Transcending the Spiral

[Spiritual Warrior]

I have been thinking recently... Where are we all going? What is the point of this thing called life? We must be going somewhere... The answer to this question lies within the spiral of spiral dynamics. The goal for all of us is to climb up the spiral and fully integrate each stage on the way up. The higher you climb, the closer to God and truth that you get. 

I want to help my friends move up the spiral. I don't want to manipulate the people within the friend group for my selfish gains, I want to manipulate the entire system, so that they all, individually move up the spiral at their own pace. This requires me to understand where each person is at and what they need to do in order to fully integrate a stage and then transcend it. I will also need to develop myself along the spiral simultaneously so that I can better help them. 

This plan also requires me to start tapping into stage yellow. In order for me to change a system, I will need to understand how a system works. I am talking about a single human being as a system here, and also the friend group itself as a system, which I will have to understand more clearly in order for there to be real change. 

I need to first understand where each player is at on the spiral. Do they have any red? Orange? Blue? Green? Any yellow? 

What does each person embody? What do they enjoy doing? What are they working on or need to work on? 

(I am not using their real names for privacy)

For reference, we are all about 27 / 28 years old right now. 

Listed below are the main players within the friend group. There is a hierarchy to this. I am going to put Pablo at the top. He hosts the most, is very close with all of the top players of the friend group. I would consider myself his right hand man. (its possible that I am being biased here, I will try to more consciously look at this matter) I am the best at schmoozing with everyone. I am the closest with the people at the bottom of the friend group. He is closest with the people at the top. My role is to make them feel included. His role is to plan and organize things. I trigger stage green empathy and stage orange charisma for this, he triggers stage orange planning and also has the best sense of humor, probably also a stage orange trait. 

Pablo - Has fully integrated red at a young age. He got into a fight in high school while standing up for what he believed was right, and has had several altercations with authority figures in which he was standing up for what he believed in. I feel safe while he is around. Has integrated blue very nicely as well, he has strong family values, strong loyalty, has self-discipline (although could maybe use a little work), he does tend to engage in "white lies" but he has improved upon this over the years. (White lies show lack of empathy and a willingness to manipulate other people) Has not fully integrated orange yet, he does have a house, a nice car, and seems to be well off. But he is still a penny pincher. This means that he is not living in abundance with his finances. Its as if he has been stagnant financially ever since he bought his house a couple of years ago. Green - Not a big hugger, eye contact is good. Has never done yoga. Does not eat healthy. Does show empathy towards others, but mainly kids, women, and the elderly. Struggles to give out love and empathy towards other men. 

Summary on Pablo: Seems to have nicely integrated red and blue and is done with those two. He is now stagnant at orange, needs to work that out. Honestly, I think that getting him to dive right into green would be very beneficial to him. Get him to a yoga class. That's the first step. 

Myself - Red- Has not fully integrated red yet. He is still small, has not worked out enough to build real muscles. Does not always say how he feels so that he will get approval from other people. Blue - Has not fully integrated blue either - Work ethic and self - discipline are not great. Is fairly loyal towards his friends and family. Orange - is not financially independent, is in credit card debt, does not have a house or even an apartment, does not have a serious girlfriend or a nice car. Green - Has integrated green nicely. Was a vegan for 2.5 years. Goes to yoga. Eats healthy food. Has done psychedelics. Gives out a fair amount of hugs. Is triggered by ugly stage red antics, such as animal abuse and racial inequality. Yellow - Has ambitions to integrate yellow's systems thinking, but I'd say does that have any integration of yellow just yet. 

Summary of myself: Although I have a lot of work to do on the red/blue/orange front. While I am working out those kinks, I will be able to simultaneously show my friends what stage green is all about - I want to get them to engage in these activities, such as hiking, yoga, healthy food, psychedelics, and being more loving towards others. 

Ant - Red - I know that in his rugby days in college and football days before that, he must have had to trigger red at times. I also know that he would have these crazy drinking and fighting competitions in college at his rugby parties. This screams red to me. I know he has also kicked people out of his parties in college, is also a big dude, definitely worked out for a while in his hay day. He shoved one of our other friends to the ground one time for "crossing a line" - It was controversial, but this shows that he is willing to trigger red and assert his dominance. (this was like 4 years ago) I think he's fully integrated red and transcended it. Blue - Has to wake up every morning at the same time. Has good loyalty and good family values. Orange - does have a house, a nice car, has fixed up the house, makes good money, shows good charisma, Green - Does have a good amount of green. Uses the word love a lot. Asks me if I need a hug sometimes. (I never do that) Is very caring and empathetic to the feelings of his friends, although I do notice that he misses the cues of his girlfriend when she is upset. Has never gone to yoga. Eats somewhat healthy. Drinks kombucha sometimes. Does still drink alcohol a lot. 

Summary for Ant: He seems very well integrated on all fronts. Am I missing something or is he ready to start moving over to yellow? He actually may have integrated more green than myself. I am unsure how to handle him. 

