One thing I think I’ve learned is that you’re never too old to dream. Once your memories become more important than your dreams, some light begins to fade inside of you. It is this ability to dream, to think of yourself as more than what society says you are or should be, that fuels the physical activity of this workout program. Winning or losing, succeeding or failing, is not the primary concern here. If you’re willing to take the journey, I promise you that your body will feel the benefits.
At the end of the Quest, my hope is that you’ll see that you always were The Great One. You always were and always are a piece of the Whole. The Quest merely intensifies this understanding within you. When this sense of Self grows enough to transcend the ego, that’s when “miracles” come to light within the context of your story.
What's your story?
Just a little more philosophy before we get cracking with the physical training.
Let’s talk about motivation. Have you ever fantasized as a child that you were Wonder Woman or Superman? There’s a reason for that.
There is a psychological motivation deep inside us to find our deepest potential, to perform "heroic" deeds, and to be recognized and acknowledged -- even if this recognition comes in our own minds. Joseph Campbell called this the “Hero’s Journey”, or the monomyth. There is essentially a very similar story structure throughout every culture, every religion, and almost every movie. The monomyth features a character journeying off into the unknown only to return having gone through a transformation of some kind.
Deep down we are craving this adventure as a rite of passage and this is why our culture is so addicted to film, television, and music. We are vicariously living adventures through fictional, and many times non-fictional, characters (as with the paparazzi's fascination with movie stars). There is no real “Quest” any more in our culture save for getting through four to twelve years of college in order to get a “good job”. Then the Quest becomes making it another forty to sixty years in order to live off of some kind of retirement fund, if we’re so lucky.
Our 30 day workout regimen will take you through the psychological process of this hero’s journey. It is the progression of going from Unconsciously Incompetent at something into growing first Consciously Competent and then becoming Unconsciously Competent over time and practice.
What does this mean?
It means that by the end of these 30 days you will know yourself so well mentally, emotionally, and physically that every workout will be incredibly beneficial to your entire well-being. Not just in getting you to enjoy your ideal body!
Just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz or Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, your 30 day “Quest” will have a plot driving the action in your own story. This is why setting a goal, or intention, is vitally important to this process. Your story will no longer be about physically working out for 30 days for the sole reason of working out. It’s also about what you want to become in 30 days. Do you want a richer love life? Your quest can become that. Do you want to raise $x amount of dollars? Your quest can become measured in the amount of money you raise. Do you want an answer to big, deep, spiritual questions? Well then ask yourself what you want to know by the end of these 30 days and the process will answer it for you.
Every sit up, squat, and bench press will have an important part to play in your story. Workouts will no longer be repetitive movements with little immediate meaning. Now the workout will have a different meaning demanding more emotional commitment from you.
Influence of Joseph Campbell
This work is loosely based on the writings of Joseph Campbell, particularly his work The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The intention of this book is to touch your emotional motivation through the story of your own life. Each piece of your story in the next 30 days will solicit an emotional reaction from you.
Unconscious Incompetence: Asking For What You Want
Campbell describes the beginning of the hero’s journey as the “call to adventure”. You first must accept the offer and take the journey being presented to you. For example in The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy requests to escape to some place “over the rainbow”. Luke from Star Wars wants adventure, visiting far off galaxies, while fighting the evil galactic empire. So too you must state what you wish to do, have, or experience in the next 30 days while pursuing this exercise program. This phenomena of choosing your adventure will be addressed in the upcoming chapter entitled “ORIGINS”. I believe the spirit is asking you to “come home” during this phase and acknowledge your birthright as a part of Source.
What do you want? _______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Campbell next describes what is described as the “refusal of the call”. Most people quit almost immediately after starting on a Quest. With every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. With every intention that challenges you to grow, there are equal and opposite beliefs which will come up to keep you stranded. Either you will bow out of this Quest or you will choose to accept the call. If this Quest is to bring you personal power then sometimes you’ll meet a frightening demon. It's the feeling of your house being blown away in a hurricane where wicked witches are ready to make your life a living hell, or where a clone army is ready to destroy your family, your lands, or any reason you have to refuse the call of your personal Quest. If you can make it past this first trial, then you’ve truly asked the universe for what you want. We’ll cover this phenomenon in the “SHADOWS” chapter where the ego begins to sense that you’re “waking up” to your birthright and starts exerting its influence on you.
