Archive for the ‘Lifeforce’ Category

Financial Crisis And The Speed Of The Zone

June 15, 2010

For many people the financial crisis has caused a paralyzing amount of fear. A question on many people’s minds is how to cope with this gripping emotional state at a time when action is necessary. Perhaps this is the most relevant conversation as our emotional state is what determines the speed at which we are able to take action.   Also, it is our emotional state that determines the accuracy of our perception and the mind’s ability to solve complex problems.  At this very moment the pace of communication and information is accelerating at incomprehensible multiples.

The emotional state of fear will have us wanting to slow down, or even stop.  In the financial world this translates to “wait and see”, “panic and sell”, “follow the crowd”, “run and hide”,”shame and be shamed”, “blame and justify”, “judge and be judged”.  The mass fear is palpable and unbearable to be around and the results are showing up in the markets, the media and everywhere.

The solution to this is to get in a different state, where we can move faster, make better decisions and keep ourselves from being sucked into the vacuum of fear, like particles in space into a massive black hole.  In order to do this, we have to step back and observe, speed up and change, and take the actions without hesitation.  Buy great opportunities and resist selling those that will recover. History will prove that even though the market hibernates like a bear, it does make room for the bull sooner or later.  This is the time to be bold and resilient and  the internal state of fear is our enemy.

Below is an article I wrote in 2004 about the speed of the zone, for a group of leaders that I was working with.

The zone in sports is that magical moment when an athlete is totally connected to winning, physiologically and psychologically and releasing chemicals that enhance the state.  This emotional state takes us into a different reality beyond fear and into bliss.  Everything is optimized and enhanced.  I feel understanding this zone is a key to moving past the fear and into action again.

The Speed Of The Zone (copy of original article written in 2004)

Thank you for your courage and commitment to this journey that we share together, which can be very personal and alone sometimes. I have written about “the speed of the Zone” to support in your understanding of what you have available to you.

The Zone is a very magical space; even though it can seem graceful and slow from the outside, it is actually moving very fast. What does this mean?

As we move up the zones the speed increases exponentially. What this means is that the feeling of each zone is dramatically different. As you move in your own personal journey up the zones you will hit invisible walls. This can feel uncomfortable and will have you plotting against yourself to move back into a lower zone that is more comfortable. We call this your havingness, or upper-limit. I will discuss more about this later but for now let me explain the speed of the Zone.

The important thing is that you will adjust and adapt and then it does get more comfortable again. However in the middle of the adjustment it can feel confusing. Let‘s begin by understanding the context of the personal journey you are on as a Leader.

The Personal Journey

The voice of your Spiritual-Self, compels you to let go of your comfort zone and embark on a personal journey that seems to have no limits, no restrictions and no end. In a life driven by goals, achievements and deadlines this voice is seldom convenient, comfortable or timely. And yet when it’s time, the spirit moves quickly and ruthlessly like a storm from which you cannot protect yourself and there is no place to hide. The only solution is to stop the struggle and surrender to your spirit. Your spirit is much faster than your ego.

In a world of accelerating acceleration, where change is unpredictable, and complexity is growing at levels that are becoming evermore challenging, your ability to adapt must transcend previous limits in order to survive. You are on a personal journey, a quest for meaning, an evolution that takes you from your social act to your authentic self, from specialist to generalist, from dominance to partnership, from competitive to cooperative, from fragmented to integrated, from an ego-centered person to a comprehensive whole spiritual being.

You are for the first time making room in your life for spirit and ego to walk in partnership, side by side, each making peace with the needs of the other.

From Surviving To Thriving

Human beings are complex and evolving beings, who thrive on problem solving, adding value and contributing to others; once survival is handled you are fulfilled only by things that move your heart and challenge your mind.

“It is not the strongest nor most intelligent of species that survives; it is the one most adaptable to change”.

- Charles Darwin

Change is something that requires action and is by its very nature not a passive energy but rather an energy that has force. This force is required to take action from a lower zone because there has to be a dramatic increase in energy. Not only is more energy required as you move up the zones but also more velocity or speed. Things happen faster, and more powerfully. At first this can feel draining and tiring, but as you adapt you begin to have more energy and power available to you. This is the same as someone learning to run their first marathon. It takes persistence, determination and commitment. The body has to adapt physically and they have to increase the distance in incremental steps not run the whole distance the first day.

Let me explain through an analogy from a story.

