Navigating Your Lifepath: Reclaiming Your Self, Recapturing Your Vision
Section II: Setting the Direction
In Section I, the material and assignments are focused on the areas below to support your process.
Task: Aligning Intent
Metaquestion: What do I want?
Presupposition: What you focus on, you become.
Life Energy
In this culture, you are constantly inundated with messages through society’s programming mechanisms that can lead to complex, albeit bereft lives. You are responsible for your own responses and actions. What you choose and what you filter out have a pronounced impact on your life. You are playing with your own life energy. With this section, you begin an in-depth and practical look at how you allow your values to manifest — or not — in your life on an everyday basis. Here you can begin to answer this question: Who’s charting the course? Always remember: Awareness is the first step toward transformation. Aspects of your life may be out of your awareness until you focus on them. Then you have the opportunity to take the lead.
Lifestyle Components:
Your Source… Your Instrument… Your Allies… Your Prosperity… Your Place…
Present: Consider the lifestyle components above. During an average week, how much time do you spend in each? Make a drawing below, e.g. a time pie, representing how these lifestyle components fit into your time. Make notes in these areas specifying the actions. On a scale of 1 (least) to 5 (most) indicate the quality of attention you give during the time you spend. In other words, is this something to be hurried and finished, or do you enjoy and linger?
Whole Life Balance
The intent is the magic of the will. — Don Américo Yábar
Sometimes much of the underlying stress and confusion you feel maybe because you haven’t fully explored what you want in your life. Without knowing what you want, you create a void in your mind and allow things to haphazardly fill your time. When you’re not mindful of your own needs, you may find yourself being overwhelmed by responsibilities that have somehow manifested in your life, seemingly without your agreement. Or, perhaps you look up one day and wonder where all the years went — and why you feel so drained and unfulfilled. Either way, you are dealing with how you expend your energy. When you are mindful of your own needs and act accordingly, your actions serve as nourishment to propel you forward.
Lifestyle Components:
Your Source… Your Instrument… Your Allies… Your Prosperity… Your Place…
Desired: Compare your present time drawing with the order of importance for lifestyle components that you listed in Section I. Bounce this against what you wrote in the Weighing In exercise. Taking these factors into account, how would you prefer to expend your life energy? Draw a new representation that allows you to nourish your life force. Make any notes that will help you clarify this new map.
The Bright Hope
With the close of each year, our minds create a demarcation. Depending upon our circumstances, we look back with gratitude, bid the past farewell with relief, or perhaps a mixture of both. Then we cast the bright hope of the coming year. Through this imaginary marker of time, we formulate yet another beginning toward potential.
If this concept didn’t at least flit across the brain waves, it would be unusual — what with the usual talk of resolutions. And why not take that opportunity for reflection of what has been and what could be? Otherwise, we’re just destined for the status quo when, at some level, we all hold out for evolution. While the pull of the status quo is strong, it’s looking at the quality of the decisions we’ve made that we can grow into the future.
Regret belongs to the past. Leave it there. Otherwise, the event that brought it overlaps with all time. Regret is like a knapsack we carry on our shoulders full of worry stones. We take out the stones to release our heavy feelings into them. But everything just goes back into the knapsack and onto our backs. We continue to weigh ourselves down and eventually become paralyzed, which is all regret can do — except for one thing.
We can look into the core of regret and find the jewel. The jewel is the learning, and the more mindful decisions and actions that come from it. Now that we can easily carry along! We can add that jewel to the repository, with all the others that we have gleaned from the past that have added fullness to our lives. Then we can enlarge upon them — and step into the bright future with the treasury intact. That’s the way possibility evolves into a new reality. And it doesn’t need an imaginary demarcation. It happens in every moment.
Setting the Direction
The gods only laugh when you pray to them for wealth. — Japanese Proverb
You’ve had the opportunity to survey the current landscape of your life. Now is the time in this process to become fully intent. Some people focus on the surface “wants” rather than true needs. Consequently, they find themselves at the end of the journey having wandered far and wide — yet still searching. The real trip is the one through personal limitations. This is the moment to be in full service to yourself by proclaiming: how you want to live and being mindful of what that entails. Then, as you enter the forest, you will have declared yourself as an ally. A more empowering resource cannot be found. You will be able to more readily understand elements that you encounter on the path, and embrace them.
What outcomes are you seeking?
