The Tribe of You

When you think about yourself, you think "I" right? You think of yourself as a singular, whole being. One person. One unit. One entity.

That's how most of us think about ourselves. In truth, though, each of us is not a single "I" but a whole tribe of archetypes that use the same body to express ourselves. You are not actually you. You are the Tribe of You. There are many of you.

Interesting to think about, isn't it? You can verify this in your own experience by thinking about a New Year's resolution. Suppose one of "you" made the resolution to lose weight. All is well and good until you encounter fresh hot donuts at work. Then another of "you" takes control of your body, smells that fresh donut scent, and without another thought eats one! Whoa! What just happened to your resolution?

Fifteen minutes later, the "you" that made the resolution bubbles to the surface and notices that you've eaten a donut. Then the "guilt and shame you" comes in and starts with the guilt trip. Are you seeing a pattern here?

Each "you" in the Tribe of You has a different agenda, and you will act according to many agendas during your day, depending on which "you" has control at the moment.

How can you get a grip on yourself so you can achieve your chosen goals without causing tribal warfare? The first step is to realize that most of the time you are not yourself. Here's a simple way to clarify this:

1. Choose a goal that one of "you" has set. It should be one that lasts for at least two weeks (and maybe one that you've had trouble achieving).

2. Observe your thoughts and actions very carefully during those two weeks. Every time one of "you" has thoughts or proposes actions that are contrary to that goal, say to yourself, "This is not I."

3. Briefly jot down the situation and thought or action.

4. At the end of two weeks, review your list. Notice how many different versions of "you" there are related to your goal.

You might be surprised how many of you are part of the Tribe of You. Does this shed light on why achieving certain goals is so difficult?


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You Can’t Make Up for the Sins of Yesterday

For those of us who have had a lot of practice making resolutions or goals, the "manana plan" is quite familiar. How many times have we said to ourselves, "Oh, I won't make the goal I set for myself today because I want to do [fill in the blank] instead, but I'll make up for it tomorrow by doing twice as much"?

If you've tried making up for yesterday's sins, which means "missing the mark," by working doubly hard today, you know that it doesn't work for very long. Inevitably, we get caught up in juggling the debts of many yesterdays past and get lost in the mix. Or sometimes we accumulate so many debts from yesterday that it will take all of today plus a million tomorrows to make up the difference. At that point, most of us give up on our aims and goals. Ultimately, we are faced with such an impossible load of "makeup" work that we lack the will power to get it done.

Many religious and metaphysical practices talk about this phenomenon. For example, the Bible talks about "our daily bread." What does our daily bread mean? It means that we must take each day as its own day, with its own realizations, achievements and inspirations. We can't live on yesterday's bread, but must create today's bread afresh each day. It is said that every single day is a microcosm of our lives. In each day, we can choose to move toward our aim or to be distracted by outside influences and people. When we are busy, it seems like all the days flow together and a single day doesn't seem all that important. But when we consider that each day is a miniature model of our entire lives, we can begin to see the importance of each day. The decisions we make today can drastically shape the direction and force of our lives.

There's another factor that is important to consider here. If we agree that the each day must be lived as an independent unit, then we realize that guilt, revenge, regret and like feelings have no place in our lives. Sure, someone may have wronged us yesterday, but will we use that as an excuse to distract us from our aim today? Or perhaps we didn't achieve all we set out to do today -- will we allow ourselves to lose force over that tomorrow and further deter us from our aims?

When we think about the progression of days in this way, we begin to see that nothing that happened yesterday is reason enough to distract us from today. And should we miss the mark today, tomorrow is always a brand new microcosm of our lives to be explored, lived, and loved! If you’ve been putting off inviting magic into your life, waiting until tomorrow, make the leap now. Join us for the free 4 Element classes being offered right now. Just email info@shamanschool.com to find out how to start with the free Basic Magic Air Element classes and we’ll email you back the info. Then look ahead and have fun in your today!

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