What is holding you back? __________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
The final phase in this preliminary leg of the journey is called “HELPING HANDS” or what Campbell described as “Supernatural Aid”. Once you’ve committed to this Quest, something or someone will be there to help you. This could come in the form of information that’s been missing or a friend who will help you understand what could be that missing piece of information. You must take this help and cross into the arena of emotional commitment. The scarecrows, tin men, lions, space pilots, or old Jedis are there to point you in the right direction. Up until now, within the first ten days of the Quest, you’ve been deciding on an intellectual level of choosing what you want. You will experience going from being “unconscious” to “conscious”, which is where the real work begins. The spirit is beginning to show you that it does exist and leading you on a serendipitous journey. You can choose to believe in it by accepting the help that comes to you, defying your ego along the way.
Where can you go for support? ______________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Conscious Incompetence: Believing in What You Want
The Hero with a Thousand Faces describes moments of “crossing of the first threshold” and setting forth on the “road of trials”. What this means is you will have challenges along the way. At any moment you have a chance to turn back, fall asleep, or become distracted. There will be poppy fields to deaden your senses and light years of outer space to cross. There might be light saber training to master or wicked witches to avoid in the deepest jungles. During this leg of the journey is where your emotional commitment is revealed and the difference between being conscious and unconscious lies in how well you know yourself emotionally. You start to develop the mental focus to have an effective workout by mastering yourself on an emotional level. I call this chapter “DESERTS”, where your spirit and ego begin to play tug of war. The ego begins to tempt you from your Quest.
Are you emotionally committed? Why or why not?_______________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
“Temptations” is a moment in the hero’s journey where the hero is led astray from the path by illusion. Oftentimes, your commitment will be challenged by having your focus pulled away from your primary intention. I call this moment the “PLOT TWIST”, where things can change and surprises are around every corner. The wizard, instead of granting your request, will send you off hunting for Wicked Witches. Instead of arriving safely to Alderaan, you might make the journey only to find out the planet has been blown up! This is where you really learn how to deepen your commitment and take your Quest to a new level of understanding. Again, the ego will tempt you with seductive distractions from your Quest.
If you had the power of foresight, what do you expect could distract you from your mission?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
The final phase of this section in your Quest is called “The Belly of the Whale”. Sometimes you’ll be asked to master your greatest fears. In this book, we’ll challenge you with exercises that will heighten your senses, developing a deeper connection to your final outcome. I call this the “DARK NIGHT” because fear heightens your senses and with elevated senses come the clearest connection to the person you wish to create for yourself. Even if there are deadly trash compactors with overgrown worms swimming within their depths, or if you're trapped in a witch’s lair containing an hour glass threatening to bleed your life dry, this will be the final trial from becoming Incompetent to Competent. You prove to yourself that you are ready and deserving of change. This is the ego's final temptation where it plays the Fear Card and where you surrender the ego completely to spirit.
What fear(s) are you willing to face to complete this Quest? _______________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Conscious Competence: Receiving What You Want
Somewhere by DAY 21 or 22, you'll reach the final section of the 30 day quest. “Apotheosis” is the idea that you’ve died a symbolic death in order to become reborn as a new person. It is a time when the answers will come to you because your emotional commitment has brought you so far in mastering your awareness of yourself and the world around you. Sometimes sacrifice is necessary or you might need to take a time-out and rest. It’s time to accept Obi-Wan’s serene sacrifice of his own life for you or to understand why the bucket full of water was able to melt the Wicked Witch of the West. The knowledge you gain during the “TRANSCENDENCE” phase will be needed to complete the journey. This is where you transcend the ego's hold on you and can fully comprehend the power of spirit.
What do you wish to understand about yourself on a spiritual level by taking this Quest?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Campbell describes the climatic moments of a story as “Atonement with the Father”. He describes this moment as confronting that which holds ultimate power over your life. This could be represented by a test or by confronting someone who has the power to make your goal a reality. Here is where you become one with this power (“At-ONE-ment”). It's the moment which I call “CLIMAX”. All of the skills you learned up until this point will be applied in this very heightened moment of experience. The curtain will be pulled back revealing the Wizard in his true form. You will be asked to close your eyes, rely on the Force, and confront Vader with all the powers of the Death Star at his disposal. This moment may only be fully appreciated by taking the entire journey. This is when spirit demonstrates the power of creating miracles because spirit is truth and the ego creates illusions, not the other way around.
Who has the power to grant your wish? ________________________________________
By what authority are they given this power? ___________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
The final phase of the 30 day quest is what I call “DESTINY”. It is the moment where you look at where you’ve been and start to plant the seeds for your next Quest. You have changed and this section will help you appreciate how you’ve changed during the course of your workouts. The Quest process itself will be appreciated and mastered, guiding you toward bigger and greater Quests. You will know that “no place like home” truly does bring you all that you seek. The Force will be with you. Campbell describes a moment in the monomyth called “The Master of Both Worlds” in which he lays out how the hero can cross back and forth from the “real” world and the world of spirit, functioning successfully in both worlds. The spiritual has brought material well-being and living in the mundane world brings you the pleasure of spiritual insight. Knowing this labyrinth will enhance every moment of your fitness practice as well. It is here where the ego can be seen for what it truly is.