Revisit the Weighing In and Creating Whole Life Balance (in this section) exercises. While there may be a number of things you want to improve, there are some that will make the largest difference in your life. Choose those to focus on for this coursework. As you create success in these areas, those advancements will likely trickle over and infuse others farther down the hierarchy.
Here are some checkpoints for answering this question and for making your outcomes something you can more readily meet.
1) Make sure your outcomes are stated in the positive. A positive statement allows your mind to conceive what you want and begin to act as an attractor. If you state it in the negative, your mind will still focus on what you don’t want and draw the negative factor to you. For instance, if I say: “Don’t think of the color blue”…you can’t help but think of “blue.” Should you initially find yourself coming up with what you don’t want, ask yourself, “What do I want instead?”
2) Any outcome needs to be initiated and controlled by you. This is a journey that starts with you. Transformation starts inside and radiates outward. This work is about the direction you set and the responses you have. You can’t change other people. But it is possible to be a powerful, yet subtle influence on others through role modeling an authentic life.
3) Identify the context where you intend the outcomes. Where, when and with whom do you want the change? Be specific. Start with smaller steps and work toward larger ones.
For each outcome, explore further by addressing the questions below.
What will having this outcome do for you? Take a look at your underlying motivation for having this particular aspect in your life. What is the need being met?
How will you know when you have the particular outcome you are seeking?
In other words, what will your evidence be that you have it? What will be different in your life? What will you see, hear, feel, or be doing that lets you know you have fulfilled your outcome?
There is a fine line here between expectancy and expectation. Expectation gets you in trouble. When you are too specific, you narrow the realms of possibility. Your mind filters anything else out and fails to notice other opportunities for “right fit.” More often than not, what comes to you outside the box of expectation is much richer than you could have dreamt up on your own.
Develop expectancy by naming some specific pieces of evidence so that you begin a recognition process. This way you open yourself. Then, when opportunities come your way, you can use your hierarchy of values (from your earlier exploration in Section I) in that particular lifestyle component to evaluate the best fit.
How will having the outcome affect your life? This is a very important area to consider.
What stops you from having it now? Drop inside and ask yourself: what has stopped me from already having what I desire. If it’s not already present in your life, then something has been getting in the way. Are there fears involved? Or is it something else? Buried in the answer to this question rests some of the jewels of your journey.
What state of being are you calling upon yourself for this journey? This is a path of empowerment. What heroic aspect of yourself is being called into service? In what other circumstances has this essence been present from which you can draw? What are your resources?
What sequence of actions is needed? If you don’t know where to begin, it’s hard to get started. What is the first step? Is it a thought process? Is it research? Is it a decision? Is it a concrete action? What follows from there?
Try on your outcome. Imagine having what you want. Actually step into it. What is it like to have it? What do you see and hear? How do you feel in your body? How does it affect others in your life? Is this what you truly want? Is there anything you need to add to it?
Setting Outcomes Worksheet
1. What do you want?
2. What will this outcome do for you?
3. How will you know when you have it?
4. Where, when, and with whom do you want it?
5. How will having it affect your life?
6. What stops you from having it now?
7. What resources do you already have that will support you having it? What else do you need?
8. How will you get there? What’s the first step?
9. Step into your outcome and try on what it’s like to have it.
Systems
It’s important to realize that we all exist in systems. Mind, body, and spirit are a system. If your mind is troubled, your body experiences physical symptoms of dis-ease and your spirit is disconnected. If your body is in pain, then it’s hard for your mind to be clear and your spirit to be present. By working in one area of your make-up, you can’t help but affect the other parts of your system. You will see changes in all.
The same is true with the other systems in your life. You come from a family system, may work in an organizational system, and engage in various sorts of community systems. In all systems in your life — including within your own person — there are certain “rules of engagement.” All concerned have developed them over time and depend on them if you have history. You get used to what you consider to be normal. This is true whether it’s in your own thoughts, behaviors, and physical functioning, or typical exchanges between family members, or co-workers, and yourself. Unfortunately, most everyone looks to the past to create the present and future.
Be forewarned that as you step onto this path, you are upsetting the balance in the system. You are seeking to be different than who you were before. Systems do not respond so easily to change. More often than not, there’s resistance. The system seeks homeostasis in order to ensure continued existence. Even if it’s uncomfortable, it’s at least familiar. People inhabiting your systems may initially experience confusion as you no longer respond the way you did before. Some will be glad for your change and support you. Others won’t know what to do since you are no longer playing by the rules, and become angry. There will be a range of reactions.
