So that I can introduce this subject in a manner that everyone won’t get all goofy on me and go in the wrong direction, I'm not the only one that has come up with this. This concept was introduced at a Positive Mental Attitude convention by none other than Zig Zigler some years ago in Madison Wisconsin. In attendance among the business crowd on that fateful spring day were many thousands, including gaggles of born again Christians and a whole swath of Mormon Missionaries. I was there smack dab in the middle of them. Zig recommended that at least once a year, with great reverence and complete soberness of mind, when no one else was around, we should execute this sacred ritual.
First, take a paper sack. Cut two holes in it for your eyes. Then go into a room with a full length mirror and close and lock the door. Put the bag over your head, shed your cloths and peer into the mirror. Try to examine your body as if you were a stranger seeing it for the first time. This simple exercise, he said, allowed one to view with detachment one’s physical body without the distortion of his or her inflated or despondent ego so that the mind could see it for what is was--most likely a vessel needing some serious renovation and work (often unrecognized by the male ego) or as looking pretty darn good (often not appreciated by many women).
Here’s my variation of this theme. Every soul, at least once a year, should do this. Do it early in the spring or in the fall when the mosquitoes aren’t too thick. In accordance with your ability, go on a long, difficult back packing trip, hike, bike ride, run or paddle along some wild river, stream or lake. Get sweaty, tired, dirty and hungry. Eat a simple meal and savor it. Engross yourself in your surroundings. Listen to the life pulsing about you.
Then, as the sun is setting, find a nice secluded and quiet spot next to a clear pool of water. Make sure you’re safe and alone or with an appropriate partner. Divorce from your mind the flies and mosquitoes. Locate either a grassy bank or comfortable slab of rock, strip down naked and take a bracing, cold plunge into the water for as long as you can stand it, maybe going in a couple of times. Completely immerse yourself in the water. Welcome the chill. Upon reaching your limit, haul out and sit quietly. Relish the sensation of your body, fill its vitality and strength. Accept its vulnerability and take measure of its needs. Open your heart and soul to the life force and beauty that surrounds you. Breath it in as you do the fresh air.
Then as the warmth returns to your limbs and skin, as this process revives within you the simple pleasure of life, resolve to accomplish whatever message the experience bestows upon you, as I know it will. Stand wild and naked before the universe just as you came into it. Let it reveal to you the things you must know, the things that you have always known but have had stolen from you by too much of everything. Then, and only then, slowly dress, tread lightly and with gentle ease and grace return to civilization.
Loren M. Lambert
July 16, 2008 (C)
First, take a paper sack. Cut two holes in it for your eyes. Then go into a room with a full length mirror and close and lock the door. Put the bag over your head, shed your cloths and peer into the mirror. Try to examine your body as if you were a stranger seeing it for the first time. This simple exercise, he said, allowed one to view with detachment one’s physical body without the distortion of his or her inflated or despondent ego so that the mind could see it for what is was--most likely a vessel needing some serious renovation and work (often unrecognized by the male ego) or as looking pretty darn good (often not appreciated by many women).
Here’s my variation of this theme. Every soul, at least once a year, should do this. Do it early in the spring or in the fall when the mosquitoes aren’t too thick. In accordance with your ability, go on a long, difficult back packing trip, hike, bike ride, run or paddle along some wild river, stream or lake. Get sweaty, tired, dirty and hungry. Eat a simple meal and savor it. Engross yourself in your surroundings. Listen to the life pulsing about you.
Then, as the sun is setting, find a nice secluded and quiet spot next to a clear pool of water. Make sure you’re safe and alone or with an appropriate partner. Divorce from your mind the flies and mosquitoes. Locate either a grassy bank or comfortable slab of rock, strip down naked and take a bracing, cold plunge into the water for as long as you can stand it, maybe going in a couple of times. Completely immerse yourself in the water. Welcome the chill. Upon reaching your limit, haul out and sit quietly. Relish the sensation of your body, fill its vitality and strength. Accept its vulnerability and take measure of its needs. Open your heart and soul to the life force and beauty that surrounds you. Breath it in as you do the fresh air.
Then as the warmth returns to your limbs and skin, as this process revives within you the simple pleasure of life, resolve to accomplish whatever message the experience bestows upon you, as I know it will. Stand wild and naked before the universe just as you came into it. Let it reveal to you the things you must know, the things that you have always known but have had stolen from you by too much of everything. Then, and only then, slowly dress, tread lightly and with gentle ease and grace return to civilization.
Loren M. Lambert
July 16, 2008 (C)
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