Rol and Rick
I have deliberately stayed out of this conversation until now.
Rick are you familiar with the yes/no Rubenfeld Synergy Exercises
developed by Ilana Rubenfeld where as the body relaxes yes and no are done
with the head motion, the purpose being to see which you give the most
power over the tension image that you carry with you daily. Also there is
some journal work where you must reply with a yes statement for every no
statement that you make even if the yes is a simple repetition. The issue
here being that we are a lot more habitual in our responses then we would
like to believe and that these responses are often much older than the
present situation. I like your description of the externalizing to
another person as a next step from these internal exercises.
As for the heart Rol, in my culture we say that life begins with
imitation moves to analysis and understanding practiced purposefully until
the practice becomes an intuitive instantaineous response to the
situations of the day. Only then can we move to the natural expressivity
of the heart dialogue with a full awareness of where most of the emotional
responses come from. The heart is disciplined with experienced,
purposeful intentionality. This response is always from the most wise
place of our person. The pattern continues through several other steps
until it returns to begin again on another level higher than the previous.
The key is analysis of imitative habit and conscious purposeful practice
that builds deliberate habits that are open to change once the dialogue
begins. The dialogue is always wholistic using your intire organism as a
perciever and thinker.
As for Bosnia, and other war zones, these are places of imbalance
and must be cleansed before a message can be recognized as coming from the
heart, the place of creativity and intuition. Otherwise the response is
like Brownian movement just jumping around the room from one post to
another. Before one opens the heart one should practice the structures of
consciousness revealed through the experience of perceptive imitation.
Don't name it until you know it (have experienced it). Then call up the
name with your whole being from that place that we call the place of
"heart."
Peace,
Ray Evans Harrell
mcore@soho.ios.com
> [Host's Note: Rol's description is accurate. This is the "Yes/No"
> exercise which is part of the Leadership and Mastery program. the exercise
> has a second segment in which the partner says "Yes" to everything you
> want. Even though the partner obviously has no power to provide or deny,
> the contrast in feelings produced is vivid. ...Rick]
>
> To come at this question from another perspective, consider any hot spot
> in the world, Ireland, Pakistan, Lebanon, the West Bank, Gaza, and so
> forth. These people have suffered enormous wrongs. They have absorbed
> huge pain. They have been treated unjustly, they have been hurt beyond
> any allowable limits. And furthermore, if they continue to respond to
> each other 'from the heart' they will continue to punish each other into
> the foreseeable future. Their children will suffer and die, their
> grand-children will suffer and die, and their great grand-children will
> suffer and die, who knows where it will all end, and just how wonderful is
> this speaking from the heart after all? If it were my dead grand-child,
> the righteousness, the intensity, the wrathful beauty of my 'heart-felt'
> anger might feel a little hollow.
>
> It is also true that heart-speak is not bad at all, it is good, in
> understanding what is going on within yourself. Sharing it with others as
> a way of exposing yourself, learning from others, growing, strengthening,
> and gaining resilience is a healthy thing to do. Hiding or ignoring the
> heart is bad for your health.
>
> Believing it is another matter.
--ray evans harrell <mcore@soho.ios.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>