Also know that as you continue to grow or heal, you will affect others around you. Often, others will begin their own shift by virtue of your new interactions with them. You become a role model for what is possible. Merely through leading an authentic life yourself, you are able to assist others in their own process — if they choose — through your example. Many are socialized to think of others before themselves. You can’t truly give to others until you have first honored yourself. To do otherwise creates a deficit. Then, ultimately, no one wins.
Consider how your growth will affect those around you. While you can’t always correctly predict others’ behaviors, it’s useful to anticipate, so that you can respond from a place of understanding and compassion.
Voice and Expression
Co-authored by Yaqin Lance Sandleben and Carla Woody
Drawn from The Lifepath Dialogues Gathering: Voice and Expression Audio Archive.
Carla speaking here: When I was a young girl I had a vivid inner world but was reticent to share it with others. I was painfully shy. Strangely, one thing I wasn’t shy about was my singing voice. I sang all the time. The summer I turned fourteen my family moved to a different state, the latest in several moves during childhood. A neighborhood girl and I spent hours recording ourselves singing The Mamas and Papas songs just for fun, when we weren’t getting in trouble for one thing or another. That was the late Sixties…and you were expected to push the edges.
But something happened in September. My newfound friend and ally went to a different school. What bit of security and grounding I felt in the new environment was no longer present. Over the next months I made my way tentatively, finally settling in with a handful of girls, cliches being a matter of survival in junior high, and high school beyond. But when I’d join in with songs on the radio…or hum under my breath you’d have thought I’d grown two heads, the responses I received from my friends.
Everyone feels out of place and wants to fit in during teenaged years…and at the same time wants to be different. A terrible conflict. So, most of us shut down aspects of ourselves. In my case, it was my public voice. My singing voice was silent for decades and so was my ability to express in the most basic ways outside my family.
It was only years later that outer expression began to come again, part of an evolutionary process. By that time though, being so unused, my throat would hurt and my voice was so weak. It refused to emerge fully when I’d attempt it. I even went to India for a short time to study raga, Indian classical vocal music, with Sufi leader Shabda Kahn, in hopes of overcoming the block. I succinctly remember the day in practice when Shabda looked at me in what could only be described as loving irritation and bellowed, “Get your voice out!” Yet, still, I physically couldn’t.
Yaqin speaking here: In the path of development, of spiritual and material development, one of our most important tools is the human voice. One can easily see this in how the voice of another affects one. Likewise, as the Sufi Inayat Khan said, the voice is the expression of a person’s spirit. Knowing this one may direct attention and practice towards developing and opening the voice. Further, there is ancient and sacred teaching on the mysticism of sound, and how it can be used. As the Sufis say, through recitation and concentration: “…travelers on the spiritual path can overcome narcissism, resolve their issues of separation from God and from humanity, and awaken to God’s presence…”
Carla again: In 1998 I moved to Prescott, Arizona. Strangely enough, I found a small Sufi community there. I’ve always been drawn to the Sufis for their inclusiveness. Yaqin Lance Sandleben held monthly zikr, a Sufi chanting devotional practice. I attended religiously for years until travel and my own work made it difficult to be there. I am indebted to Yaqin for the space he continued to hold those years. My voice had varied little…until one night. We were well into our zikr when suddenly a voice burst forth with sweetness and power I hadn’t heard before. Surely, it had come from someone else. But I had to acknowledge it as my own…and acknowledge it still.
Giving voice comes in many forms. It’s our birthright to express — and sometimes a journey to come back to the place where we began, without fear — to offer to ourselves and the world our own special expression.
- Consider what gives you joy.
2. Become aware of any joy that you set aside, perhaps in deference to others or trying to fit in.
3. Invite your joy(s) back into your life and include in your outcomes. Setting your direction is about integrating all that feeds you.
The Juxtaposition
I live in an area that is sparsely populated, except by rabbits, coyotes, snakes, and the occasional hawk or raven. I found it by setting intent and following my sense of direction across preserved land clearly marked with a “no trespassing” sign.