Paco - Definitely some red. His fighting history and interest in the UFC and the WWE is evidence of this. Does he have enough red? Yes. Does he have enough blue? No. I think he could use an increase in his self-discipline and work ethic. He is inconsistent and tends to slack off, not wake up on time. He is lazy in soccer, does not get back on defense, which is evidence towards not being a team player. Does he have enough orange? No. He is living with his parents right now and therefore not financially independent. He has orange-like traits in his money grabbing and ego-centric ways. His charisma and strategic thinking could use some work. Does not have very much green. Not that into hugging and is just very eco centered. He cares about his friends and loved ones, but doesn't care about strangers. Not very accepting of the transgender community. Still uses homophobic slurs. 

Summary - He is way too ego centric. He will have to integrate the more communal and loving stages of blue and green. If I can introduce him to stage green more, I think that will go a long way. Hug more, invite him to yoga, etc. 

 

Overall summary: Several other people within the friend group will need to be analyzed, but this is a good start. What can I do right now to help these folks? Get them to go to yoga with you. Or go on a hike, be more loving, flash green in front of them, get your hands on some psychedelics. 
 

[Spiritual Warrior]

In order to get a better sense for what systems thinking is, I have watched Leo's video on systems thinking and taken some notes. I have also dissected some of the issues that I have in my personal life, naming all of the contributing factors to the problem, showing that each problem in my personal life is a systemic problem in it of itself.

 

Insight: Each character within the friend group has a relationship. with each other. You can dissect each relationship

 

Scattered parts are not a system.

A bookshelf? No. A bookshelf is not a system because the parts do not interact with each other.

Trash in a landfill? No... They are separate pieces, they do not interact with each other.

 

Examples of systems: Rainforest, human body, aquarium, a city or country, a soccer team, a corporation, the economy, currencies, a university, a car, the US military, public education, Facebook platform, Catholic church, your business, the self or the psyche or the ego, the entire cosmos is the ultimate system

Systemic problems in society: Poverty, the shrinking middle class, global warming issues, drug addiction, war, obesity, crime, low brow marketing (it is very difficult to market high consciousness things, but it is very easy to market low consciousness things), difficult to get funding for a small business idea, unemployment, education, fundamentalism, terrorism, corruption, depression, endangered species, runaway materialism, partisan gridlock, spam

 

What are we not understanding about these problems: Where are they coming from, whats creating them, what are the forces at work there?

 

What are the principles for systemic thinking: Problems are systemic and not personal - its not one or two people that are creating problems in the world, its systems that are causing problems within the world, poorly designed systems, seeing everything as a system, non-linearity (chaos theory) A non-linear system is one in which the rules are not set in stone, they are forever changing, which makes it difficult to really tie it down, the system itself can make many twists and turns, systems are very counter intuitive, understand that systems are unpredictable and chaotic, becoming conscious of backfiring mechanisms (sometimes in a system, you make a change and it backfires on you), the system is its own greatest enemy, for example, terrorism: one might think intuitively that to stop terrorism, lets just attack them, show them who's boss, but this would actually backfire because this would just anger the terrorists even more and would also cause them to recruit more people to fight in the terrorrist army, understanding that boundaries are defined by the human mind - there are not objective boundaries, the world is dynamic and not static, understand that the power is not in manipulating the system directly but by understanding them, having a long time horizon, looking for the root causes of issues rather than the superficial aspects, have an appreciation for the wisdom of nature, systems thinking is anti-tribal - understands that the entire world is important - not just the inner circle that you are in, or the country that you live in, or even just your own species, is always asking the question "is this sustainable?", recognizing the dangers of self-interest, systems thinkers think about how to think, able to shift its own perspective - able to look at the system from a different paradigm, go out of your way to survey many different perspectives and then bring them all together, understanding that a system goes through phases and patterns, 

 

Question to answer: What actually causes a disconnection between two people within a friend group?

 

Examples of systemic issues in my personal life: 

My work ethic problem: 1. Life is too easy, people are always handing me things 2. I have the cushion of going into credit card debt in order to pay my bills 3. Out of touch with survival, do not need to work hard to survive 4. The importance of a good work ethic was not instilled in me when I was a child, 5. My parents (namely my dad) have not kicked me out of their house yet, I could continue to live there rent free. Therefore there is no incentive to get out there and start earning money. 6. Lack of vision - I do not have a strong enough vision for what I want to create in my life to ignite that fire, that passion, that drive, that work ethic. 

My lack of dating experience problem: 1. I do not have the experience, therefore I have low confidence that I will be a good partner and that I will know what I am doing once in a relationship 2. Easy access to porn, which makes putting myself out there and risking rejection a silly thing to do when I can get off very easily right here on my couch 3. My parents were not affectionate when I was a child, I never picked up on those skills. And I do think these are important skills to learn in the dating world. 4. Afraid of being judged by others - I feel the need to think about what my friends will think about whoever I introduce them to as a dating prospect. The person needs to be extremely attractive so that I can uphold my self image as a high quality guy with high standards. 5. Rejection - Rejection by a female seems like the worst thing in the world to me, I feel like it would tarnish my reputation / self-image 

 

Insight: Things need to be balanced within a system 

[Spiritual Warrior]

I am writing down everything that I still resonate with at each stage. If I think that it is important, then that means there is a part of me that has not transcended that portion of myself on the spiral. 

