hearing about from a far remote country, but actually has affected our immediate neighborhood and many of us are coping in one way or the other with economical, financial, emotional and mental hardship.

So last year, I created the intention of individuals, professionals, and small businesses to come together to support each other during a time as such on a personal and or business level.

As a result of that, over the last couple months I have been hosting many different social and environmental events in collaboration with other local groups and organizations: it started out with my very own Afford Eco Holiday Trunk Show, and continued with EcoTuesday, L.A. Green Drinks, Women Of The Green Generation, Art Exhibitions with Ken Merfeld, a local photographer, and even a House Concert with singer and songwriter John T. Howard. On average 50 – 100 people attended per event to our environmentally conscious built home we completed 1 ½ years ago. The idea was for our house to function as an example and inspiration for conscious home construction and interior design all the while offering a space for like-minded people and professionals to gather, socialize and network, to form new alliances, or partnerships and to support each other during a time in flux.

One factor that most of us seem to have in common is our drive and motivation of wanting to actively participate and make a contribution to a much needed-evolutionary transformation of the individual, of society and our environment.

As a highly philosophical, idealistic, passionate and motivated individual I envision myself to take it a notch up and in addition to the networking and socializing events, I would like to provide an infrastructure to bring about positive and permanent shifts in the quality of our personal and collective lives right here in our neighborhood. To build on that drive to challenge conventional thinking and outdated paradigms I see myself create my own model, and or collaborate with other thought leaders, thinkers, visionaries, philosophers, psychologists, and perhaps scientists in the field of conscious evolution and transformational actualization.

I did. Or at least, I attempted to. For the past couple months I worked with an individual on outlining a program contained of introductions and seminars. He was super inspiring, of ancient wisdom, and full of profound knowledge. Unfortunately, some things I discovered were…let’s just say, disturbing and inappropriate.So much for my transformational attempt! What an experience.

However, he did leave me with some thoughts to ponder, specifically on the topics of feminine and masculine principles as I found myself stuck on the collective hardship so many of us are experiencing in today’s economy. How do you navigate today’s economy while maintaining a healthy, positive sense of self? Or shall we say, “regaining” a “new” sense of self? After all, do we really know who we are, now that we have been laid off from our adopted social and corporate identities, from our corporate persona so to speak? Perhaps this time is an opportunity, or shall we say, a needed framework “to wake up”? What is it that we want to do with our lives when we are no longer owned by the government? When we are no longer owned by a corporation or a school, or by our cultural, societal and or family traditions? Some of us welcomed the newly gained freedom, as it dropped stress levels, increased exercise activities and allowed time to prepare healthy meals for our families. Overall, who will complain to that! It just so happens that the model of our cultural and social economic system was created within the framework of co-dependence. You loose your job, you loose your home, potentially default on all your credit cards, and going back to school for a new degree is not even a considerable option as you are still paying off your student loans as we speak. So the very same system that gave you the degree, the job and the house have now decided to pull the rug. And between all of that I am asking you to search your soul, discover your true authentic self, and recognize and own your personal, unique, independent, autonomous voice and power. Well, what else you gonna’ do?

The catch is as we are searching “our souls” to find purpose and personal fulfillment, we still have to make a living. For the past year I have been working on building Afford Eco, distributing biodegradable and compostable food service containers and tableware to the commercial food service industry, assisting restaurants, catering businesses and coffee shops, etc., to get away from Styrofoam and other toxic food containers. I’d be embellishing if I was to claim financial abundance. Unfortunately, unless I get more accounts, I may have to slip back into my “corporate social persona” and sell my soul once more to the corporate world. Yikes! An ongoing conflict I struggle with as I am transitioning from "conditioned me" to "new me" is how to stay true to my authentic self trying to execute my noble intentions, yet simultaneously I still need to survive in today’s model, however corrupted and broken it may be:

1) An educational system, in which the structure provides the perfect ground to become an army of mindless robots, that are “trainable” and learn how to “take instructions” from those in power.
2) An infrastructure whose system is rooted in credit and loans, creating co-dependence between the governing body and its civilians starting at the tender age of a college student.
3) And thirdly, an economic system that has been built on the speculations of real estate, the stock market, and the banking industry, affecting tier 1 and tier 2.

Well, doesn’t it all sound glorious? Anywhoozy, as we are gazing into the eyes of our mirror reflection pondering if there is perhaps a hidden god or some all empowering goddess behind those lenses through which we navigated life so far, we may discover the concept of female and masculine principles as we are entering the lands of our own true authentic self. On our pilgrimage of understanding our own evolution, we may discover that we have spent the last 3000 years in a male-dominated, patriarchal-influenced value and belief system. As a woman, try to define your own femininity from such a reference point. Anything you say and do is most likely referenced and executed from a male, patriarchal set of value and belief system, as you probably can’t discard 3000 years of patriarchy in one instant. And we don’t even know that we are doing so. We are forming decisions and executing actions while being on auto-pilot, programmed, conditioned, and impacted by a masculine reference point hardwired in our neural network.

The solution for creating a new system and a new society may not be achieved through an ugly battle between men and women, but perhaps has more to do with looking at the default operating system that’s at play behind every man and women in power? Looking at it from that perspective, power, or qualitative change in this case, has nothing to do with gender. In fact, a woman in power might be even more brutal, hard, competitive and difficult than a man in charge, if she draws her reference point for success and change from the very same set of masculine attributes and principles that got us into this mess to begin with.

So at last, as we journey through the lands of finding our lost or hidden authentic self, we come to conclude that in order to find or create an authentic self, we have to look at the components of our personal operating system in the here and now, especially the ones that are running on auto-pilot, the ones we are unaware of, unconscious. The scary part is that these hidden aspects are influencing and co-creating the direction and events of our lives as equally and powerfully as the ones we are aware of. Perhaps they might be even more powerful?

In conclusion, this blog today was not about men versus women, in the contrary, it is about the awareness and integration of both, matriarchal and patriarchal principles and attributes into each of our personal operating systems. That hopefully will contribute and lead to the formation of a new sustainable society and system where men and women aren’t dominated by one or the other value and belief system, but rather function as conscious equals and co-creators balancing harmoniously masculine and feminine components. Looking at it from that perspective, we can probably stop tossing around statistics and analyzing quantitative change about women rising to the top. Isn't that focus almost missing the point? As mentioned earlier, if the woman in power executes from the very same masculine principles that she learned to value in order to succeed and "make it out there", our world may not find the personal, societal and environmental transformation we are trying to bring about. What is really the needed objectivity today? For me, it’s about qualitative change… bringing about positive and permanent shifts in the quality of our personal and collective lives, all the while considering the environment and all its inhabitants.

What is it for you?

Tatjana Luethi

Navigating today's Economy while regaining a sense of self

2010-04-13T09:37:00.001-07:00

Soundbytes with the Founder of Conscious Evolution: Part 1

A couple months ago I met a gentleman, founder of Conscious Evolution. He is, let’s say...a soul of profound ancient wisdom. He is one of those people whose words, if you carefully and consciously listen to them, are of infinite reverberation.....carrying a message within each word that transcend beyond the current moment. Every time I listen to our recorded dialogues I discover new information...new meaning...that had slipped my mind the first time.

I worked with him for about 2 months....discussing life and all of its facets...as it pertained to my own unique life. People around us seemed to be captivated by our conversations, carefully moving closer, eaves dropping...listening secretly into our conversations as they pretend to be zipping on their empty cup of coffee...it was really funny to observe.

