I can’t emphasize enough how important it is not to “de-construct” the elements of the Ancient Child/Morning Ritual. The effect is an emergent property of
- Affirmations, goals and emotional cascades choreographed WITH MOTION.
- The “Ancient Child” meditation MP3 (to be used at least once per week).
The “voices in your head” will scream bloody murder when you say something like “every day in every way I’m getting better and better.” (a suggested affirmation. However, any statement that represents forward progress will work).
“No you’re not! What b.s.! Who do you think you are..?” are typical comments.
But what if you’re power walking while you say it, again and again? What if you’re doing joint mobility drills? Five Tibetans? Martial arts kata? Then the conversation is different:
“Every day in every way I’m getting better and better!”
“No, you’re not!”
“Ummm…excuse me, Self, but I appear to actually be moving my butt. This is a real improvement from this time last month, and yeah, I’m improving.”
“What b.s.”
“What’s b.s. is someone who won’t factor in actual behaviors happening right in front of your @#$$ eyes!”
“Who do you think you are?”
“I’m the person improving himself while the rest of the neighborhood is sleeping, dickwad.”
Oh, the fun you’ll have. The point is that if you are in the PROCESS of improving yourself, even in a small way, you earn the right to tell the voice in your head to shut the @#$$ up, at least for those fifteen minutes. And that can be the beginning of something wonderful!
It’s hard to deny something that’s happening right in front of you. Possible, yes. But I’ll settle for forcing the demons in my head to be illogical, conflicted, dishonest, irrational, and inconsistent. That’s the beginning of disempowering them altogether. Make a single positive change and anchor it into your physical experience, and it becomes the bedrock of other change. Try it. Thirty days from now, you’ll KNOW it is true…and truth, once known, changes everything.
Namaste,
Steve
Steven Barnes 