This exercise builds your resources and congruence. Start by standing in a place where you can take 5 steps backwards.
- Think of a situation in which your behavior is not representative of who you really are, or who you would like to be, and you would like to have more choices.
- Standing in position one, a place we’ll call the environment level, describe your surroundings in this imagined situation. Where are you? Who is around you? What do you notice particularly about this environment? Take one step back and:
- Stand in the behavior level. Focus on your behavior and compare/contrast how it fits/doesn’t fit the environment and you. Notice what you are doing in this imagined situation. Think about your actions, movements, and thoughts. Step back and:
- Stand in the level of capability. Think about your skills and strategies. In this situation you are only expressing a fraction of them. What skills and mental strategies do you have in your life? How is the quality of your thinking? What interpersonal skills do you have? What qualities do you have that serve you well? Compare as above. Step back and:
- Stand in the belief level. What is important to you? What beliefs apply to this situation? How do they support or limit you? What principles do you strive to act on? What empowering beliefs do you have about yourself and others? Step back and:
- Stand in the level of identity. How will you express who you are in this situation? What is your mission in life? What metaphor comes to mind that seems to express your identity as a person? Take a last step back and:
- Stand in the level of spiritual development (also known as the Ecology level). Access a deep state of connectedness with the Universe, with other beings, with the Divine. Leave this and all other situations aside for a little while. Take a few moments to settle into a place of quiet; maybe just noticing your breath and a sense of connection with all that is…
- From this place, look forward and down all the other levels, coloring them or filling them with this state.
- Sculpt the you in the identity level with your hands while standing in spirit. Step into this you, who also contains so much more than just you. And then step down each level, aligning it with the higher ones. Take a moment in each level to notice how your experience has been transformed.
- Finally, when in the environment level, notice how it is different when you bring these other levels of yourself to it. Notice how you feel with this greater depth and clarity. As you do so check for alignment and ecology. What are the wider consequences? Who else will be affected and how will they feel? Future pace. Know that if you were to bring all of this to the situation, it would change.