version 1.0.92.c
Guiding Principles
1. I don’t need to spend my life fixing myself, or other people.
I don’t need to control anything, or have any answers. I only need to see what’s here today, and choose how I want to engage. Everything else will take care of itself.
2. People must have the right and responsibility to make their own choices.
No person, belief system, institution, technology, diagnosis, therapist, coach or friend gets to replace another person’s agency. Others may inform, but the person must decide.
3. Human beings are built to recover from trauma. Recovery is part of human nature.
People are not problems to solve. They are living systems responding to their environment, experiences, beliefs, relationships, and nervous system state. (This includes me.)
4. Human beings generally move toward health when the conditions for health exist.
If I want to help someone, I should try to understand what conditions they’re currently responding to – and what conditions could encourage them to move toward greater health.
Application
1. Create the conditions.
2. Let people discover the truth for themselves.
My role is to help create conditions where people can arrive at their own conclusions. If their conclusions differ from mine, I wish them a long and happy life. Their choices are their choices.
Daily practice
Observe reality (what is actually happening today?)
Determine what matters (what moves me toward greater health).
Let everything else go.
North Star
One day I will die. If that day is not today, I’d like to learn how to live while I still can.