What I discovered was the pristine place that I’ve come to consider my sanctuary. There are a few houses up on hills at a distance behind me. Other than that, there are just lots of good-sized junipers, rocks and some pinons surrounding me. I have a clear view of the San Francisco Peaks and Bill Williams Mountain around ninety miles to the north around Flagstaff. The sunrise and sunset on these mountains are the first and last things that bless my day. But the stars have their say, too. Without the interference of electric lights, galaxies display themselves across the night sky — and regularly take my breath away.
I’ve invested words in these few sentences for you to get a sense of the setting. In such a place conducive to contemplation, I’ve sought to include only those things in my living space that will support my original intent. Simple, peaceful living against a beautifully stark backdrop where I face myself every day — and move to go beyond that.
You may think that by living in a remote area you can hideout. The truth is that — at least for me — it’s next to impossible to hide. The paradoxical nature of my existence comes to my notice, unbidden, in this high desert land.
It was late afternoon. I had been doing “finish” work still left over from the building of my home. Mindless things. While thoughts would drift in, I was fairly successful with staying in the present moment, paintbrush in hand. Several hours of working with my hands brought a sense of satisfaction at the end of the day and a desire to kickback.
I have a penchant for dramatic films but that day overrode it. Instead, I picked out a comedy on Netflix, deciding I would indulge myself and my “not thinking” mode a while longer. I chose one particular chair in the room because I could watch the movie but also have a full view of the Peaks heading toward dusk.
I relaxed, feet on the table, sipping a glass of wine. The actors weren’t ones I usually watched and the slapstick humor wasn’t holding my attention. My eyes kept drifting to the scene outside. The hills were starting to turn a honeyed golden-pink hue. And the ravens were beginning to speak about the coming night.
Then the movie seemed to pick up a bit and brought my attention back just as the actors entered a bar scene. The music was raucous. The people were undulating even if they weren’t dancing. The game of posturing to best advantage was taken to the extreme. It was supposed to be funny. Instead, the movie-makers threw me an unintended question.
My vision suddenly played a strange trick and juxtaposed the two separate images. I was holding the bar scene in one eye and the landscape in the other at the same time. That occurrence itself was rather strange, but my response to it was more interesting to me and has lasted. The intense contrast was something I couldn’t ignore.
The rowdy bar scene next to the natural landscape was so bizarre that it created a “does not compute” reaction. Once that cleared, a question surfaced: What is real?
The bar scene in the movie wasn’t real. The people weren’t presenting their “real” faces. There was much standing in the way.
What about the other scene? It’s about as real as it can get, at least for me. I don’t have to see through anything to see the hill over there. I don’t think the tree is concerned about what I think about it. There may be things about nature I’m not always able to understand and certainly can’t predict, but I find it to be unstintingly honest.
It seems to me if we want that level of honesty in our own lives we can dare ask for it. So, what is real?
This moment, that’s real.
The sensation on my palm as I pet my cat’s fur, that’s real.
My breath moving in and out of my body, that’s real.
That thought I had this morning? That comes from some old event in the past and doesn’t exist now. No. That’s not real.
That worry? It hasn’t happened. No. That’s not real.
What about the words I write here? They’re real — in my reality — for what I seek to communicate.
Building a Foundation
During your Re-membering Process, there will be highs, lows, and places in between. Sometimes it will feel like you’re flying by the seat of your pants with no safety net to catch you. Other times, it will be as though you’re wandering in some dense fog and can’t see any way out. But whether the shift you want to undertake is large or small scale, modification is still taking place. It can be exhilarating and, at the same time, scary. The old answers won’t readily satisfy the questions anymore. You may not even yet be sure what the new questions are.
It’s during this time, particularly, that you need to build a strong foundation for yourself. You can do this in two ways: community and practice. You need this support in order to make the shifts you want. It’s easier to stay aligned to a path when you are receiving encouragement to do so.
Because you are likely stepping outside the bounds of your historical systems, it is very useful to find other like-hearted and minded individuals or groups who are also traveling in a similar direction. While no one is having your experience, there will be others to whom you can relate, share dilemmas, as well as insights.
Aside from connecting with others, developing a practice that supports opening to your own inner wisdom is of utmost importance. Through some form of meditation — prayer, T’ai Chi, journaling, artistic expression, or another contemplative method — you can provide a clearing for your mind. From this place, there’s an opportunity to engage higher consciousness. Guidance can be accessed. Comfort can be sustained. A practice will give you something solid to move from when you appear to be standing on ether.
Who will support me on my journey?
What practice will feed me?