 

Stage red: Personal power, displays of toughness, brazen courage, heroism, winning at all costs, winning, victory, conquest, the thrill of conquest, warrior mentality, competitive, crush your opponents, revenge, respect, loyalty, assertiveness, decisiveness, passion, action, direct, no nonsense, wants to be bigger than life, sexual conquests and exploitation, adventure, thrill seeking, living boldly, breaking with the pack

Things I want more of at this stage: Nothing

Stage blue: hard work, discipline, justice, stability, security, hierarchy: Social order and status quo, meaning and greater purpose, morality, serving God, theology, family values, respect for elders, loyalty, cultural superiority

Things I want more of at this stage: hard work, discipline, stability, security, meaning and greater purpose

Stage orange: Achievement, success, improving one's own position in life, gaming the system, self-improvement, confidence, optimism, charisma, money, sex, luxury, physical appearance, youth, coolness, sexiness, win win outcomes, "Scientific method", data and analytics qualify everything, pop culture, celebrities, social media, personal freedom, independence 

Things I want more of at this stage: money, sex, luxury, physical appearance, personal freedom, independence, success, self-improvement, charisma

Stage green: Love, heart, soul, empathy, compassion, mercy, leniency, social progress, humanism, liberalism, democracy, equality, anti materialism, anti greed, social conscious, supporting humanitarian causes, relationships, bonding, human well being, harmony, warm interactions, hugs, finding common ground, pacifism, peace, pleasing everyone, sensitivity, spiritual but not religious, recycling, human-centered, heart-centered, openmindedness, sex education, creativity, beauty, art, bringing people of the world together

Things I want more of at this stage: Femininity, Mind altering drugs, warm interactions / hugs, bonding, openmindedness

Stage yellow*: Spiral Dynamics, systems thinking, being a lone wolf

Things I want more of at this stage: Meeting people where they are at, responsibility, independence, autonomy

*I do not resonate with many aspects of stage yellow because I am not evolved enough yet.

[Spiritual Warrior]

Writing down all of the qualities at each stage that I resonate with or think is important was extremely beneficial to me. It made me start to think about why I am still stuck on certain qualities, namely the ones at stage red. The reason that I am stuck on many stage red qualities is because I feel as though it is important to always save face and look good in every situation. For example, I've been insecure about my height for a while now but I am just now really bringing it into my full awareness (I'm 5'5") and I realized that I am really scared of looking small relative to women, it terrifies me. So if a girl is tall, then I will go out of my way to avoid her. 

I have stage red qualities that I try to trigger in order to distract people from viewing me as this small, weak individual. It's a survival mechanism. If I can be overly loud and tough and assertive, then this will compensate for my lack of height. This is what that "Napoleon Complex" is referring to, us short men have a sense that we are not good enough and don't deserve love as we are, so we put on this fake facade. 

The truth is though that I don't resonate with this stage. I don't like it, I just feel like I have to trigger it in order to save my self- image. The worst thing in the world to me is having my lack of height out on full display to people. This is evident in basketball, when people try to post me up, I get very into it and I try my absolute hardest to play good defense. I don't want to get taken advantage of. In reality, if I were to zoom out and take my ego out of the equation, I realize that posting up the shortest guy on the court, especially if the offensive player has good post moves is a good strategy. Another way to look at this is that it would also be a good strategy if a taller, slower opponent was on myself, to try to use my quickness and get by him. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. 

You'll never know more freedom than when you put your true self on full display, the good and the bad. Put yourself in the spotlight and say I don't need to hide my shortcomings, insecurities, and fears from you. This is who I am. Take it or leave it. Judge me if you want. 

[Spiritual Warrior]

Transcending the Spiral - Journal Entry #4:

Alright so heres the deal with this, my ultimate goal is to use a systems thinking approach on my whole friend group to help them transcend the spiral. The reason that I am doing this is because 1. I love my friends and I want the best for them and 2. This will be a great small scale systems- approach experiment that I can learn from and maybe down the road I can use a systems approach to effect an even larger group of people, such as at a business, or as a self-help guru, or whatever I become when I mature. The issue is that I am finding it difficult to really spend time on thinking about how I am going to help my friends move up the spiral when I have so many issues that I need to iron out in my own life. (I have all of these lofty ideas, but I really do have a lot of practical issues.) I feel as though I need to spend time working on myself first and foremost before I can help anyone else. 

I've decided that I am all good on stage red. The only thing that I may need on red is setting better boundaries with people, and telling them when they have crossed a line or that I am upset with something that they did to me. (I don't even know if this even relates to the spiral, its kind of just a separate thing, but I feel I have a good grasp on it, and when a situation arises, I'm going to work on sticking up for myself.) I have a lot to work on in stage blue, so I am just going to focus on that right now..

What do you want to work on at stage blue? 

Stage blue: Hard work, discipline, greater purpose

Hard work: I can be so damn lazy. I'll get into these funks in which I just don't do anything all day. I'll sit in my bed and jerk off or watch stupid videos all damn day. I want to get this bad habit out of my life. When I set my mind to something, I want to put in the work to finish it and get better at it. I want to put in the hard work to working out at the gym. I want to work hard at my job. 