A Clue From The Red Queen

For Alice, in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass” advice from The Red Queen is that “in this place it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”

“Through the Looking Glass” is the imaginary life of a young girl who while playing the game of chess, walks through a mirror into another reality where the pieces of the chess game become giant and real and The Red Queen is showing Alice the way. This statement inspired Evolutionary Biologist L. Van Valen to come up with a principle called the “The Red Queen Principle” which states that “for an evolutionary system, continuing development is needed just in order to maintain its fitness relative to the systems it is co-evolving with”. The evolution here is in our consciousness, our collective knowledge and how we individually operate within this.

The zones are the equivalent to our own personal evolution as human beings. Only the whole thing is happening in one life and not over millions of years.

Understanding The Landscape

Like Alice in “Through the Looking Glass,” understanding what it takes to thrive in the Zone, begins with looking into the mirror and stepping into a future reality that is at present a possibility only as surreal as the room inside Alice’s mirror. Where things are operating differently than you know, the rules are different, the players are different and everything is unpredictable, outside your current concept of time and space.

Let’s imagine the world inside the mirror, on the surface looks similar, and yet everything is on different sides. Things that were on your right are now on the left, the sizes and proportions are constantly changing as you walk in. To see further into the mirror you have to literally step past your current limitations. In the story, Alice a self-centered girl who is insensitive to her cats and to her sister has an opportunity to learn some valuable lessons. Her journey begins after she steps out of the room in the mirror (her previous limits), and steps into the landscape outside and is joined by the Red Queen (who has transformed from a few inches tall on Alice’s chessboard to a full size woman, taller than Alice. She looks over the hills and sees that everything is divided into squares, like her chessboard and realizes she is in the game. The queen is showing her the way and, they have been moving very fast and take a break when:

Alice looked round her in great surprise. `Why, I do believe we’ve been under this tree the whole time! Everything’s just as it was!’

`Of course it is,’ said the Queen, `what would you have it?’

`Well, in our country,’ said Alice, still panting a little, `you’d generally get to somewhere else — if you ran very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.’

`A slow sort of country!’ said the Queen. `Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!’

A New Reality

This dialogue is a great analogy of the world you are stepping into, fast and unpredictable and where the rules feel as different as a reality without gravity. This is the context of the “The Red Queen Principle” where running is an analogy for adaptation to the environment. The characteristics that you developed to achieve success in the past, the ACT will only manage to keep you at the same place even if you are playing at full speed. So what will it take to achieve success in the future? The single word answer is CHANGE.

Your individual ability to change and re-invent yourself, to adapt to the new rules of the game. Literally going from a mono-dimensional thinking to multi-dimensional thinking. Imagine the two-dimensional chess board now surrounds you, you are in it and the pieces have come to life and you can move in ways you do not understand from your current perspective.

The challenge presented to Alice is “If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” On a purely physical level, the fastest runners in the world are not twice as fast as their peers, only milliseconds faster. The change that is required is in the way that you perceive, think and respond, not a physical adaptation that would take many life spans to accomplish.

You have thinking and responding to a slow world and the Zone is like another reality and nothing in your past can prepare you for this. The Zone requires all of you to be present in the NOW!!

Remember the Zone is an ideal that we are always reaching for and there is no limit, no end. However by reaching for Gold we will surely live above the line in Green and Blue and sometimes Gold.

To Your Goldzone!

Anjou MacPherson
Co-founder
Goldzone Foundation

© Goldzone Foundation. All rights reserved.

Posted in Change, Consciousness, Expansion, Financial Crisis, Flow, Lifeforce, New-Paradigm Leadership, Transformation | 6 Comments »

LIFEFORCE: Your Power Source

February 22, 2009

With today’s workplaces becoming more and more about living than they are about money and finances alone and with the pressure to infuse our companies, organizations and professions with passion and aliveness we must become more passionate, alive and balanced ourselves.

The challenge is how do we do this? And what will it take to unblock our passion and creativity? What do I have to do to become more alive, alert, energetic and enthusiastic?

How do I inspire my team to change? How do I handle the stress caused by the fast pace of change? How do I inspire my team to take personal responsibility for their results, and their failures? How do I cope with failure? How do I create a work environment that is conducive to productivity? How do I bring more of the personal assets of my people into the workplace?

Passion, aliveness, enthusiasm and responsibility are all infused with energy and the source of this energy is LIFEFORCE.