Section II Assignments
1. Imagine that you have everything you need. But you also know that you have somewhere between five to ten years left on the planet, and you mean to live fully. You also understand that you co-create your experiences. Write a narrative of your life in the present tense, as though you are living it now, detailing as much as possible. Include what you see, hear and feel.
2. Complete Setting the Direction by identifying and exploring all outcomes you will focus on during this coursework. Use assignment #1 above to help you further refine your direction. Choose at least one outcome and begin the first step.
3. Identify a practice that serves you. Begin to put it into place, if not already present in your life.
4. Read:
a. Calling Our Spirits Home — Chapter 3 “Cultivating Mindfulness” and Chapter 7 “The Seasons of Our Times.”
b. Standing Stark — Chapter 2 “Beyond Words,” Chapter 3 “The Inner Point” and Chapter 5 “Connecting with the Cosmos.”
c. All material in Section 2 of the manual.
5. Listen to the audio teaching of Setting the Direction and bonus audio:
- Lifepath Session 2 (MP3 file, 40.2 MB)
- Bonus Audio: Chakra Breath Meditation (MP3 file, 23.7 MB)
Note: Access Calling Our Spirits Home and Standing Stark in serial chapter format in the publication Illumination on Medium for free. Chapters in assignments are linked above.
Setting the Direction (PDF file, 240 KB)
If you need assistance with the material or outcome you seek, please refer to consultations.
Bio
Carla Woody is a spiritual mentor, writer, and visual artist. She is the founder of Kenosis, an organization based in Prescott, Arizona, supporting human potential since 1999 through life enhancement coaching, retreats and spiritual travel programs working with Indigenous leaders and healers in the US, Mexico, Central, and South America. In 2007 she founded Kenosis Spirit Keepers, a volunteer-run 501(c)3 nonprofit organization to help preserve Indigenous traditions threatened with decimation.
Table of Contents
Section I: Preparing for the Journey
Jack London Quote
Questions We Live By
The Re-Membering Process Model
Presuppositions to Support Your Journey
Our Work
Tenets of Intent
Setting Intent
Readiness
The Cycle of Fulfillment
The Threshold
Understanding Your Values
Commitment
Journaling as an Ally
Section I Assignments
Section II: Setting the Direction
Life Energy
Whole Life Balance
The Bright Hope
Setting The Direction
Setting Outcomes Worksheet
Systems
Voice and Expression
The Juxtaposition
Building a Foundation
Section II Assignments
Section III: Entering the Forest
Success
Mining Resources
Panning for Gold
Learning Discernment
Section III Assignments
Section IV: Transforming the Dragon
How You Fulfill Your Destiny
Emotional Freedom Technique
Uncovering Limiting Beliefs
Clearing Limiting Beliefs
Understanding Homeostasis
Elements of Reformation
Evolutionary Dimensions of Archetypes
Section IV Assignments
Section V: Uncovering the Jewels
Doing and Being
Striving to Surrender
Activating the Witness
Telltale Signs
Creating Space
Starting Within
Paving the Pathway of Your Future
Spiritual Travel: Destination or Process?
Section V Assignments
Section VI: Engaging Your Allies
Hafiz Poem
Embracing All Parts
Relating to Relationship
Section VI Assignments
Section VII: Negotiating the Landscape
The Art of Reciprocity
The Principle of Seed Money
Giving and Receiving in Relationship
The Energy of Money
Section VII Assignments
Section VIII: Bringing It All Home
The Outcome of Intent
The Point of Re-Entry
The Disney Creativity Strategy
Sorting and Behavioral Styles
The Importance of Acknowledgement
The Nature of True Community
The Stages of Learning
An Autobiography in Five Chapters
Walking the Edge
Your Legacy
The Despacho Ceremony
Excerpt: Portals to the Vision Serpent
Section VIII Assignments
Copyright 1999–2021 by Carla Woody. All rights reserved. No portion of this manual, except for brief review, may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the publisher. Inquiries may be directed to: Kenosis Press, P.O. Box 10441, Prescott, AZ 86304, info@kenosis.net.
Also by Carla Woody:
Standing Stark: The Willingness to Engage. Read in Illumination Book Chapters.
Calling Our Spirits Home: Gateways to Full Consciousness. Read in Illumination Book Chapters.
Portals to the Vision Serpent. Coming soon to Illumination Book Chapters.