In what ways will you be different after taking this Quest? _________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Unconscious Competence: On Transcendence
SpiriSculpt is a book about merging ideas that inspire you with the physical workout. Transcendence is the idea that you’ve surpassed the mundane world of existence and can now reference personal experiences that indicate the existence of a spiritual reality.
Once a Quest is taken several times, you begin to develop an innate ability to see the road ahead. There’s nothing mystical about this except for the fact that all life can be a “mystical” experience. The universe can begin to make sense because you know how your psyche, both thought and emotion, interrelate in relation to the physical universe. By feeding your new found habit to exercise, which will be established after 30 day, you will have a greater appreciation for your new unconscious habits.
Law of Attraction, the spiritual belief in what you ask for in earnest you will receive, has a three step process: Ask, Believe, Receive.
Your new workout regimen will help you convert this from a conscious "concept" to unconscious experiences. You will get clear about what you’re asking for during ORIGINS, SHADOWS, and HELPING HANDS. Your emotional commitment and therefore your belief is established during DESERTS, PLOT TWISTS, and DARK NIGHTS. Finally the ability to receive is accomplished during APOTHEOSIS, CLIMAX, and DESTINY.
My hope for you is that you come to the point where merely working out accesses this experience, creating miracles on a daily basis. They say it takes 21 days to master a new skill. It’s also said that you must repeat something at least 3 times to understand it thoroughly enough to intelligently speak about it and teach it to others.
This Quest requires a 30 day commitment. Therefore the physical exercise, the journaling, the self-reflection, and the day-to-day moments of clarity will become habit. It is recommended that you take at least three 30 day Quests to truly understand what this book is about. Once to get the “gist” of it, twice to appreciate the content, thrice to be able to function without the need of this book, with the exception of using it as a reference point from time-to-time.
You can then experience what’s called Unconscious Competence. It’s the experience of “knowing without thinking, seeing without looking, and accomplishing without doing.” The spirit has overcome the ego's boundaries in this enlightened state.
Don’t be mislead by that quote. Experiencing this state of Unconscious Competence, or Nirvana, will require you to do the work. You are still asked to cross the threshold of transcending fear and worldly limitations. But regardless of whether you succeed or fail in your Quest, you will most definitely succeed in making fitness a lifelong habit. Not a bad deal, huh?
Previous Quest Results
Even without the physical workouts included in this text, the Quest process will be infinitely beneficial. Throughout 2010 I’ve shared this process with others and can tell stories about the amazing results enjoyed by previous practitioners of "The Quest".
Before I go into some of these details, I want to express that your primary intention now should be to develop a habit for fitness. Whether or not you reach the outcome of your 30 day Quest should be secondary. This text is intended to provide you with emotional fuel to get the best workouts possible by engaging your emotions and mental focus. If you experience bringing something else in life you desire, consider that a marvelous side effect!
I have seen an underemployed college professor generate half a million dollars using the Quest! Between the sale of some real estate that was “not sellable” and a gift from a deceased friend, Lori was offered almost exactly $500,000 between the two transactions. This was the specific amount she had announced to our group that was needed to get her out of financial peril. In the case of the gift, she didn’t accept it right away and the money was later taken off the table. But she became convinced that the Quest process will bring about results in more ways than just a physical workout. She also learned that when the gift is offered, take it!
Stacy was lost in life. A thirty-year-old divorced mother of two, she didn’t even know where to begin on creating her Quest. All she knew for sure was that she wanted to help people. So her Quest became about helping 60 people within 60 days. However she didn’t want her help to be unwanted or “preachy”. Stacy was a religious person but she didn’t want to offer her support and love to people who didn’t want to hear about or be bothered by it. So she waited, took part in the Quest, and maybe counseled about 20 people by DAY 50. Within the last ten days of Stacy’s Quest, a friend’s infant child had taken ill with a heart condition. Stacy’s friend didn’t want to hold the “press conferences” on the social media about giving constant updates about her child’s condition. The mother only wanted to be there for her child. So she turned those reigns over to Stacy to communicate with friends and family about the child.
Stacy was able to console, support, and nurture almost 70 friends and family of the stricken child, who I’m happy to say came out all right and is perfectly healthy now!
Stacy had determined that she was meant to take the Quest, at precisely that time, or else she wouldn’t have been so centered on her own spirituality for those people. The Quest had prepared her to successfully be able to sympathize with and inspire so many others who were upset, angry, grieving, or frightened. She chose the Quest, and the message, that was intended for her.