Discipline: I want to say no to all of the bad habits that I have, my addiction to porn / ejaculating, my addiction to stimulation, my addiction to watching TV before bed, my addiction to junk food. I want to have the discipline to stop doing all of these things. When I see a pretty girl, I want to have the self- discipline to walk up to her and chat her up. I want to have the discipline to go out there and apply to jobs, lets say 5 different places every day from here on out. I want to have the discipline to know when to stop drinking alcohol or maybe stop drinking all together. I want to have the self discipline to stop smoking weed (I just don't see the benefit of it anymore, it is nothing but a distraction and it makes me lazy and tired) I want to have the self discipline to wake up at the same time every single weekday morning. Lets start with 8 am. I am going to wake up at 8 am every day next week and from here on out. 

Greater purpose: I want to have a greater purpose that I am working towards. I want a job at a restaurant, in which I can start building up some capital, work on my social skills, and work on my work ethic. I want to continue to develop my Youtube channel, this is going to be my purpose. I want to help people learn things that will help them move up the spiral. I want to lead by example to my peers, this is how you should live your life, this is how you should carry yourself. I want to be an inspiration to people. 

 

I know I said that I need to work on myself before I can help out my friends, but here are some notes as to what I would like to do with them. 

What is one issue with your friend group that needs to be addressed?

Too much alcohol. My friends drink a lot. I'm talking 10+ drinks at some functions. Some of them drink very irresponsibly. 

Why are they drinking so much?

I think that they are drinking so much because they don't have a higher vision to pursue. It doesn't matter that they are turning there brain to sludge for the night and the next day. There also usually isn't anything else to do, we don't have super stimulating, intellectual conversations and won't have any activity to do at a function, so we just drink. 

How can you get them to drink less? 

Host functions that are not centered around drinking alcohol. Have a game night. Maybe a murder mystery dinner, in which everyone is engaged and there is something to do. Invite them to yoga, if you can get them into yoga, this is how you can start to inspire them to start taking care of their bodies. Show them that you care about them. Give them some love, talk about love more often, give out more hugs, be more accepting and open to them. DO NOT try to manipulate any of them for your selfish interests. This is big. People pick up on this and then they think that it is okay to engage in that kind of behavior (this of course requires you to work on yourself). Cheer others on when playing basketball or soccer. Congratulate people on their success. Stop drinking yourself (this is also really big, if you can't stop then why should they?)

All of these things that I mention are stage green. What I'm hoping is that if I can just get them all to embody green, it will move them out of the lower stages. Not sure if it is really that simple, but I guess we'll find out. 

What are some stage green activities that you can do with them?

Meditate, yoga, take psychedelics, talk about our feelings, give more hugs, be more loving, be more empathetic, have more wholesome get togethers where everyone is involved (this is an issue sometimes because a lot of the times the girls and the guys are separated, and I'm not really sure how to entertain the girls), include EVERYONE in group messages - don't leave the girlfriends out of the loop

[Spiritual Warrior]

Transcending the Spiral - Journal Entry #5 - July 15th, '23

Alright, so three weeks after last post, I do feel as though I can start focusing on the next stage, stage orange. I am still working on integrating the big three from stage blue of course (hard work, discipline, and greater purpose) but I feel as though I have a good enough grasp on it that I can start to integrate some qualities of stage orange. 

Why would you like to integrate more of in stage orange? 

There's a lot, so strap yourself in: money, sex, luxury, physical appearance, personal freedom, independence, success, self-improvement, charisma, confidence, sexiness 

Money: I want an abundance of money coming in, not have to worry about it, be able to spend freely, being able to be generous

Sex: I want sex. Lots of sex with beautiful people.

Luxury: I want nice things, nice suits, nice clothes, a nice car, a nice house with a nice bar, a nice TV, a nice and luxurious life

Physical appearance: I want my physique to stand out. I want to look like Christian Ronaldo. I want to be a very attractive young man, that girls swoon over. 

Freedom: I want to have the freedom to be able to do what I want, to go where I please, to say what I want, to hang out with who I want, to not care what others think about what I am doing.

Independence: I don't want to need anybody to sustain me financially. I don't want to need anyone or anything to fulfill me. I want to be independent from outcome. I know what is right and I am going to do it. 

Success: success to me is making a lot of money, having a prestigious job that I like, and having a loving girlfriend and great friends.

Self- improvement: I love improving myself towards my goals every day. Every day, working on something, striving for something, striving for more, not because I am in pain, but because the game of life and wanting more and more is fun. Try to enjoy this process and not make it filled with pain and suffering.

Charisma: I want to be very charismatic, especially when talking with women. Joking around with people, being playful, having a good time, teasing people, being the center of attention, lifting the mood for everybody around me.

Confidence: I want to have this inner, cool, confident and composed energy about me. Like yes, things will be difficult at times, but I can this and anything else that is thrown my way.

Sexiness: I want to be sexy. I want to be seen as a sexual guy, a guy that is in touch with his sexuality, that knows what he wants and likes. That isn't creepy and is straight forward, that knows how to move his body and enjoy pleasure and give pleasure. 

There's a lot to crack into here. I'll have to journal about practical steps towards a achieving these things on the next post. 

 

Edited July 15, 2023 by Spiritual Warrior

[Spiritual Warrior]

Transcending the Spiral - Journal Entry #6 - Thu Aug 3rd '23

Lets take a step back and look at stage blue.

What are you working on there? Hard work, discipline, greater purpose

What can I do to make these things a habit in my own personal life? How can I embody these things?