He has an infinite spectrum of knowledge, wisdom and experience. His vocabulary and articulation allows you to follow his universal understanding ranging from the deep, personal, intimate dimensions of you as an individual all the way to the macro level of an entire society. His approach of life is one of “possibilities and opportunities”. He offered rewarding insights, stressed to look for the truth within and provided a level of understanding that puts you in power of your own life. With outermost care he guides one in uncovering, recognizing, and owning one's own unique power, discovering your true authentic self, and embracing the importance and relevance of one's life as an individual as well as in relation to the grander scheme of society.... all methodologically conveyed with a sense of love and compassion....

Having said that I would like to share a 30 minute dialogue of one of our conversations we recorded discussing the current economic times, its effects, and its challenges as experienced by so many of us and how it relates to the grander scheme of society and its future:

http://bit.ly/9tssYR

So long.....

Tatjana Luethi

Our experience of building a green home

2010-04-13T09:35:00.000-07:00

Last month we were interviewed by David Doucette, the approachable architect, discussing our experience, design and construction process, including some of the difficulties we faced with the building of our green home. To listen to our one hour interview click the following link: http://bit.ly/bPgzZW

Enjoy!

Tatjana Luethi

Lilith - A Powerfully Sexual Woman

2010-03-09T16:59:00.000-08:00

Heya Everyone,

It has been a while since my last blog, but here I am, I have re-emerged from the depth of duties and responsibilities. So here it is, my latest inner journey...the things that have been occupying my mind.

Have you noticed all the women groups and organizations that are popping up everywhere? It seems that we are in a time where women are undergoing a process and redefinition of who and what they are. Some are conscious and clear about that inner transformation taking place. Yet, others can not see through the layers of fog and nebulae of the stereotypical, male-dominated, patriarchal role models we have adopted throughout time.

So, what is it that currently is happening within the woman of today? How does the emergence of a new feminine principle appear? How does a woman go about finding, embracing and expressing a new level of female power, energy, principles and qualities, well, find self-expression that is not influenced by the traditional, male-energy that is dominating the world? How does she physically manifest and integrate both, male and female energies within a female body during such a time of female emergence? How does she transform, emerge, appear, act, self-express in the real world without falling back into the trap of stereotypical, male, patriarchal, traditional role models?

Going one step further, how does the emergence of a new woman partake in the creation of a new society, a new system, a new social and governing body? How does the emergence of a new perspective of the feminine impact the world of men? Can men and women actually co-exist in a world of equals, and co-creators, versus a world of dominion and submission of one or the other? How can men and women build a world where they work and live together celebrating and honoring the male and female as equally important in all of their dimensions? How can all of us come together and collaborate as co-creative citizen for the common good of everyone during such a time of economical, societal and environmental change?

It is clear that I have reached a point in my life where I'm questioning for the first time the definition of my femininity, well, in actuality society's definition of my femininity that I perhaps adopted and adhered to...until now? Triggered by dialogues and interactions with some very interesting people I recently met, as well as my training in International Latin Ballroom dancing, I find myself on a quest of researching historical female role models that dared to trespass boundaries and definitions, that dared to live a life that others only live in their dreams, that dared to determine the course of their own life.

That's when I discovered Isadora Duncan. What fascinates me about Isadora is not necessarily her way of dancing, although she does represent that innocent, spontaneous, natural, girlish, dreamy, curious, wondrous, light-hearted, delicate, carefree, playful, almost uncontrollable, formless, unrestrained and liberated spirit...guided by pure emotion, not technique. Did I perceive her as the idealized feminine as per my vision? No, I didn’t necessarily resonate with her expression of “femininity”. But what I did resonate with is her ability of having located and expressed in “form” what she is on the inside...in the realm of formlessness, before it finds expression in the world of form. She has mastered to express “herself”, her vision of womanhood, “her” vision of a free spirit. She is guided by the depth of her pure and raw feelings and emotions, versus rigid, constraining, unnatural dance techniques....

She not only may have laid the foundation, language and vocabulary of modern dance, but if you really look deeper, at a spiritual level, she may have initiated a movement....she was the leader...the founder of a woman’s liberation movement (so to speak). “Her” version of femininity was void of social definition, she was free of social conformity. She felt the power within her herself to determine her life. She was living outside of social restrictions as a dancer, as an artist...as a woman. She recognized the beauty within and all she had to do is express it to the world.

I guess one could even say that she set the pathway for Hollywood, for the non-conforming...for the creative....for the artist, clearing the path for those who wish to be authentic, for those who long to be autonomous, for those who wish to embrace their power that’s dwelling deep within, for those who do not want to live a boring, monotonous, inauthentic, system-dependent “cookie cutter life”...for those who dare to oppose conformity. In one way or the other, she managed to establish a gateway for a “different way of life” that would penetrate the layers of conformity, yet succeeded to make it acceptable alongside the rules, roles and restrictions of society. Very inspiring.

Within this context I started wondering if Ballroom dancing will give me that physical liberation from mental self-restriction and societal imposed limitations? Will it give me that physical freedom I'm seeking to self-express my own unique femininity? Or is it another form of an already “pre-defined and accepted” female role fitting within the accepted norm of “today's society”.

Well, my dance coach recently appointed me to work with his female coach, a world-renowned champion in International Latin and Standard Ballroom dancing as he pointed out that he can teach me all day long about "technique", but when it comes to femininity I may want to seek out a woman. So off I was to learn from my new master. She pointed out that before I will find that freedom I’m looking for I will first find restriction as Latin Ballroom dancing has very defined rules and “roles” in order to establish “form”. She suggested to perhaps seek out some rhythm classes as a support in addition to Ballroom dancing to enable me to move into “form” easier, with greater awareness of myself that has to be “felt” rather than “explained”. Hm, okay.

Some people find their self-expression through knowledge, and others find it through intuition. However, to walk the path of intuition, we need to give ourselves permission...permission to express...without judging and being judged, without fear of reaction, without fear of failure and humility, without fear of being rejected, without avoiding vulnerability.

Since avoiding vulnerability seems to be something for me to look at, going the path of intuition might be tough...at least for now...as long as I don't give myself permission to be okay with ...vulnerability. So, as I'm hitting the disciple of "knowledge", or learning, one could say that within the context of International Latin Ballroom Dancing I only have to conform until I have learned all the tools. Once I master them, I anticipate to break 'em all and shine in all the glory of my own true authentic Self :-) ...one of freedom, one of pure self-expression, one of completeness...a point where art, beauty and life meet and there is only BEING.

In my quest of researching and understanding the different perception of women throughout history, I recently watched “The Last Temptation Of Christ”, and I have to say I didn’t resonate with Mary Magdalena....at all. I was disgusted over how she offered her body to any men strolling the streets to fulfill “his” needs. Where is the respect and honor for oneself in this?

In the light of conformity, I guess you could say she “didn’t conform”, and may have been treated as an outcast by society. Yet prostitution has always lived alongside society regardless of roles, rules and morals that existed at that time. Unless...is it possible that prostitution is the patriarchal bastardization of the sacred feminine that was celebrated during matriarchal times? Perhaps prostitution didn’t exist during those times when women and the feminine were regarded as something sacred, as the mother of life, as the one who gives life, as something to be honored and celebrated, rather than to be owned, used and dominated? Perhaps prostitution emerged as a byproduct when patriarchal influences rewrote the definition and value of women to transfer attention, power and lineage to men? The filters through which we view and judge seem to be influenced by society's value and belief system, or in other words, the reference point at that time...