Stacy’s message: “Faith is the answer. To everything, every question you might ask.”
Lori’s and Stacy’s stories are just a couple of examples of how this Quest can be effective. Whether it’s starting a new career or starting life at a new school taking classes, the Quest does bring results and answers to your life. I’m not promising a miracle, but I am promising that if you go after something personally meaningful to you, then you’ll be emotionally motivated to be successful in this body sculpting program. And, yes, miracles have been known to happen.
The Theatrical Origins of "The Quest"
You might be asking yourself during the Quest: Where did this come from?
When an actor prepares for a role, for a very inspired moment that actor is that role. He believes himself as the character without question. At least if she is a good actor there are moments where she lives in the reality of the movie's story. There are in fact two realities at work - the life of the actor (“real life”) and the life of movie (“fantasy”).
During your Quest, there are also two realities at work: The life of the “actor”, or who you are before the Quest (again, “real life”), and the life of the “movie”, or the person you intend to be at the end of the Quest. “Fantasy” is now in the process of becoming “Real Life”.
Emotion motivates action. Instead of putting you on camera or on stage to express this emotion, you’ll put yourself in the gym.
Just like a dream or a good movie, the story of your life will captivate you once you’re aware that the same moments Dorothy or Luke Skywalker experience are alive and well in your own life. There are mythological archetypes at work in your inner world which is why stories captivate us so much. This book will serve as a personal training tool and as your "dramatic acting" coach in some respects. We’ve already discussed moments like Origins, Deserts, Climaxes, et cetera. Each moment of the story is an archetype of your subconscious where powerful stores of emotions are waiting to be harnessed. Your job will be to consciously access these energy reserves during a workout.
The symbiotic relationship between physical and emotional can’t be ignored. The back and forth between physical action and the written Interactive Emotional work might feel like a distraction at first. And it’s supposed to be! During your active rest time, while performing the Interactive Emotional Exercises, you’ll feel like saying, “Wow! My body sure did recover fast. I’m ready to do another set.” During the workout you’ll be thinking, “I really want to get back to working on that emotional issue I started to explore. I'm getting some clarity that's really energizing me!”
The Interactive Emotional Exercises in this book are loosely based on dramatic acting technique which help actors become a character. They help grease the wheels in the relationship between mind and the expression of the human body. The mind is working through powerful conscious thoughts generated by the Workbook which reveals emotions inspired by the unconscious. All of this effects the body's productivity rate.
On the Physical Level the message becomes: “Better Workouts = Better Body!”
On the Conscious Level the mind is engaged with a story and not as preoccupied with the body’s fatigue.
On the Subconscious Level you become addicted to working out in a whole new way that captivates the imagination.
Finally on the Unconscious Level there is an attraction to creative ways to make your workouts more engaging. A joy begins to develop that is felt but not often thought about.
On Depression
The greatest epidemic in our world is not cancer, AIDS, or even war. The greatest epidemic is one most people feel uncomfortable about talking about: Depression.
Whether you personally struggle with depression or not, the skills contained in this book will help you communicate with others more effectively. The hidden agenda in this book is to help you talk to your loved ones about feelings. Your story will inspire another to create their own story. In my opinion one of the greatest challenges of the 21st Century Hero's Journey is overcoming the epidemic of depression.
What is the 21st Century Hero’s Journey?
What does it mean to have a Quest in today’s post-modern culture dominated by iPhones and cyberspace?
Attention to our bodies is certainly a key. While living in a mentally over-stimulated culture we have become people sitting in cubicles while our bodies grow weaker. Conversely, the gym culture asks us to buy into vanity, or someone else’s standards of what a workout should look and feel like. Some people thrive on competition while others shrivel in the face of it. But personal fitness shouldn’t be a competition, it should be a complementary relationship between your body and spirit.
The Quest for modern-day man and woman is within our heart and soul. As cliche as it sounds, there are realms there that we can't even fathom because we haven't been taught how to navigate these depths. The fitness workout can now become an active meditation for getting to the heart of what our life purpose is really about. Away from gym ads and political propaganda we can start to listen to the voice within. This voice is asking you to make working out a spiritual practice and calling to the Source inside of you which has a desire to express itself through a fit body.
The Quest then becomes about how to define our personal Quest. A Quest that’s not predetermined by society but one which sincerely moves you to action. This takes perseverance and knowledge -- on an emotional level -- of how heroes of the past, both in reality and mythology, have found their heart’s desires.
Click Here to return to the List of Chapters.
No comments:
Post a Comment