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Serving a community of private individuals and professionals
who have the desire to cultivate a life of clarity, compassion,
and creativity. We warmly welcome our new subscribers. Thanks
for joining! Your feedback is encouraged. Please contact us
at seishin@seishindo.org.
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Workshops Announcements
The discipline of Seishindo offers you the best of
both Eastern and Western models of health and well-being.
A remarkable system that merges Oriental philosophy
with Western science.
Click on these links to find out about the details.
The
Body of Tenderness–The Body of Fear:
Finding the Wisdom of Love
Wash. DC, April 16-18, 2004
Tuning
Your Instrument:
Seishindo Life Coaching workshop for performance artists
Manhattan, New York City, April 24, 2004.
ADD,
Dyslexia, and Other Learning ABILITIES
Manhattan, New York City, April 25, 2004.
Use
Eastern Wisdom to transform your life,
and thrive in the Western World
San Diego, CA: July 12- 13, 2004.
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1. Main course
Many of us live our lives shuttling back and forth between
two seemingly different personalities (rational and emotional)
that often conflict with each other. Our rational self tells
us we need to lose weight and exercise more, while our emotional
self has us eating potato chips and watching reruns on TV.
We can understand a great deal more about the push and pull
of our emotions and our intellect by learning some basic facts
about how human beings have come to be. In regard to the information
I would like to present here, and speaking simplistically, science
currently tells us that due to millions of years of evolution,
each human being is now the proud owner of an intelligence made
up of four brains, meant to work in seamless harmony.
1. The
somatic brain,
or enteric nervous system (located mainly in the gut.) This
brain came first in evolution and existed in very early organisms
hundreds of millions of years ago. This brain plays a major
role in digestion, and in the production and output of the various
hormones that are crucial to our emotional and physical well
being. In Seishindo we understand that this brain works in close
coordination with the reptilian and limbic brains to determine
our emotional condition.
2. The
reptilian brain
This brain orchestrates breathing, heartbeat, swallowing,
visual tracking, and the startle response. Although reptiles
are said to not be able to experience pain or emotion, all
of these body functions do significantly affect the emotions
of human beings. Shallow breathing, darting eyes, and an increase
in heart rate will very definitely lead to a feeling of fear
or anxiety.
3. The
mammalian or limbic brain
This brain appeared after millions of years of evolution,
and led to animals having emotions, and suckling and rearing
of young by their mothers. In Seishindo we believe the limbic
brain melds the circuitry of the enteric nervous system and
the reptilian brain into our sense of emotion. Emotions were
felt and acted upon long before the ability of animals to
think or reason.
4. The
neo-cortex
Last but not least, in its most highly developed form the
neo-cortex is the singular gift of humans. The neo-cortex
gives us the ability to reason, deal in abstractions, communicate
verbally, and be goal oriented. The neo-cortex has very little
if any true understanding of emotions. Although talking about
our emotions can be of definite help, rarely can an intellectual
understanding of our deeper emotional patterns help us to
change the way we feel and act.
Even though we now have the intelligence of four brains to
draw on, we still often find ourselves unable to successfully
cope with life's challenges. To live a balanced satisfying
life, each of us needs to learn how to better embrace, appreciate,
and synthesize the emotional wisdom emanating from our enteric
nervous system and our reptilian and limbic brains, with the
intellectual wisdom of our neo-cortex. By better attending
to our emotions, we help the neo-cortex to be less of an autocratic
leader, and more of a team player. We need to find ways to
artfully orchestrate the desires of our emotional self with
the dictates of our intellect. When we are emotionally healthy
we tend to be physically healthy as well. Only once we have
our emotional and physical well-being in balance, are we best
able to use our rational mind to help us achieve our worldly
goals. Without attending to our heart's desires, we find little
solace in our achievements, possessions, and relationships.
It is only when our rational self works in accordance with
our emotional self that we achieve true satisfaction in life.
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Private Sessions
If you would like to become better able to work wisely
with core issues such as your identity, deteriorating
health, a general sense of well-being, destructive
habit patterns, strained personal relationships, and
various professional concerns, please consider engaging
in an in-person private session with me.
My private sessions in Wash. DC will be on April 20th
and 21st.
My private sessions in New York will be on April 13th
and 14th.
Read
more about what Seishindo sessions can bring you.
Read
what other people say about Seishindo sessions.
If you think you might be interested in a private
session, please contact Charlie directly at charlie@seishindo.org.
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2. Epilogue
We can begin to better understand our somatic-limbic self
and our emotions, by engaging in various artistic endeavors,
meditation, breathing practices, and mindfulness practices.
It is important for us to remember that our somatic-limbic
intelligence was developed long before our neo-cortex and
our ability to rationalize and use verbal language. Emotion
does not begin as a thought. Our non-verbal emotional wisdom
often gets denigrated in the world today, and this leads to
various forms of discontent, stress, violence, and lack of
respect for humanity. We will all do well to spend time on
a regular basis, communicating with and deeply appreciating
our limbic-somatic wisdom.
Poetry is an art form that lends itself to the context of
this newsletter, and Seishindo work in general.
Poetry is a bridge between our limbic brain and our neo-cortex.
Poetry can help us give voice to our emotions.