Anyhow, throughout the movie, I felt that Mary Magdalena was portrayed as something disposable, easily replaced by men with any other women...as long as she, the women, any women, would serve and fulfill some need for men, be it sex, or to carry and birth his children. The only control Mary Magdalena had over men was her sexual power, with her seduction, her beauty, her body. But I did not perceive her as the complete women, like Lilith.

Yes, Lilith was celebrated for the personification of female sexuality. However, in contrast to the portrayal of Mary Magdalena in the movie, Lilith was celebrated for her female independence and autonomy, both sexually “and” in other aspects of her life...meaning honoring and respecting the authenticity of “all” of her female dimensions. I'm highly intrigued and inspired by the legend of Lilith. She would not bow down to any man or god. She was not a goddess that would serve men, she was not celebrated for her fertility and reproduction ability, but rather she represented a woman who was at complete ease and comfort with her own sexuality. She represents the ultimate female power, independence, autonomy, and sexuality. She was free and unrestrained, she knew her power, she was "the complete woman". Nice!

Going back to my questions at the beginning of today's blog, I would like to announce that I have been conversing with leaders, thinkers, authors, visionaries, speakers and pioneers in the field of transformational actualization to launch a series of discussions and workshops along the topics of such. Some of you may know, and have attended some of the social and environmental events I have been hosting on a monthly basis in Marina del Rey drawing 50 - 100 people per event. The intention was to offer a space for like-minded people and professionals to come and gather, socialize and network, to form new alliances, partnerships and new friendships. The common thread that holds us all together is our drive and motivation of wanting to actively participate and make a contribution to a much needed evolutionary transformation of the individual, of society and our environment.

To build on our drive and vision to facilitate and successfully navigate such intentions of challenging conventional thinking and outdated paradigms, I feel the need to provide a framework that allows a deeper immersion for such unfolding. Therefore, starting in 2 - 4 weeks, I will be hosting our very first "interactive dialogue" with the founder of The Institute For Conscious Evolution.

If you or anyone you know is interested in registering for our upcoming lectures and workshops, please send me an email to: tatjana (at) theswisszone (dot) com.

So long,

Tatjana Luethi

The Liberation and Raise of the Feminine

2009-12-16T23:59:00.000-08:00

I have always had this urge, impulse, well, call it longing, to create something inspiring, something that holds a sense of purpose, well, perhaps even destiny. Something that goes beyond the rules and policies, the structure, content and conditioning that has been prescribed to us by the society we live in. I am a very creative person and despite having both, a business background and a design background, I did not conceive myself being one of those artists that will inspire through fine art, photography or design. My “special skills” somehow lie within a different kind of self-expression, maybe the art of language and communication, and perhaps, within a just recently found passion, the art of body in motion.

It wasn’t really until my late-twenties that I started exploring that there might be some other dimension to myself, buried deep within. One that goes beyond the dimension of the mind and the intellect, one that goes beyond the psychological aspect of you and me. It is one of an untouched dimension, one of purity, one that cannot be conditioned, one that simply is. It’s the one that we all share, knowingly or unknowingly, that one that unites us all. The one where all of our creativity comes from. So what to do with all this super energy and enthusiasm rising high up from a level deep below, this other dimension, urging me to contribute and change the world? What to do with all the charisma and passion I exhibit when I truly believe in something from the depth of my heart? There ought to be a use for all those qualities, right?

Well, recently I came across a series of online audios, organized and hosted by two unbelievably inspiring women named Claire Zammit and Katherine Woodward Thomas. Their organization is called Feminine Power – Awakening the New Feminine Power. It surely sparked my interest, as I’ve always been a little bit of a rebel not necessarily going with what everyone else thought. If you have been following my blogs, you know what I’m about. If you don’t know me, well, I love exploring the journeys of the human mind, the perception of reality, and challenging our current understanding and knowledge of ourselves to new levels that lead way beyond the legacy of our families and culture, that lead way beyond the conditioning and “culturing” of the things we adopted, inherited and accepted as the truth. So, this series of conversations was right up my alley.

I will use this conversational series as the content provides a great backdrop for my explanation of what's currently going on in the economy, locally and globally. I think with the crash of the economy and the crippling of our societal system, each one of us has no choice but will eventually have to re-evaluate oneself, ones values, ones beliefs, etc, in order to contribute to a new, sustainable system, as the government is crippling under its own systematic weight. You surely might receive unemployment money for a while, but just wait what happens until that runs out too. Then what? In other words, like it or not, we are on our own, a new world of no structure and system to latch onto...at least until we will build a new one.

So what does it mean to “exist” when old structures fall apart, structures from which we have derived and formed an identity from? What does it mean "to be and survive" when the dictates and instructions suddenly cease that have been running your societal and culturally conditioned mind? What’s a yellow duck to do that is used to marching blind and mindlessly behind its fellow duck, which on a larger scale is part of an entire society of numb, yellow marching ducks? It is freaking scary, isn’t it? It is shocking. It is so overwhelming that it is hard for your mind to comprehend what happened. Where did everything go? Everything you worked so hard for suddenly slipped away, all in one split second. It all seemed to disappear into nothingness, emptiness. For a brief moment, chaos turns into stillness. The world has stopped moving. Everyone is frozen, paralyzed with fear, anxiety, hopelessness. Your job, your income, your car, your house, your savings, your retirement, your image, your reputation, all went down the drain in the mists of an economic collapse. Applying for a new “job” wont’ work, as the framework and the system that provide those jobs don’t hold up any longer. Like I said, you are on your one. This time around, you will have to count and trust in yourself that you got what it takes to start over - without a system in place.

Take a breath, it’s not that bad, I have a little flair for the dramatic sometimes - for entertaining purposes. But really, who are we when we remove and are devoid of all the underlying conditioning, the instructions, the beliefs and values, the adapted truths that have been running through a societal system? With our academic backgrounds we all are pretty good at analyzing and forming opinions and stating the nature of the problem. But in order to get out of this mess we have to develop a new culture, a new society, with new sets of values and structures. In order to get there it is essential to ground and root ourselves into a new kind of awareness, or consciousness, that will function as the ground from which we can create from. Desperately holding on to old paradigms, structures and believes will be an obstacle in developing a system that will be able to make a difference. Or in other words “you can’t solve a problem with the same mindset that has created the problem to begin with”. And this is where I believe women will play a significant role over the next coming centuries, as the female approach, if tapped into that pure essence, is just different. The masculine zeitgeist that has swayed over the last few centuries into the mindset of man and women won't be able to evolve and grow beyond its current one unless something new, something of catalystic inspiration is triggering a new state of mind in all of us. For philosophical reasons, let’s call it the liberation and rise of the feminine.

So, as we get a better understanding of the old system and paradigm we are coming from, and as we slowly evolve over to the other side exploring our own inner resource and essence that is void of the conditioning and culturing, we are left with this transitional gap of "nothingness" in between. It is this transitional gap that people are currently lost in. It's a gap experienced as the unknown, therefore filled with fear, anxiety, hopelessness, perhaps even depression. Without a clear context of the crippling of the old system and the emergence of a new system, it will be hard to navigate from A to B. So, I think we are not ready yet for the implementation of this new system, but rather we first have to establish an overview and context of the current happenings. Then we are ready to introduce and nurture a new mindset that is the necessary platform for a new system. So what we are just about to enter is an "educational" phase. With an understanding of the larger picture and the nurturing of this new mindset the transition will be experienced much smoother and easier, as we all will have an intention, a mission, well a purpose to look up to. Yet, at the same time, many of us may find themselves defaulting back to the old and familiar, into our comfort zone, until they too will realize that they got to take the leap of faith into that new and unknown that no one seems to be able to define as of right now.