Hard work: By working a lot, taking a lot of things on. This will also help financially. I have a job at a restaurant, 20-25 hours per week. I started training to be a dance instructor, just started, only 3 hours per week so far - hoping this continues to ramp up. I have an opportunity to watch one of their competitions on Saturday, I am going to make sure that I go to that, I just need to buy a blazer - hoping that Duncan can let me borrow his - going to go in and ask today. I also reached out to my former IT boss - we had a meeting and he said that hes going to try to get me involved in some projects - hoping all of this starts to come together. I can also focus on working hard at every job, while playing sports, working out, socializing, just try not to lose focus and slack off. Attention should be on working hard, putting in the time, grinding. 

Discipline: Work out every morning Monday through Friday. Have a set morning routine that you do every day Monday through Friday. Weekends you can do what you want. What should the morning routine consist of? Wake up at 7 am. Shower. Meditate. Calisthenics work out. Drink a protein shake. then you can start your day.

Greater purpose: I could ask myself morning, what am I going to work on today that will help me with my purpose in life.

Once I feel as though I have instilled habits in my daily life that will help me embody these 3 things, then I can start to shift my attention to everything that I want at stage orange. 

[Spiritual Warrior]

Transcending the Spiral - Journal Entry #7 -Fri Aug 25th '23

I have found another characteristic trait that needs to be worked on in stage blue. Something happened recently that has triggered this. I was not honest about my feelings towards this girl at work, and I tried to force the feelings to come out in a sneaky, manipulative way. I am deeply embarrassed and I don't ever want to see her again because it hurts every time I think or see her. Unfortunately I work with her so theres no way to not see her unless I quit. I'm going to try to only take shifts in which she is not working and the goal is to quit within two months. This situation stinks, but pain is a part of life. 

I constructed a situation in which I got a ride to a bar by some dude and then made it so that I left my car back at the restaurant that we both work at. I then got really drunk, got into an argument with a guy there, and then called her for a ride at midnight. She is so fucking nice that she agreed to pick me up. I was planning on telling her how I feel when she picked me up. When she got there, there was another dude in the front seat. I do not think that this was a significant other, but I guess I don't really know, if I were to guess, it was her roommates boyfriend. I did not say very much during the car ride as I was taken aback that there was a guy in the front seat and also very drunk. She dropped me back off at my car, and then I drove drunk 45 minutes to get back to my house. I am deeply embarrassed by my actions here. First off that I would construct this situation so that I can tell someone how I feel, this is very manipulative and not honest. I just can't believe that I stooped this low, I am really baffled by this and I didn't think I was capable of doing something like this.  It also really hurts that she didn't trust me enough to come pick me up alone. She must have a perception of me that is slimy and dishonest, and she's right, I was being dishonest and manipulative. I did not have the integrity to just be straight up with her about my feelings for her. And if I can't be straight up then I don't deserve the girl. For this, I cannot help but feel ashamed of myself. I am really trying to love and forgive but this is a massive zit on my tract record of dealings with girls that is going to be difficult to forgive.

Because of this situation, I am highly motivated to start developing some more integrity so that this never happens again. I never want to be manipulative of anyone or dishonest. If I feel myself liking a girl I am going to tell her. That is what being integrated is all about, so that what is going on inside of your mind and body is being shown or shared with the external world. That is what being whole is about, that is what being authentically yourself is all about. 

I know that I have a long and difficult road ahead of me, but I am excited that I have found something new to work on in my life. I am going to be in the top 1% of people when it comes to high integrity. 

[Spiritual Warrior]

Transcending the Spiral - Journal Entry #8 -Sat Sep 16th '23

I'm starting to realize that I'm working on characteristics about myself that I see fit, and they span over a few different stages. 

Another thing that I'm realizing is that SD is just a model, there's nothing inherently true about it. Sometimes the characteristics overlap and they do not necessarily belong in one stage. Ultimately, I am working on what I would like to work on in life. I am using spiral dynamics as merely a guide. There are no rules to this, I do what I want.

What am I working on at each stage:

Red:

Overall, just being solid, not being swayed in any direction by other people, being a force in this world 

• Sticking up for myself or my own ego when I feel as though it has been disrespected or it has been treated unfairly
• Taking ownership of my own life, not making excuses or blaming others for my problems or shortcomings
• Not caring what other people think about me
• Grinding things out if I have to in a situation, whether at work or in a sport or while working out
• Continue to work out, getting more muscular 
• Never wanting anybody to feel bad for me

Blue:

To summarize, having high integrity

• Always be on time to work
• Doing what I feel is the "right" thing to do in a situation. For example, this literally just happened. I am a host at a restaurant and I sat a party table(6+) in the 2nd servers section. I knew that it was the 1st server's turn for a party table but the 2nd server was standing there ready to serve the party. I had the opportunity to tell the server that the 1st server was going to take that table but I failed to do that because I just didn't want to deal with it. I failed to do what I knew was the right thing to do. I took the easy way out. I want to work on this. When an opportunity arrives to do what's right even though it is going to be difficult or painful, this is the perfect opportunity to work on having high integrity, being a noble, honest person. 
• Working hard, not slacking off (mainly at work) - you need time to relax off from work 
• Treating women with respect, integrity, honesty, being non manipulative towards them, and non needy, not needing anything from them (sex, validation, approval) 

Orange: 

Orange is going to be the centerpiece of my life for the next few years as I try to become financially independent, and start having success in dating and career. The finances and dating and successful career are going to take some time to fully actualize as it takes a while to first master my career, then build up the wealth, and also I'm basically starting from ground zero when it comes to success in dating, so let's start off small and work on some practical things. The goal is to become a very successful dance instructor. This will get you the wealth and will also help you be a better dating prospect.