Poetry can help us to coax our feelings into images and words.
Poetry can reveal what words alone cannot say.
Poetry can be said to be the communication of the soul.
As Robert Frost once wrote, a poem "begins as a lump
in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a love sickness.
It is never a thought to begin with."
Here is a beautiful poem written by a good friend.
This is The Place
With permission of the Anonymous Author
This is the place where tears are celebrations
Where the mortally wounded three year old child
Feels safe enough to show herself for the first time
Then is protected, wrapped in love
And restored to health
Day by day.
This is the place where the most shameful secret
Holds something to honor
And nothing to hide
And the deepest pains and fears
Are most deeply the good news.
This is the place where truth is told
Where the hardest things are said first
And the damages are not diminished or denied.
Fear is a lie
And love is everything.
This is the place where I celebrate taking care of myself
And don't feel selfish
Boundaries are a high calling here
And the love I give to me
Flows out freely to others around me.
But be aware, faint of heart
This is a place of pain
The truth shows deep and jagged wounds
And the healing comes by reliving the wounding
The tearing of your flesh and spirit and soul.
In this place you live the pain
Breathe it, taste it, hear it
Give it a place to stretch and groan
And cover you and sear you.
And in the depth of your pain
This is the place where joy is born
In the heart of a small child
Who died inside before she ever lived
And now, day by day
She is filled to overflowing
With hope and love and life
And she is safe.
Because
This is the place
Where someone cares
Knows
Hears
Understands
Believes.
3. Practice
"Opposites
Attract"
Today's Practice can help you to have a fuller, more appreciative
perception of yourself. It has proven to be a Practice that
helps people to feel more at ease with who they are, and takes
away the need to label yourself in a manner that is restrictive
in nature.
4. Links
Learn Marketing Using Seishindo
Practices
My colleague and friend Molly Gordon, a business coach, has
incorporated Seishindo principles and practices into a 12-week
teleclass that has shown hundreds of independent professionals
and artists how to access and express their authentic marketing
"voice."
The spring session starts April 27, 2004. Learn more about
this powerful course at http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=71938
Molly Gordon, MCC, 360-697-7022 FAX: 206-201-5020. Find out
why 10,000 readers turn to Authentic Promotion for insight
into honest marketing that works. Subscribe (it's free) at
http://www.authenticpromotion.com.
* * *
If you have a business, hobby, group, or organization that
you would like other members of the Seishindo community to
know about, then please send us a write-up similar to what
you see on the links page shown above. You don't have a website?
Then let us know how other members might contact you by phone,
fax, in person, or in writing. We are happy to
hear from you.
5. Suggested Books by
Cindy Franklin
The Silent Language by Edward
T. Hall
In this classic book, anthropologist Edward Hall analyzes
the many ways people "talk" to one another without
the use of words. He illustrates how culture influences this
silent language, and indeed controls much of human behavior
in deep and pervasive ways that are outside our awareness
and conscious control. Hall provides fascinating examples
of how such basic building blocks of experience as space and
time are understood and related to in fundamentally different
ways in different cultures. A fascinating read.
6. Suggested Music
CD: "Marc Anthony" Marc Anthony
As I say on our website, I am a little bit shy to list this
album, as Marc Anthony is a Latin heartthrob. But this CD
definitely has some great upbeat tracks that we use fairly
regularly in our workshops.
7. Endnote
A Life Coach Karen Calabrese
writes:
"For me Seishindo fosters a perpetual state of transition,
stretching and growth through a continuous reminder to open
to a pure heart, a simple mind, and a fully embodied presence.
Seishindo is a new way of listening with expanded ears - heart
ears, mind ears, body ears and soul ears. Seishindo enhances
my awareness - self awareness, other awareness, world awareness
and God awareness.
For me the practice of Seishindo is also a practice of acceptance,
acceptance of what is - in this moment, without judgment,
without fear - acceptance with a pure heart and a simple mind
- acceptance which leads to peacefulness and calmness in the
midst of unknowing. I use Seishindo to enter into a state
of self acceptance, which leads me to a deeper state of connection
with my higher self.
Seishindo, for me, is also a practice of connection. Through
the practice of Seishindo I have more resources available
to me to enhance my connection with those I am in relationship
with, with those I teach, with those I learn from, with those
who come to me for guidance in transformation and healing.
The art of Seishindo becomes, for me, a sixth sense."
* * *
We invite you to send in
A) Questions and comments relating
to what you read here.
B) Experiences that relate
to the "Practices" presented.
C) The names of books/music/services/products,
etc. you feel might be of interest to the Seishindo community.
Please include a short write-up about your selections.
Let us know whether it is OK to have your name appear with
the information you share. We will do our best to address
most if not all input. Please
send all input to us.
8. Copyright
Unless otherwise attributed, all material for the newsletter
"Pure Heart, Simple Mind"(tm) is written and edited by Charlie
Badenhop ©. All rights reserved.
You may reprint, copy, or distribute "Pure Heart, Simple
Mind” (tm) provided you: a. Receive our written permission
(which is likely). b. Attach the above copyright notice
to our material. c. Do not sell our material to others.
d. Keep the content of our material intact without any editing
whatsoever.
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