In the meantime we need to come together and unite, co-operate and collaborate with each other for practical purposes, such as every day survival and making a living to get through this transitional gap. You can see it already happening, people are coming together, moving in together and sharing financial obligations, getting involved in their community, helping, volunteering and authentically and generously wanting to generate business or referrals for each other. It’s not about individualism anymore. No need for feelings of shame or pride as it’s happening to all of us. We are all sitting in the same boat, and it happens to be sinking. We have entered a time that is demanding unity, collaboration and cooperation in order to make it. Pride, selfishness, individualism, privacy, I call them necessary survival strategies of the past. In reality, it’s not that difficult. It’s just inconvenient, to our Ego. We are in a time that allows for growth and self-development. After all to grow, we have to work with the content and circumstances that life gives us. It’s an opportunity to foster and develop diplomacy, dignity and tactfulness over unaware impulse reactions and selfish measures as we are coming to live and work together for the purpose of a new system, a new culture, well a new future.

Okay, now let me delve into a brief conversation of how the female will play a vital and significant role in shaping and contributing to a new set of consciousness, that will influence the underlying structuring of a new society and culture.

Please note that I want to give credit to all the authors and speakers as well as the hosts and organizers from “Feminine Power – Awakening the New Feminine Power” for being a catalyst for today’s blog. To listen to the conversations and interviews please click here. As host and interviewees were discussing the roles of women throughout history and the suffering of female suppression that has been endured throughout centuries, they all agree that women seem to be re-arising from the depth. To be more specific, they are referring to the feminine essence. We seem to be in a time of reclaiming our feminine qualities, power and potential, this time playing a significant part in reshaping a new society, with new values, well, a new culture, or consciousness.

I don’t mean this in a feminist way at all. As Diane Musho Hamilton pointed out, in order to surpass the feminine oppression experienced for centuries in a masculine dominated system, women collectively broke through that aggression. And it wasn’t until recently that women experienced opportunities of equal rights. Sequentially, women “believed” that they had to adopt masculine qualities and trades in order to become powerful, competitive, and successful, so as to make it in the workforce, so as to become self-sustainable and independent. Alternatively, if that didn’t appeal to a woman (or her husband) she would find herself self-sacrificing and self-martyring as a pro-creator, popping out one child after another while chained to the home in some secluded village. How depleting! Doesn’t sound all that inspiring to me! Anyhow, the point is that somewhere along those lines of initial oppression, and traditional, patriotically prescribed female roles, and occupations and careers marked by masculine traits and qualities, women unfortunately have completely disconnected and forgotten their own feminine qualities that are rooted at the chore of their essence.

We now, however, seem to have reached a point in history, where women collectively seem to be letting go of these old, adapted and inherited sets of male identities, values and consciousness from the past and are reclaiming that inner resource of ours, that power and potential that is very unique and special, buried deep beneath within our female roots. So I hope that my male readers see as they read along that I’m not advocating for a feminist movement here at all, but much rather I am playing into this larger perspective and understanding of this current cultural and societal shift we seem to be all part of, including and impacting men as well. The only difference is that this time around women are playing a vital role in the shaping of this new system.

Why not, what harm can be done to the world by the creativity, the potential, the quality and power that are so unique to the feminine? One of wanting to heal, to nurture, to foster and to evolve the world? One that is marked by an authentic and autonomous sense of operating out of love, passion, connecting, collaborating, uniting and co-creating for the benefit of a future that will carry a legacy that goes beyond the personal selfishness society is currently engrossing in?

As I mentioned earlier, as women (and men) go through this transition, many of us don’t know what to make out of that impulse we feel, that urge, that desire, that longing of finding our autonomous potential and self-expression, the feeling of wanting to make a difference and better the world. All that is lingering deep within, waiting to be released from its dormancy. It’s almost as if the mothership of the feminine has arisen from deep below, blowing the horn of awakening, a sound of female resurgence reaching us all collectively. We just don’t know yet what to make out of it. We are torn back and forth between this new impulse, and the traditional pro-creator roles, or the masculine occupational modules we adhered to in the workforce as alternative to pro-creation.

So, what seems to be happening is the formation of varies women groups and organizations all over the world. Women are coming together to support each other; to share the fears, anxieties, dissatisfaction, guild, or depression, all simply symptoms deriving from a denial of self-expression, of not being capable of releasing that potential that lies within ourselves. As they share and start understanding that this seems to be a collective journey and not a personal one, relatedness kicks in, relief, inspiration to allow for these female qualities to resurface. It’s a newly gained confidence to trust, to accept and to embrace this foreign, yet deeply personal and intimate dimension within. Diane called it our golden shadows. It’s those parts of you that are buried deep within the female essence, those which represent the best in you...the beauty, the softness, the radiance, the sensuality, all the qualities that only a woman possesses; yet, at the same time these innate qualities hidden deep down seem so foreign to most of us. Perhaps self-acceptance is all it takes?

It is very interesting to observe in myself this process and transition as described above. On one hand I have been intellectually stimulated as I was listening to these conversations. At the same time I have been experiencing and implementing this inner process and transformation myself. One major area of my life I’m completely and utterly challenged to do so, pushed to my outermost limits, is in my recent training in dancing that I started in 2008. As much as I was seeking to find freedom and liberation through body movement, a physical cry for mental and psychological liberation from societal and cultural conditioning, I was absolutely paralyzed. I did not know how much of me and my female essence was blocked by mental and societal obstacles versus a physical one. At the beginning I couldn’t move, I was frozen, filled with fear and insecurity, shyness, and embarrassment. What the heck did I get myself into? We were told to be tough, and strong and independent, to be in control and to rely on ourselves. We were taught to analyze, to strategize, and to prepare for a worst case scenario. No one ever said anything about moving with pride, and confidence, with dignity and sophistication, with beauty, sensuality and that inner female radiance!

I got myself into a situation that was all right-brain, that was all about feelings and emotions. I got myself into a situation where I was forced to let go of any sort of control, mostly my old believes I had about my self. I was standing at a major cross point. It felt like one of those moments where it was about death or life. Everyones eyes are on you, people wondering if you are going to do the jump? It was now or never. I literally had to un-condition myself. I had to retreat to that most dreaded place of total and absolute vulnerability, to that place of groundlessness, unknowingness, that place of emptiness where there is nothing to latch onto. I had to find that place of security and confidence within myself. And I had to trust the person assuming the lead and control and that he would not violate and abuse my vulnerability I was just about to hand in...in order to give rise to something new. That and overcoming a chronic spinal injury is why dancing is so much more to me than just dancing. It completely and utterly stretched my safety zone into a whole other world, one that tapped into the root of my feminine essence.

No worries, it wasn't really all that dramatic. I'm just trying to get across a point here; vulnerability. You have to allow for vulnerability to arise if you want to shed yourself from an old and outgrown identity, as an identity is doing exactly that, defending and trying to keep intact what it has fought for so hard over the years. Once you let go of your socially and culturally conditioned identity, you have an opportunity to hopefully bring forth those golden shadows of yours, rooted deeply in your essence.