Posted in Change, Consciousness, Creativity, Feelings, Lifeforce, New-Paradigm Leadership, Power, Transformation | Leave a Comment »

Dealing With Unwanted Emotions/Feelings

February 20, 2009

Dealing with unwanted feelings can be a very tricky thing, and it can often lead to upsets and a lot of unhappiness in relationships between people.

The purpose of this article is to provide some understanding of feelings, their purpose in our lives and to provide a guideline for expressing ones feelings in an appropriate manner.

We are all familiar with people who are supposedly calm, nothing bothers them, and then one day something goes wrong and they explode in a fit of rage. Or the relationship where everything was going along nicely and all of a sudden, out of the blue, one partner announces that they are leaving.

Our feelings impact every area of our lives, and are the often hidden drivers of our behaviors, attitudes and beliefs. When we feel things we would rather not, most people will attempt to suppress the feeling, rather than look for the original cause or source of the feeling. Some of the things people do to suppress feelings are:

  1.    Go shopping
  2.    Eat, even if not hungry
  3.    Drink alcohol
  4.    Smoke, cigarettes or cigars
  5.    Take illegal drugs
  6.    Take legal prescription drugs
  7.    Engage in extreme sports
  8.    Engage in sexual activity
  9.    Engage in gossip
  10.    Work harder
  11.   Engage in a fight, or abuse others 

You will notice from the above list, that these activities, when taken to the extreme are detrimental to ones health and are often destructive to other people also.

So why is it that so little is known about feelings?  Why aren’t emotions discussed in school? And why are so few people looking to the cause of their feelings rather than being at the effect of them?

The primary reason for this lack of awareness and education on this subject is because up until recent times, very little was really known about our emotional natures – and it is also a highly explosive and controversial subject.

The impact of modern life and industrialization has created a society of people who do not listen to nor value their emotional selves. This causes people to engage in destructive relationships, unfulfilling careers, and to live in places that are an affront to the senses.

So what would happen if people learned about feelings, and their impact on life? What would happen of people listened to their intuition and their emotional natures more and included this input into their decision-making? What would happen if people learned safe ways to express their feelings – rather than suppress them?

We would have a happier, more fulfilled, more balanced, more loving societies.

What are emotions anyway?

Emotion is the connecting energy between our mental planning and conceptualization and our physical action.

Consider the below model:

spiritualmentalemotionalphysical1

If we have one of the above elements missing or suppressed, we will not realize our full potential as a human being. If we are spiritually disconnected, or we have no belief in or experience of a higher power that is greater than ourselves, we are then only operating on the mental, emotional and physical planes.

If we are mentally slow, or underdeveloped, then we are not able to plan or to solve problems of life and living.

If we are spiritually connected, mentally developed and physically oriented, however have the emotional plane blocked or suppressed, we will not have the energy to create the results we want, nor will we be able to move others to action or to connect deeply with people in relationships.

There are many people who have no spiritual source, are very mentally developed (sometimes to the genius level) are totally suppressed emotionally, however they are physically oriented. These people are able to connect with us physically and mentally, however they are unable to feel real empathy or to connect on a spiritual level.

With one or more of the planes suppressed or underdeveloped we will not realize our full potential and we will not be fulfilled with our lives – regardless of the success or recognition that we achieve.

So you can see, that in order to be a fully realized, self actualized human being, one must be developed on all four spiritual, mental, emotional and physical planes

Emotions are misunderstood

In many societies around the world, under control, calm and expressionless under pressure are accepted and valued as “strong,” while expressive and alive with emotions is considered “weak.” This is often referred to as; “the person was emotional.”

This judgment comes from labeling emotions as good and bad.  Good emotions are accepted and bad emotions are unacceptable. We learn from our parents and the people who care about us which emotions are bad and not to be expressed, and which emotions are good and should be expressed often.

The problem is that different families have different assessments of good and bad.

For example, in one family it may be considered good to express joy and bad to express anger. In another family it may be the exact opposite. What happens when two people from these families get together and form a relationship? This will cause constant fighting and unhappiness because what is considered good behavior by one person will be considered bad by the other.

In order to be a whole and complete person we must be able to experience and express all of the emotions available to mankind. This is a tall order for many people as they avoid some feelings and move towards others. Avoiding some and moving towards others causes us to be at the effect of our emotions. They have us, we don’t have them.