• Continue working out, but not just for strengths like in stage red, for sexiness, 6 pack abs, look shredded
• Work hard in your dance training always push yourself to get better 
• Work on relationships with people within the dance studio, this can get you clients and also good practice talking to people
• Finances: let's try to start saving some money with every pay check, even just a little bit. Some money goes into savings and it CANNOT be touched 
• Charisma: work on cracking more jokes, being more humorous, being magnetic, commanding attention from other people. You can work on this ANYWHERE. At the grocery store, while hosting, while at dance studio

And remember to be grateful and content with where you are at right now. Enjoy the journey. You want to be simultaneously content with your current situation while also enjoying the eagerness that comes with striving for new things in life. 

This is a really good start. Good luck sir. 

Edited September 16, 2023 by Spiritual Warrior

[Spiritual Warrior]

Transcending the Spiral - Journal Entry #9 - Tue Sep 19th '23

Some forum talk about tier 2 thinking got me thinking, what does it mean to be a tier 2 thinker? Am I engaging in it right now?... let's take a look: 

 

Tier One:

Beige: Survival at all cost- style survival

Purple: Tribalistic- style survival

Red: Power hungry style survival

Blue: Morale code style survival

Orange: Materialistic style survival

Green: Heart centered style survival

 

I am using survival as the common denominator descriptive word for all tier one stages because thats really what it's about at tier one.. survival... survival of the ego. Tier one is characterised as perceiving the world in a way that says how can things benefit me. A prime example of this is Andrew Tate, he literally says that he does not care about truth, all he cares about is perceiving the world in a way that makes him competitive and successful. There is nothing wrong with this, this is just what he wants out of life. 

Now this is where things get interesting. At tier two of the spiral, the identity, the attachment to the ego, the neediness for it to survive starts to disintegrate. You start to perceive the world as how it is, what is the truth rather than how can my environment benefit myself or my own ego. We can call this needy perception at tier one and being perception at tier two.

 

Tier two:

Yellow: Systemic, multi - perspectival perception of the world

Turquoise: Holistic perception of the world

 

Assessment of myself as a tier 2 thinker: 

- Any honest to God truth work - trying to find out the truth in something no matter the cost requires you to put on tier 2 lenses

      * Do I engage in this? Yes. My spiritual autolysis journal is truth work, trying to discover the absolute truth of all of reality. Nice.

- You start caring about the problems of mankind and the world as a whole, rather than merely your ego's problems

      * Do I engage in this? No. I do not care so much about the problems of all of mankind as of right now. My ego has many wants and desires that I have not actualized just yet. This is why I put so much focus on integrating the lower stages because I have many material desires.

- You become aware that you are just one perspective out of many, and your perspective may differ from others.

        * Do I engage in this? I have a good understanding of this concept, but do I apply it in every day life when I make decisions? Ehhhhhh. I'm not sure.. I think that I can be pretty self centered when out and about in the world. I will look into this further. Let's say no for now.

 

Conclusion:

Will be looking for ways to integrate a more tier two thinking approach when out and about in the world from now on. This requires me to put my little ego on the side burner in a lot of situations. Could be a tall order. 

Edited September 19, 2023 by Spiritual Warrior

[Spiritual Warrior]

Transcending the Spiral - Journal Entry #10 - Thu Sep 21st '23

One thing that I have realized is that I am capable of tier 2 thinking, this very exercise that I'm doing requires a tier two approach. I am going to now start journaling about characteristics that I would like to enjoy at stages red, blue, orange, green, yellow, and turquoise. I'm not saying that I'm at turquoise or even yellow, but it doesn't hurt to start to become aware of what it's all about up there and what I'd like to get out of it. I am capable, leave your limiting beliefs by the door.

What I am trying to do is integrate every stage from red to turquoise. Each stage builds upon each other like Lego blocks. For example, if I were to trigger in a stage orange charisma while instructing my dance class without also having triggered a stage red power presence that feels as though it deserves respect, the charisma that I show my to students will be childish and goofy. I want both the respect and the playfulness. 

Without further ado, let's crack into the things that I am going to focus at each stage. I'll try to use specific examples if I can.