Alright, stay tuned for updates, as this will be the beginning of a woman’s group that I have envisioned to establish for quiet some time, dedicated to the development and growth of women committed in contributing to a new system, society and culture, at least for now in our immediate neighborhood. It probably will be a small and intimate gathering to start out with. However, in collaboration with another group of inspiring and powerful women we'll be introducing something on a larger scale in 2010. I'll keep you updated. For now, anyone interested in attending and or participating in my smaller gatherings please send me an email to tatjana (at) otny (dot) net.

Wishing you all a very happy holiday season. Talk to you in 2010!

Tatjana Luethi

P.S. If you would like to receive notifications whenever I post my latest blogs, please sign up here (I post a blog every 1 or 2 months): http://theswisszonesignup.eventbrite.com/

If you find this inspiring and interesting feel free to forward and share it with your friends (tweet, facebook, etc).

Paths of Liberation - Emancipating oneself from biological and social controls

2009-10-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

Hope all of you are well because I am sick at home with a gnarly cold. At least I had a great excuse to just sit around and work on my blog for this month.

In the last few blogs we explored the dynamic between systems - the human operating system and how it relates to the societal system, or shall we say, societal control. I raised the question what do we have to do to calm and control the chaos of our mind? How do we go about creating a healthy independence from our own biological/instinctual impulses and social control?

As Mihaly points out in his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience the essence of socialization is to make its members dependent on social controls (or for that matter on the social-economical system).

It’s obvious that we can’t escape “physically” from societal controls, but Mihaly stresses that we can reach “mental” independence from those invisible societal control systems. Let’s take a closer look about Mohaly’s definition of:

1) A socialized person versus
2) an autonomous, system-independent (conscious) person:

1) A SOCIALIZED PERSON:
He says that a socialized person is one that functions and operates efficiently and successfully within a particular designed social system. The dependence is created through a model of rewards and punishment, which in turn has been crafted based on the nature of our biological needs and genetic programming (pleasure principle). The individual reacts to “biological-rooted” desires, but believes them to be “personal desires”, or “individual feelings / interests” (my inner voice, instinct, gut feeling, etc). The illusion is that these desires are rooted in our genetic programming.

Unless we can understand and become aware of our own biological inclinations that are being exploited at a genetic level, we will remain dependent and caught up in the web of the societal system we live in. I think to “Know Thyself” means studying and understanding one's biological-rooted feelings and desires, and its whole cascade of reflex responses. Seeing yourself in this light you get to realize there is not much conscious planning from your part, but rather you are at the mercy of your neuro-chemical operating system reacting to external stimuli. In short, to reach “mental independence” from both, our own biological impulses and urges and the societal instructions, we have to learn how to override our instinctual reflex responses (reaction pattern) to those forces. (If this is a little out of context for you, please see my last two blogs below).

Talking about "responsiveness", I'm fascinated with people's linguistic response patterns as they are indicators of their "inner world - their mental state". It is easy to differentiate if someone is speaking from a state of consciousness, or if the person is speaking from a state that has a lack of self-awareness. In the context of language someone who is not very self-aware of "his machinery" has a tendency to "react" in an automatic, impulsive, instinctive, reflexive way. Unless the other party is conscious, that behavior seems to trigger that person's impulsive reflex system, and now both parties are tangled up in a fight or argument. In contrast, someone who is conscious over his machinery "responds" from a state of reflection, objective assessment, weighing and evaluating prior to consciously formulating the response.

Having said that, being conscious takes effort, the effort lies in learning how to control one's reactionary machine, those instinctual, impulsive inclinations of ours - in this example one's linguistic responsiveness. In short we could say, one can "respond with consciousness", or one "reacts from a lack of it". The words and tone of voice are the indicators. It reveals your perception of reality and how you walk through life. Remember, without self-awareness or consciousness we are placing ourselves into a vulnerable, helpless position, becoming an easy target for exploitations built on the cravings embedded in our biological needs. That can be experienced through the interaction with another individual, or through the interaction with a societal system. However, I think awareness is evolutionary; meaning that awareness arises as we live and face life with all its facets. Just like Mihaly points out, it comes about from trial-and-error experiences. Some of us learn quickly, others keep on re-living and repeating their blind spots. And some seem to never wake up.

Going back to Mihaly, he got a point, we have been conditioned (programmed) to desire the rewards that have been established by others – a model of rewards and punishment, crafted based on the nature of our genetically programmed desires. Mihaly says, “A thoroughly socialized person is one who desires only the rewards that others around him have agreed he should long for”. How many of your life choices were really your personal/conscious choices? “He may encounter thousands of potentially fulfilling experiences, but he fails to notice them because they are not the things he desires”. Well, yeah, makes sense, we can’t notice potentially fulfilling experiences if that’s not what we have been socially programmed to look for.

The creators of social control did a great job in creating a value system that leads us to believe that happiness can be found in materialistic accumulations; this system provides a great platform for an inter-dependent economy and a great GDP statistic (Gross Domestic Product = a measure of a country’s economic performance). But looking closer it doesn’t seem all that healthy, sustainable or environmentally friendly, does it? In a structure as such we can conclude that we as the members of society are not in charge over the quality of our own happiness unless the original platform has been designed with self-sustainability and happiness in mind. That would explain why the “programmed wanting” of more and bigger materialistic purchases only provide a temporary emotional relief.

Anywhozzy, we can conclude though that a complex society needs to have rules in place, otherwise some of us might go haywire. And who knows how much conscious planning was really behind those powers that crafted them into a strategy. Some of them may have had great intentions for the members of its society, not clearly understanding the unintended impact or aftermath of some of the societal controls that were put in place. Others may have become corrupted along the way deviating from its original constitution and essence. And some may have known exactly what they were designing during the brainstorming session.

The matter of fact is we can’t avoid living “physically” in this system, but Mihaly emphasizes that we can choose "mentally" to become free and independent of societal rewards and punishment. He says, “a person does not have to be turned into a puppet jerked about by social controls. The solution is to gradually become free of societal rewards and learn how to substitute for them rewards that are under one’s own powers. This is not to say that we should abandon every goal endorsed by society; rather, it means that, in addition to or instead of the goals others use to bribe us with, we develop a set of our own.” The same goes for interpersonal relationships, can you become free of personal rewards you are trying to elicit from personal relationships? To face that question it takes fierce and genuine introspection and willingness for deep self-exploration as to "why" you are with someone else.

2) AN AUTONOMOUS, SYSTEM-INDEPENDENT PERSON
In contrast to a “socialized” person, a “conscious” person is someone who has a conscious plan that he can accomplish as he has been able to override and control ones genetic programming and biological desires, urges, or needs. He can distinguish his biological desires and now pursue his consciously created personal goals/desires. The person has been able to step outside of one’s own biological and societal limitations and boundaries. He has left the box, or shall we say, his conditioned comfort zone, his old familiar system. He has emancipated himself from those controls. His happiness is now independent from these forces as the rewards are from within, under his own conscious power.

He is an autonomous, system-independent person.

There is a sense of mastery, a sense of being in control over the content of one’s life. We now feel like we are actively participating in the unfolding of and determining the content of our experience of life. Everything now is a conscious-controlled choice (in contrast to a reflex response – biology-based or socially-conditioned).

Mihaly calls this the “paths of liberation”, becoming free and in control of one’s life. Lynn Serafinn, another great author calls it "protecting ourselves against unconscious impacts". Mihaly: “It is no longer necessary to struggle for goals” that were set by others. It is no longer necessary to “end each boring day with the hope that tomorrow, perhaps, something good will happen” (as you are no longer focusing on external rewards for relief). He says “the most important step in emancipating oneself from social controls is the ability to find rewards in the events of each moment. If a person learns to enjoy and find meaning in the ongoing stream of experience, in the process of living itself, the burden of social controls automatically falls from one’s shoulders. (View it as a shifting of importance and what’s relevant to you.) Power returns to the person when rewards are no longer relegated to outside forces”. “Instead of forever straining for the tantalizing prize dangled just out of reach, one begins to harvest the genuine rewards of living”.