There are no good or bad emotions

Letting go of the labels of good and bad in terms of emotions will liberate us from being at effect of ours and other peoples emotions. Once we understand that every emotion is a necessary part of life and has its place, we can then free ourselves from avoidance and embrace the appropriate emotion for the appropriate situation.

For example, when a tiger is stalking us, it is appropriate to feel caution and fear. It is inappropriate for us to feel enthusiasm or serenity… this will have us being eaten! It is also not appropriate for us to feel and express anger when another person says, “I love you.”

There are hundreds of different emotions or feelings

There are literally hundreds of different emotions that are broken down into specific feelings, and then further categorized into seven primary zones. Each zone has a corresponding color that loosely matches the chakras and also the stages of childhood development.

zones2

You will notice from the above model, that our available energy is low at the bottom of the scale and increases as we go up the scale. 

Each category or zone includes many other feelings on a scale of intensity. For example, in the fear zone (Orangezone) the top of fear is uncertainty, nervous and worry, and the bottom is blind terror. So you can see that mild fear is a little uncomfortable and extreme fear is very uncomfortable.

This is the same with all the zones. The anger zone begins with boredom at the top, rage at the bottom and many different flavors of anger in between.

What happens when an emotion is blocked

What happens to a person who comes from a family where anger is judged as a “bad” emotion and is not acceptable to feel let alone express. What this does, is limit the ability of the person to feel, experience and express emotions that are higher on the scale than anger. In other words, anger blocks the persons free flow of emotional energy.

This block causes a major limitation on the persons life and creates all kinds of problems at work and in relationships. Any time someone expresses anger around this person, they will want to either run away or will become angry themselves. In other words they either avoid or challenge.

Posted in Change, Consciousness, Feelings, Flow, Lifeforce, New-Paradigm Leadership, Personal Leadership, Power, Question & Answer, Transformation | 2 Comments »

The Optima Zones of Life

January 1, 2009

All of life can be measured on a scale from FULLY ALIVE at the top to NEARLY DEAD at the bottom (in fact DEATH is the bottom of the scale.) We call this scale that OPTIMA ZONES OF LIFE as it is divided into seven Zones, or categories.

Each Zone is represented by a color. The colors are: GOLD, BLUE, GREEN, YELLOW, ORANGE, RED and BROWN.

Most of us fluctuate somewhere from the top to the bottom, throughout the day, from day to day and year-to-year. On average we spend most of our time in one particular place or Zone of the scale.

Different areas of our life can be in different Zones. For example, your relationship could be in the Goldzone, and your career could be in the Yellowzone.

The scale explains a lot about human nature. You will see the entire cast of characters in your life and what you can expect from them.

Accompanying each Zone is a predominant emotion. Each emotion is a complete unvarying package of attitudes and behaviors.

The higher a person’s position on the scale the better they survive. They are more capable of obtaining the necessities of living, are happier, more alive, more confident, and competent. They are winning at life.

The lower a person drops on the Scale the closer they are to death. They are losing, are less happy, less alive, less confident, less competent, and are losing at life.

A person in the GOLDZONE, BLUEZONE or GREENZONE doesn’t settle down on this scale; they maintain a high interest and enthusiasm for living. Although they may become upset and drop down in a REDZONE environment, they are resilient and recover quickly once they are free of the lower Zone influence.

Conversely, a person in the YELLOWZONE, REDZONE or BROWNZONE can have a moment of winning or success, however it doesn’t last long and quickly return to their original Zone.

The Optima Zones of Life are as follows:

Zones
Qualities
State
Description
Goldzone
  • Source
  • Grace
  • Manifestation
  • Extrasensory Perception
  • Transcendence
  • Peace
  • Master of The Game
FULLY ALIVE
 A person in the Goldzone is FULLY ALIVE, connected to source, in harmony with nature and their environment, fully responsible for themselves and others, loving and compassionate.With a high level of truth, this person perceives people and situations with total accuracy and operates from a state of grace.   

The Goldzone person is a creative master over their life and their environment and operates in their own reality.

Completely authentic and peaceful, the Goldzone person is fully integrated with their spiritual self.

Their usual mood level is serene/state of grace. Creation, manifestation and the extraordinary are a way of life.

