CHAPTER 1
Orientation
Five Words
Embracing the truth behind just five words enables you to create the life you want. The Five Words are: choice, empowerment, commitment, boundaries, and compassion. These are words common in our language but an understanding of their relevance to emotional balance, health, and fulfillment of life goals is largely missing. The Five Words will change that. You will learn to combat confusing life signals with ancient wisdom, science, direct experience, and a better understanding of these Five Words.
While throughout the Five Words I use examples and stories to explain certain realities, there is one important note that I must mention. Many questions need to be asked. The question, "Why?" is not one of them. "Why has this happened to me?" "Why am I going through this?" The truth is, knowing why rarely lends any solace, comfort, or healing. Usually knowing why just manages to complicate things by embroiling you in the emotions of the original incident and re-imprinting the trauma. Additionally, "Why me?" is the question of a victim, not an empowered person. If "Why?" is not the question, what is?
You need answers to questions like:
* "How do I feel about my current situation?"
* "What can I do about the emotions and energies in the situation?"
* "What can I understand and learn about myself in relation to what is going on?"
* "What is the best, most life-supporting action I can take now?"
Primal or Extreme Emotion
Each of the five words corresponds to a primal or extreme emotion. Emotional energies tend to make life feel chaotic or fragmented. With time and practice, however, you can work with these emotions to develop more coherent, constructive energies. It is not unusual to deny extreme emotions until you look at the masquerading or lesser emotions. For example, you may think you are not angry, but you do recognize feeling resentful or jealous. These are the masquerading or lesser emotions associated with the extreme emotion you know as anger. The following table lists the five extreme emotions and examples of their masquerading or lesser emotions. The chapters mentioned in the parenthesis are where you will find suggestions on working with these difficult emotions.
Five Element Theory
The Five Words is a blending of insights and learning from many sources. They encompass and summarize the journey of the soul. Mastery takes you from a state of high emotion to a state of knowing how to respond to the challenges you face on your way to fulfillment. Interestingly, these words reflect perfectly elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and, specifically, the five element theory. The following chapters tackle each of the five words, along with their corresponding element: water, metal, earth, fire, and wood.
As you journey through the work, you will explore extreme emotions and what it takes to embrace them. Once you realize how thoughts, feelings, and external events impact your well-being, you will begin to understand how emotion can cause changes to the physical body. Extreme emotions can, and do, change the physical body causing illness and disease. The Chinese have studied this for over five thousand years. They have amassed a body of knowledge and understanding that helps us appreciate what happens when extreme emotions are experienced again and again.
Over time, the Chinese ascertained which organ system is most provoked by which extreme emotion. This was accomplished through extensive study on how each emotion creates a response in the body. We now know the physical consequence of a heightened emotional state is chemical. Initially, the chemical response your body makes to an emotion slows or excites the energies depending on the situation. At first these responses don't do much lasting harm. If repeated often enough, however, the responses form stress, stress forms blocks, weaknesses, or constrictions, which ultimately manifest as disease in the body.
Archetypes
Understanding archetypes gives additional insight into how you can heal using the Five Words. Archetypes are energies. Like emotions, they are neither good nor bad. They are recognizable, describable energies that organize patterns of human behavior. Every archetype has a positive or light side potential and a challenging or dark side potential. Carl Jung spoke about archetypes in his early psychological works. Carolyn Myss has taken understanding of archetypes and their energies to a whole new level in her book Sacred Contracts} According to Myss, we all have a core group of twelve archetypes that we bring into this life. Eight of these archetypes are unique to the individual, but four of them are part of everyone's makeup. The child, prostitute, saboteur, and victim archetypes are the four we all have in common. These are what Myss calls your survival archetypes. Following is a summary of these survival archetypes.
The Child – Guardian of Innocence
The child archetype isn't so much about whether or not you act childish as it is about how playful you are or how quick you are to trust. This archetypal energy helps you decide when to be responsible or when to relax and depend on someone else. The child archetype is divided into several sub-archetypes such as: wounded child, magical child, divine child, nature child, or eternal child, among others. Each one carries energies in a particular pattern depending on the lessons chosen to work on in an incarnation. The sub-archetypes describe the energetic responses your so called inner child is likely to have during your life. For example, the wounded child looks at the world as hostile while the magical child tends to experience wonder and enchantment.
The Prostitute – Guardian of Faith
Yes. Everyone has a prostitute archetype. The prostitute may or may not have to do with sex. This archetypal energy is at play when you sell or negotiate away your body, mind, integrity, or spirit in exchange for security, safety, or personal gain. Prostitute energy expresses itself through an inability to divorce an abusive spouse or quit a job that is draining you. Fear (for survival, of change, of self-empowerment, etc.) is the hallmark of this archetype. When you finally decide the trade-off is insufficient, you can, and will, do what is necessary for yourself without compromising your integrity. Once you are able to abandon the impulse to prostitute yourself and you can embrace the truth of your abilities, this archetype surrounds you energetically with a not for sale sign. You gain a deep knowing that your survival is possible without having to sacrifice the power of your spirit.
The Saboteur – Guardian of Choice
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