Again, we can apply the above also at an individual level, such as interpersonal relationships. To create a healthy independence from a sick, dependence-driven relationship, we got to develop the ability to finding rewards and confidence from within. We can now refrain from reaching for external attention and "needy love" (or whatever we believe we need) if we can distinguish whether our responses are conscious, autonomous and system-independent, or if we are reacting from our biological mechanism - our biological-rooted desires. If we can become aware of our dependence on external models of rewards and punishment, and if we can become aware of our own impact depending on the type of responsiveness we display to those stimuli, we can see that we own the power to perpetuate the vicious cycle, or create a loving, genuine relationship instead. With this understanding and the cultivation of our own self-awareness we can find comfort and confidence from within ourselves. Let me repeat Mohaly's words, "power returns to the person when rewards are no longer relegated through (or needed from) outside forces.

That's it for today. Let the exploration continue…

Tatjana Luethi

Social Controls: Booby Traps from Corporate America

2009-09-23T12:57:00.000-07:00

I’m extremely disturbed about the most recent events that have been happening at the office of a person I’m very close to, affecting him and his entire team.

I will use Mihaly Csikszentmihaly’s book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience as his writings provide a great backdrop for understanding how societal systems interact with ours, the human system.

Sigmund Freud states: “Civilization is built on the repression of individual desires”.

As per Mihaly, to establish and maintain social order members of a society are forced to learn the skills and habits that the culture requires. Sounds like we all became a yellow duck in a long row of other yellow ducks marching blind and mindless behind our fellow in front of us. In other words “shut up and get in row”. Mihaly continues that a socialized person is someone who successfully functions and operates within a particular social system. I guess it depends on how you define success. What if that social system is not based on integrity? I’m placing this question in the light of what my friend and his team is currently experiencing at his position with his current employer of the past 12 years. Perhaps originally the culture at the corporation was designed with authenticity and integrity in mind, but somewhere along the line its original constitution and essence got corrupted.

It’s hard to oppose the habits and values of an environment that’s corrupted. It takes a strong man to stay authentic, keep clarity and an objective perspective to carry on and execute in the interest of what’s most efficient and beneficial for the company versus its individual players. It takes someone deeply rooted to operate from a space of integrity in a corporate environment that values moral perversion. It takes a man of autonomy to not get sidetracked and blinded by the corporate rewards rooted in dishonesty. What’s a man to do when his corporate environment has deviated away from its original intention and essence? Patience and hard work won’t be rewarded into promotions and executive titles. So then what’s the point in continuing the hard work?

Mihaly says that the essence of socialization is to make people dependent on social controls, have them respond predictably to rewards and punishment. Well, in this case the corporate rewards and punishment have been redesigned to benefit upper management’s goals. If the players don’t respond and behave as expected by the new intentions and rules established, consequences will be put in place. They have. The rug has been pulled. What for? My friend and his team chose not to play the game of “sucking up to management”, but rather staying true to one’s integrity. I congratulate all of you. I am proud to know men of such characteristics.

Mihaly points out that in making us work for society’s goals, in this case for the corporation’s goals, social systems are exploiting us at the source of our biological needs and our genetic conditioning (I guess you could call that social conditioning). Social controls are based on a threat of survival instinct. Reflecting upon my friend’s employer, how is their current corporate system exploiting their employees to work for goals and strategies of upper management? In this case the consequences imposed caused a great sense of distress and demoralization, followed by a fear of potential:
Loss of job
Loss of Income
Loss of Insurance
Loss of House, Car, etc
Loss of identity, in other words sense of self (that is, if you identify yourself through such matters).

To understand the happenings of the current events we’d have to question beyond the context of consequences that have been put in place. We have to question the underlying intention and strategy behind these consequences. To go one level deeper, what’s the underlying system that gives rise and directions to such a strategy? What are the characteristics and motivation of the current corporate system influencing upper managements behavior and actions? Is it integrity? Authenticity? Transparency? Not so much. All we see is a motivation that seems to devise a plan that divides employees into two categories:
1) the ones who suck up to upper management
2) the ones who don’t sell out but rather operate from integrity and autonomy

This is a perfect example that exemplifies my belief that livelihood and meaning cannot be separated. If employment is purely sought for a “comfortable” life, for achieving wealth, power and status we will remain being a puppet of our environment and its social controls, as those values are stressed in the promise of the “good life”. We will continuously be plagued by unhappiness and discontent because we built the basis for our happiness outside of ourselves. As a result we try to make up for the void by finding relieve in other piecemeal solutions, driven by the same pleasure principles built into our genetic programming that we fell bribe to in the first place. Mihaly notes that we have to achieve a level of autonomy that provides the rewards from within so that we won’t fall victim of our biological reflex responses exploited by the social systems (corporate systems). Well, that takes understanding and awareness of how we function as a human system. For a broader context please see my last post from Friday, September 18, 2009 “The Pursuit of Happiness – Becoming Free and In Control of One’s Life.”

I think the current times of the economic downfall are providing us with an opportunity to re-evaluate what we really stand for. Initially, it may not appear as an opportunity but more so as a threat of our existence. First, we are tested within the current system. If we can understand and withstand the booby traps we’re probably more likely to make a change in the fundamental states of our mind, leading to a path of autonomy, and eventually happiness and fulfillment. It causes us to re-evaluate our values and recreate and reinvent new ways of our livelihoods. I find that a mission that makes a contribution to the greater good going beyond the benefit of oneself automatically brings about passion, energy and dynamic. It brings about meaning, it’s worthwhile the effort and dedication. It’s when you feel at one with life, completely involved and immersed in it. Call me naïve, but I still believe in the essence of goodness residing deep within the chore of each one of us. Having said that, how would you now answer the question of “what’s the point in continuing the hard work, dedication and commitment?”

I know, I didn’t provide much of a solution here, my blog today is merely driven by philosophical mutters. I will make it a point in my next blog to delve into Mohaly’s book, where he reflects his ideas on how to “reclaim your experience” or create “optimal experience”.

So long…..

Tatjana Luethi

The Pursuit of Happiness - Becoming Free And In Control of One's Life

2009-09-18T15:06:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, so here we go, continuing the journey of exploring life.

After my last blog a friend suggested that I check out Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (P.S.) by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi as the content relates to a similar topic from Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind which was the topic of my last blog.

I am half way through the book; it truly is phenomenal, thought provoking, well, challenging me to digest new knowledge, hopefully pushing the limits of my current “box”. Unawareness of alternatives keeps you captive in your comfort zone, therefore, our actions and behavior can only draw from what is within that box. So, here we go! Welcome back to the journey of the Swiss mind!

Last time I explored the world of our “genetic machine”. Each one of us is born with a specific genetic make-up that we inherit from our parents and our prior ancestors. I guess you could call it our compounded genetic blueprint that we start out with when we enter this world. However, over time we contribute and are responsible for new neural connections through the repetitive exposure of millions and billions of raw information that we “allow” to enter our mind, which the self interprets within the context of its own interest. The internalization of the information, respectively, our interpretation of it, if repeated consistently over a long period of time leads to eventual “hardwiring” of those new connections – forming our attitude, or state of mind. The totality of your neural network, a compilation of biological and societal instructions, makes up our operating system. It is what makes us operationally distinct and unique from others. It gives us our personality.