The Goldzone person’s word is as good as gold.
Bluezone
  • Creative Mastery
  • Appreciation
  • Aesthetic (Beauty)
  • Passion
  • Creating The Game
FULLY EXPRESSED
 This person is living their dream and is fully self expressed. Lifeforce enhancing art, poetry, music, dance, movies and being of service motivate the Bluezone person to express themselves in a way that gives back to the people around them and society as a whole.The Bluezone person is surrounded by beautiful people and environments. Reverent, graceful and in a constant state of gratitude, these people are highly valuable to any community or project that they are a part of.   

Bluezone people are on the leading edge of shifting paradigms, social values and culture.

Greenzone
  • Enthusiastic
  • Empathy
  • Interested (other centered)
  • Responsible
  • Cooperative
  • Assertive
  • Win/Win
ACTION WITH HEART
 The Greenzone person is in the right place at the right time. Everything seems to go right for them and most things that they are connected to work.They are attractive and emanating lifeforce and creativity. They are inspirational and their presence alone is a reassuring and calming influence.   

Greenzone people are connected to the right people. Their actions, intentions and visions are aligned. They spend most of their time in a high mood level and take action with heart.

Knowledgeable about many subjects and things, this person has highly developed people, communication and life skills. Here we have a high level of confront, truth and honesty.

The Greenzone person is happy, prosperous and successful within the status quo.
Yellowzone
  • Materialistic
  • Interesting (self centered)
  • Competitive
  • Combative
  • Aggressive
  • Controlling
  • Justification
  • Win/Lose
ACTION
 In the Yellowzone or Anger zone a person is driven by their ego, and their attachment to how they think things should be in order to feel good about themselves. Motivated by anger they are flowing a lot of lifeforce against opposition, against people, against perceived threats and are on the attack.When frustrated, these people respond with anger, even when most of the time anger is not the appropriate response.   

Attached to being right, the Yellowzone person makes less of other people, invalidates them and is always blaming others for things going wrong. Any mistakes made by this person are instantly justified.

Yellowzone people are in high action, however it is motivated by anger. A lot of drama and busy-ness surrounds this person.

Obsessed with success, the Yellowzone person is constantly thinking about what to acquire next.

As a leader, the Yellowzone person is controlling and domineering.

Orangezone
  • Unexpressed
  • Controlled
  • Withdrawn
  • Restrained
  • Low Confront
  • Fearful
  • Hypnotic
  • Blame
  • Doubt
  • Lose/Win
SECURITY
 This is life in the rat-race, daily grind or work-a-day world. This person doesn’t take any risks and lives and works for survival.The Orangezone person can handle things, but has poor people and communication skills. This person resists change and not prone to share what they have.   

Fear motivates everything this person does, from choosing a partner, career, place to live, investments etc. Any form of responsibility or leadership is avoided.

The Orangezone person communicates with a lot of generalizations, assumptions and when at the bottom of this Zone is emotionally numb.
Redzone
  • Low Self Worth
  • Untrustworthy
  • No Confront
  • Denial
  • Acceptance of Failure
  • Shame
  • Lose/Lose
SURVIVAL
 A person in the Redzone has almost succumbed to loss, death and failure. Nothing works for them, and one failure leads to another. The Redzone person is in the wrong place at the wrong time, doing the wrong actions.This person has destructive people and communication skills and doesn’t trust anyone. Here we have a very low level of confront and honesty.   

Obsessed with security, this person is driven by fixed ideas and wrong data. Often using knowledge as a weapon, this person has no happiness, no money, no space, no time.

This person is the perpetual complainer, gossip and VICTIM.

Brownzone
  • Hopeless
  • Expressionless
  • Disconnected
  • Numbness
  • Total Failure
  • Nearly Dead
  • Not In The Game
GIVEN UP
 A Brownzone person has totally given up on life. Nothing works for them. They are totally in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their lifeforce is negative and heading straight towards death.In heavy denial, Brownzone people are paralyzed, inactive, sick and depressed a lot. Totally physically and emotionally numb they have a lack of feeling and are indifferent. They are turned-off to loving, living, hoping, crying, laughing and dreaming.   

When a person suffers a severe loss and cannot express their grief, they restrain it and go into the Brownzone, or apathy zone which is lower than a victim.

Often the drug addict and compulsive gambler is in this Zone. Some of these people may even be labeled “brilliant intellectual” and be in high paying jobs.

A good indicator of the Brownzone person is found by looking at their associates. Most of them are frazzled by trying and failing to help them.
 
 

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