Red: 

• Deep voice: a deep voice that commands respect, that is sure of himself, assure of what he is saying, a voice that can be assertive if it needs to be
• Not caring what other people think about me, not smiling nervously when I feel uncomfortable or don't know what to do or say
• Working out for strength, pushing yourself to in workouts, eating a lot of protein
• Stop jerking off so much. You lose your inner strength and internal balance the day after ejaculating and a few days after. There should be a better balance to this. If you notice diminishing energy after ejaculating, it means that you are doing it too much. Try to get back to circulating sexual energy while masturbating and/or just doing it less 

Blue: 

• Always being on time to work and social gatherings - out of respect for other people's time
• Having high integrity in all situations and dealings with other people, being honest, non - manipulative, straightforward
• Being disciplined when it comes to eating habits and workout plans, if I say that I'm going to do something, I am going to do it
• Working hard when you are at work

Orange: 

• Start dressing like a dance instructor, buying nice suits and nice ties, tailored clothing
• Working out for looks, high protein, low card diet, you want muscles but also a low fat body composition, this will make you look good with or without clothes on
• Become more charismatic, more charming, joking around with people, overall just trying to talk to people as much as possible - this is how you get better

Green: 

• Being more open sexually, I am very closed off because sexual interactions scare me, I know that this is not normal for most guys, I really want to work on this
• Holding better eye contact
• Always eating healthy foods, and meat from ethically sound farms

------------------------------------------------------------------

Yellow: 

• Continue to read books, diverse books from Leos book list, this will give you a more diverse view on the world, also continue the spiral dynamics book so that you have a better understanding of the spiral
• When interacting with people, sometimes you are able to tap into what is the right thing to say to this person that will help them on their journey in life, grasp these opportunities and try to say something that will steer them in the right direction
• Start trying to think about your how your own development and things that you do in the world can actually have an effect on humanity as a whole, just think about this and how you can apply it

Turquoise: 

• Continue doing truth work with your spiritual autolysis journal
• Read stage turquoise books, so anything on consciousness work and holistic thinking 
• Understand that everything that you are integrating on this spiral are really just character traits for your dream self. There is no true self within the beliefs that you hold or the traits themselves. Your true self is further than that. Continue with your consciousness work and you will find out what is left. 

Edited September 22, 2023 by Spiritual Warrior

[Spiritual Warrior]

Transcending the Spiral - Journal Entry #11 - Fri Sep 22nd '23

I have another idea; what if I constructed a daily schedule in which I hit every stage of the spiral throughout my day. Something happened today that made me want to try this. So I went into yoga class, I just woke up and went to it. Yoga is a great stage green activity, but I walked up to the counter triggering red's embodiment of not being swayed, deep voice, don't fuck with me attitude. I came off as unfriendly, but its because I'm working on something deeper here. Now if I can get red (and blue for that matter) triggered and embodied before I go out into the world on a daily basis, I will be able to trigger higher stages when out and about such as orange charisma and green love and empathy. Remember, you are not simply letting go of red and blue after engaging in the activity in the morning, you are triggering it and then letting it settle into your being so then you can move up to the next stage. The lower stages need to be embodies first in order for you to truly be comfortable engaging in the higher stages, otherwise you will feel like something is off or missing.

Red: I would start with working out, triggering stage red aggression.

Blue: Then I do something that requires discipline such as meditation and making sure to drink my protein shake every morning.

Orange: Next triggering orange, making sure that I look good by showering and grooming myself, dressing up in a nice fit. Adding in some success driven affirmations or visualizations would be the next step, but lets just start with proper grooming because I haven't properly instilled that habit just yet. 

Green: For green, I am going to consciously think about love throughout the day or if its a Saturday or Sunday by going to yoga class. The idea here is that I can put love into the work that I do and the interactions that I have with people. I do think that I should really be triggering orange charisma as well in social interactions, but lets start with love for now and see how that goes. 

Focusing on the tier one stages is good enough for now, I don't want to overwhelm myself. The second tier will come, I will find ways to instill tier 2 next after I feel as though tier one has been fully integrated. The idea is to get the foundational blocks set in stone so that I am confident that I can transcend upwards. Regardless, here are some ideas for tier two, I can start to dabble in these activities as I see fit:

Yellow & Turquoise: Reading books on Leo book list, studying Spiral Dynamics, doing truth work in Spiritual Autolysis Journal

Good luck, excited to try this. I've been wanting to instill a daily habit for quite some time and using the spiral as a guide makes it a lot more fun. 

Edited September 22, 2023 by Spiritual Warrior

[Spiritual Warrior]

Interlude: Stage Green Tribute & Surrendering to Gaia

About 6 months ago, I realized that I was deficient in areas such as red and blue. I had poor self-discipline, work ethic, and was unable to stick up for myself. I spent lots of energy focusing on these areas in my life. This caused me to completely abandon stage green, which has been a favorite stage of mine for the past 6 years. I stopped going to yoga, stopped giving hugs, stopped focusing on love, and even stopped eating healthy. I am saddened that I completely abandoned this beautiful stage in my life, but I suppose that I needed to give the lower stages my full attention. 

What is green all about?

Stage green is about surrender, surrendering the body, surrendering the self, surrendering the ego, surrendering the identity, surrendering control, surrendering it all in favor of love. Yes, this is a feminine activity. You can surrender yourself through yoga, through dance, and through meditation. 

Surrendering yourself fully is necessary in order to truly transcend into tier two, into the being stages. This is not going to be easy. There are many things that hold you back from surrendering control, the desire for sex and money and approval to name a few. You think that you are able to attain these things through control, through brute force, but this is not true. Surrendering to your divine maker, this is the catalyst to reaching your true potential. Right now, I am holding onto the feeling of hate, hate for things about myself and also for other people that I deem as unacceptable.