The ability of our neural network to adjust and rewire itself is called “plasticity”, think of it as “experience-impacted brain remodeling”. It seems to be under “on-going construction” as our brains are exposed to experiences on an everyday basis. So if I get this right nothing is really set in stone, as to some extend deeper experiences and social conditioning have modified the original genetic blueprint we originally started out with. Seems like we unconsciously have “allowed” for parental, societal and cultural systems to imprint itself into the deepest core of our being. Confusing? It is, literally, after all look at how many of us are trying to make sense of who we are?

It might be more appropriate to ask “who are we not”? If you remove all the layers of genetic (biological) and social instructions, what is there left? Psychoanalyst Freud notes that there is a constant battle between our “biological impulses” (the id) and the “social instructions” (the Superego). The battle between the two of them creates a split in our sense of self. So then, what the heck is the (Ego)? Reading through Wikipedia, I guess you could say that (Ego) is the modified version of the (Id), or (Ego) is the graduated version of the (Id) after it has been modified and influenced by the external world, by societal instructions. So Ego is somehow still related to our biological nature, maybe a little bit more trained, controlled and emancipated, but still driven by the pleasure principle that is built into our genetic programming. Some of us execute more control over that aspect of ourselves; others are at the complete mercy of their basic instincts and drive.

Mihaly notes, “Submission to genetic programming can become quite dangerous, because it leaves us helpless. A person who cannot override genetic instructions when necessary is always vulnerable. Instead of deciding how to act in terms of personal goals, he has to surrender to the things that his body has been programmed (or missprogrammed) to be. One must particularly achieve control over instinctual drives to achieve a healthy independence of society, for as long as we respond predictably to what feels good and what feels bad, it is easy for others to exploit our preferences for their own ends.” We can reflect on this by looking at our daily individual interactions, or on a grander picture in the light of interactions with social systems.

Okay, so how do we free consciousness from external forces – 1) biological or 2) social in nature? It’s already complicated enough trying to understand and control your instinctual, biological impulses, while meeting the societal goals. But imagine what happens when both of them team up and collaborate with each other, biological forces with social systems? Let me back up a little bit and lay down a context for you. Mihaly points out that the pleasure principles (for example the craving for sex or food) are built in to our invisible genetic machine – the human body. It is nature’s way of guaranteeing the survival of our species. “The pleasure we take in eating is an efficient way to ensure that the body will get the nourishment it needs. The pleasure of sexual intercourse is an equally practical method for the genes to program the body to reproduce and thereby to ensure the continuity of the genes”. Hm, efficient and practical, yep, we are a machine! So, Mihaly says, seeking pleasure is a “reflex response” from the body (basic biological impulse) and your own conscious plan of “sex” or “feeding” yourself may not have much to do with your own “intention” after all”. Fantastic!

The challenge arises, he notes, when we confuse those reflex responses as our “own” feelings, and call it the inner voice, the self, my instinct, etc. “If it feels good then it must be right”. But when we respond (or react) to these biological or social instructions without examining them we become puppets of those “external forces”. As long as we rely on what feels good it is easy for others to exploit us for their own benefits. So, without this distinction and self-awareness it is easy for social systems (and individuals) to execute control with a language that is specifically designed to target your “pleasure gene” (or how to avoid pain): Vive le politicians, corporations, churches and advertisers! Smart cookies, aren’t they? “As long as we obey the socially conditioned stimulus-response patterns that exploit our biological inclinations, we are controlled from the outside”. In that light, TV and commercials are not “bad”, just know what’s happening, it’s called awareness, understanding the systems. The same insight can be applied to individual interactions. The next time a conflict arises examine the source of it. Are you acting and behaving from a source of biological reflex responses? Or are your words and behavior consciously formulated from a space of clarity and awareness? That my dear takes effort!

Okay, I think we are getting somewhere. Awareness is one step, but how do we go about become consistently independent of the dictates of the body, and the imprinted social instructions of our environment? Mihaly says, “Optimal experience depends on the ability to control what happens in consciousness moment by moment, each person has to achieve it on the basis of his own individual efforts and creativity.” In other words there is no recipe out there. The responsibility for living lies in you living it, exploring it and experiencing it with all its facets. Now, we are back to knowledge, exposing oneself to new knowledge that pushes the limits of our current “box”. Many of us are drawn to the scriptures and philosophies of ancient times that supposedly teach us on how to control our mind. But Mihaly emphasizes that the knowledge and wisdom from ancient times may need to be “reformulated every time the cultural context changes”. It may have been effective in that time and culture, but looses its power and original context when put into the light of our contemporary time. That might explain why some of the ancient texts seem meaningless and make little sense. We try to make order and sense of it by projecting our own interpretation in the context of our own contemporary interests.

So, what do we have to do to calm and control the chaos of our mind? What are the conditions that allow us to create an experience, a new Self, where we do feel in control and become the masters of our reality?

Well, the journey shall continue…see you next time!

If you can't change, then what are you addicted to?

2009-07-09T15:03:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

So after I posted my last blogg, someone asked me "What do you do when you feel treated unfair, are nervous and about to explode?" Let me remind you that this question was posted in the context of using the power of language/thought, which creates the experience that follows.

Well, I'm not an expert here, but I can give it a shot :-). Like I mentioned in my last blogg, a lot of arguments take place for really no purposeful reason, meaning they are senseless and stupid. They don't contribute to anything. Most of the time it is simply the Ego acting up in "survival mode", and it will do anything to maintain its emotional survival and get the cognitive appraisal it seeks.

So, what are feelings? Where do they come from? Why do we have them? Why do they seem to control so much of our actions, our behavior, well, our life? I'm sure some of you have heard this before, that "we are not our feelings". If you want to find out who you truly are, you have to look beyond your emotions. Emotions are a separate entity, you are not your emotions. To some extend, I get it, but for my own personal purpose, I had to get a little bit more of a scientific explanation.

So here we go. I am almost done reading Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind
by Joe Dispenza. In his book, Joe Dispenza describes the studies he made of the human brain/mind, how it works, how it stores information and why it perpetuates the same behavioral pattern over and over. He talks about how to gain control over your mind and become an active participant in the creation of your life - from a scientific, neurological perspective. I'm going to keep this really short and simple, but I will have to establish a little bit of a context.

Every time we fire a thought in our head, nerve cells called "neurons" carry that message across the neural network, there the message gets translated into a chemical (call it the language of the body), that chemical produces a feeling or other physical reactions in the body (physical symptoms).

So to some extend we are predisposed with this forest of neural network that we inherited from our parents as well as our prior ancestors (we all know about our embedded fight or flight responses - a physical reaction that is genetically wired into our nervous system, thus ensuring the survival of the species). However, throughout the course of life we ourselves contribute and are responsible for adding new connections of neurons to our neural network, namely through the repetition of the same thought over and over again, until then new connections eventually "hardwire", making up a specific attitude, or state of mind. Your body, or your neurons are now part of an automatic, repetive cycle, constistenly releasing a cascade of chemicals into your body that mirrors your thought pattern. Over time, your body gets addicted to the release of these chemicals as these chemicals create a certain feeling in your body. So we could say that your fight and arguments could be considerate a neurological and chemical response from your body. The body has taken over, it has become the mind and is now doing the thinking for your mind. It is now giving orders to the brain when it needs a chemical fix, dominating and dictating your actions and behavior.

Your responses and your reactions are now becoming predictable, and you seem to remain the same person with the same neural network (thinking inside the box). This cycle is evident in the saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks", as he choses to stay hardwired in his "attitude", well, his neurological make-up. Think of it this way, your neurological physical map is a physical manifestation of your thought pattern. The longer you hold on to the same thoughts/state of mind/attitude/oppinion, the more hardwired you become, the more corresponding chemicals get released, the more addicted your body becomes to these chemicals, which then causes your body to signal back to the brain to manufacture more of the chemicals it needs for its fix so that you can feel better. If you can't change your emotional state, you may want to consider that you may have become addicted to a specific emotion. Have you ever thought about what it is that has you seek out the people and environment you do seek out? So then, does this mean that the people we create, attract, and love are the people that fulfill our bio-chemical/emotional need and addiction of feeling worthy, needed, loved, etc? That makes it sounds so selfish, doesn't it? However, I like Joe's question: "If you can't change, then what are you addicted to? What will you loose that you are chemically addicted to?"

So once we come to understand the way our mind and our body works we can start taking responsibility for bringing about change into our personality. After all it is a choice. You can choose differently once you have established that awareness that you can impact and affect your neurological make-up. You are not the victim of your emotions, emotions are simply a "result" of a chemical cascade taking place in your body, initiated by your thoughts/state of mind, or on a magnified level, by your attitude. In that light we can see that we are not our emotions and feelings. Once you no longer draw your identity from them, you will no longer be dominated by them. Old patterns in your brain will crumbl and give birth to a new self. That's why it is recommended to constantly stimulate your mind with something new, be it trough learning, reading, travelling, etc, anything that pushes your comfort zone, allowing you to expand and establish new neural networks. It just seems that makes for a far more interesting person to hang out with, doesn't it?

Initialy it will be hard to break this cycle, especially if you have been running the same program year after year. Your actions and behavior are dominated by the chemical addiction of your body. It's going to take quiet some conscious effort to rewire yourself. That's where philosophies and methods come in like positive thinking, meditation, visualization or mental rehearsal, praying, etc, essentially all of these methods are doing the same thing, you are using your creative mind to repattern and rewire your neurological make-up, hence create a new reality.

So, maybe we can say that "feeling treated unfair" stems from an emotional victim mentality that somehow accumulated from past experiences and conditioning. The challenge with a vicitim mentality is that we are becoming really good at telling the story and holding on to the mental concept of what's wrong in our life. However, you'll stay a victim as long as you allow for it to happen. Most of the times we can not change the other person, but we can take responsibility and take actions in many forms. I think "being nervous" could be considered the physical reaction of the emotional state that preceds it. So one either ought to change ones mentality and attitude about the person or situation, so not to harm and disrupt ones health and body, or take action and leave the person or sitution if it poses a dangerous thread. "Exploding" sounds like the last resort the Ego turns to as a form of reaction once it realizes it can't get what it wants, in other words, when your body is not getting its chemical fix.

Now, having said that, Ego sounds very much like the bio-chemical/emotional system described in Joe Dispenza's book, doesn't it? The term Ego seems to be the term coined in psychology, where as Joe conveys the same concept from a scientific/biological perspective. At the end of the day we all seem to be talking about the same thing, the only thing that is different is the language and terms that are being used, which is defined by whom is conveying the story, the philosopher, the preacher, the guru, the neuroscientist, etc.

Okay, looking foward to everyones thoughts, comments, feedback, etc.

SwissMiss

#2 You either get busy living, or you get busy dying

2009-05-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

...Continuation from May 7th...

So maybe one thing we have to learn out of this current economic market is that we ought to focus on what we have in life, as opposed to focusing on scarcity and fear. They always say "keep up the positive attitude", right? Well, I think we need to realize that we truly have to belief in ourselves, our own ability to start over - let me say it again: you need to count on yourself being able to start over.

I am a firm believer in the "art of language", in form of a thought when having a self-dialogue with yourself, or in form of a spoken word when talking to others, as your word or thought sets up the experience that follows.

So in the form of a thought, if I think of myself as small and unimportant, then the produced results will be small and unimportant. If I can perceive myself as an individual with infinite potential and possibilities, then I’m actually giving the outcome an opportunity to rise into something big. My husband is a great example, as he is not afraid of thinking big, or let's say "outside of the box". After all, when we operate from our comfort zone, or from "inside the box", we can only see what we know, which in turn keeps on reaffirming our old personality, hence producing the same unsatisfying external results. Now that, my dear, might not be very efficient when facing conditions of change, I'm sure you can see that :-).

So in my husband's case, he actually thrives on not knowing. He goes out there, thinking way beyond the limits of his box, explores it, and then simply goes after it. Just like that. I guess, after all we do create more of what we focus on - so what is it for you, scarcity or possibilities? You may wanna ponder on this one for a bit, especially if your external conditions are forcing you to change.

In form of a spoken word, the language you choose when communicating to someone else sets up the interrelated dynamic that follows between the two of you. Basically it sets up the whole experience that follows, it conditions the impact you leave behind, the impression you made, the fight you may have stirred up in pursuit of your ego’s emotional survival and cognitive appraisal it so desperately seeks. The vocabulary you choose, the language you use, the tone of voice you apply, all put together is the catalyst for what follows. What comes out of your mouth and how it sounds is in your control, there’s no way to argue that one, so you may as well start taking responsibility for how your conversations are turning.

Many times we end up in nonsense arguments for truly stupid reasons, followed by unnecessary comments that are totally irrelevant to the conversation. That in turn then deviates away from what initiated the original argument. So there you have it, a vicious cycle of endless arguments, totally unhealthy to both parties. So I think you can see how the words you use, and the tone of your voice dictates the experience that follows. It’s about learning how to think of the effects of our behavior and words on the other. I actually find this fascinating! Do you realize how much control you can have when interacting with others? Don't get any wrong ideas here! You better use it authentically and with integrity to genuinely create an atmosphere of joy and health!

Okay, I could go on and on and on, as I love talking/writing about this stuff. But I'm a little concerned about your attention span, so, this shall be continued soon....

P.S. I'm a foreigner here, so, if my grammar and sentences seem a little off, I am so totally excused!!!!!

You either get busy living, or you get busy dying...

2009-05-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

...it surely seems that we are put to the test in the current economic condition, doesn't it? It seems to be an invitation to rethink our system of beliefs, to adjust the way we "perceive" the world, and to shed an outgrown pattern of how we go about living with the conditions that surround us. I mean, really, what else are we going to do? After all, this is what's happening right now, you can't change it. We either accept it and keep moving forward by re-inventing and re-thinking ourselves, or we can continue dwelling about the past. Or as expressed in the title, "you either get busy living, or you get busy dieing". I think I prefer living ;-)

Lot's of people are openly sharing their experience of being unemployed right now, as it is no longer something to be ashamed off. The times of embarrassment are over as too many people were hit by it. Some have experienced unemployment before, for others it is the first time in 20 years. Some people are totally lost and destroyed over it, others look at it as an opportunity to go after what they always wanted to do...something that offers passion and joy and maybe even makes a difference, something that goes beyond a paycheck earned behind the walls of a "corporate cubicle". Maybe, Life even did you a favor - how many times have you looked out of the office window, given you had an office window :-), and pondered what else life might have in store for you?

So, get busy living, but stay true and authentic to yourself, directing your attention to the goals that hold the greatest potential for who you are. Create what you always wanted to do, one step at a time.....what's holding you back?

SwissMiss