 

Surrendering to Gaia:

This is the divine mother’s will, to allow our bodies, our identities, our entire existence to be surrendered, to dissolve into the cosmos. This is what true healthy green is, to give yourself up fully and openly in all situations. This is what my maker has designed me for. To achieve all that I want out of life and then to throw it all off of a cliff in search of something higher, something better, something more true. This is honest truth work, integrating the entire spiral is truth work. It is climbing the ladder of truth. It is climbing the flag pole of consciousness. And I want to reach the top, not that there is a top, I just want to reach as high as I can possibly go. Help me, Gaia, help me to surrender my entire existence to you. I don’t need the attachment to this body anymore. I want to be rid of this cumbersome body, I want to rid myself of the skin that holds it together. I want you to swallow me whole, I want you to take my body as a sacrifice. My devotion to you is eternal. Show me your face, show me that you are real. I want to see you. 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Spiritual Warrior

[Spiritual Warrior]

Transcending the Spiral - Journal Entry #12 - Thu Oct 5th '23 : Back at Red

I'd like to go back to red and instill more stoicism into my life. Stoicism is a detachment from outcome, from other peoples opinions, and from emotions. The neediness in my life is killing my happiness and my success with women. Its the need to get approval and to get a positive emotional reaction from people. This is what I am going to focus on for a little bit. I tapped into this a bit while at work yesterday. I work with a hostess there, and I am ashamed to say that in all of my interactions with her, I am needing her approval, needing positive interactions, needing comrodary. Something clicked in me though yesterday, the hostess was being bitchy and it just made me not care about her or her opinions about me. I focused on working and working well, I was totally detached from the opinions of everyone in the restaurant, every single person. This is a very rare state of mind for me, and it felt amazing. It also made me realize that so many of my interactions with people are needy af. It could be something as simple as when I greet someone at the door of the restaurant, I am greeting them with a smile and a certain tonality and a certain mindset that sublimely says to them that I need you to react in a certain way back towards me. I want to completely go against this, I want to be completely detached from outcome. That is the key.

I am going to read Thick Face, Black Heart again because I intuit there is more that I can learn. 

The other cool thing about yesterday is that although I had a blank stare a lot of the times, just standing there or walking around with a piercing stare off into the distance, you would think that this made me emotionless and unable to feel joy, but what I felt was the complete opposite, I was still able to smile and laugh, but it was more real, more authentic. When I smiled, it was a genuine smile, when I laughed, it was a genuine laugh, when I said something to someone, I genuinely wanted to say it. I didn't care what they said back to me. This is what I want. I am going to focus on the principles in Thick Face Black Heart in the coming weeks. This is the foundation. I should have instilled this when I was young, but hey here we are. 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Spiritual Warrior

[Spiritual Warrior]

Transcending the Spiral - Journal Entry #13 - Sun Oct 29th '23 : Music

Stage Red: 

Fighting for survival, getting hyped, screaming, growling, hollering

 

Stage Blue: 

Devotion, hard work, contributing to a higher cause or purpose

 

Stage Orange: 

Flowey, smooth, bragadocious, charismatic, charming

 

Stage Green: 

This song symbolizes a person reaching the breaking point of orange, the person has a quarter life crisis, realizes that all of this stuff that he or she has been striving for is all meaningless, he/ she does something radical like shaves his/her own head and is now ready to pursue something else, i.e. stage green, love, compassion, spirituality. 

[Spiritual Warrior]

Transcending the Spiral - Journal Entry #14 - Thur Nov 2nd '23 : Stage Yellow Trigger Attempt

I will be playing in a basketball game tonight and I am going to use this opportunity to trigger stage yellow. A stage yellow basketball player will be able to take his own success completely out of the equation and will be able to focus on the systemic success of the entire team. 

 

[Spiritual Warrior]

Transcending the Spiral - Journal Entry #15 - Thur Nov 2nd '23 : How would a stage yellow character act in Pickup?

How would a stage yellow person act when hitting on women?

He would put his own insecurities to the side and focus on the task at hand, he would act with integrity and nobility (blue) he wouldn't let a girl be rude to him or ridicule him (red), he feels icy and confident and dresses nicely (orange) he is filled with love in his heart, ready to surrender if he can (green)

He understands the male-female dynamic and how it works on a systemic level. He understand that there are reasons that attractive people are difficult to find. There are reasons that attractive women don't like to walk down the street alone. There are reasons that guys are frustrated and struggle with attracting women. There are reasons that women will not fall for the nice guy. There are reasons why women find bad boys so alluring. This is stage yellow, understanding the dynamics on a far reaching level, not just for your own agenda. (Yellow) 

Edited November 3, 2023 by Spiritual Warrior

[Spiritual Warrior]

Stage Red: 

Your not the real hero, I'm the real hero. 

 

Edited November 6, 2023 by Spiritual Warrior

[Spiritual Warrior]

Stage green:

 

[Spiritual Warrior]

How would I trigger stage yellow when I am working at the restaurant?

I would think about every body's well being

I would do whatever it takes to make the customers happy and tip well

 

My boss just said that I play a small role in the tips that come into the restaurant. This doesn't feel very good for me. This is demotivating me to do the best job that I can possibly do

If she were to embody stage yellow, she would be motivating and inspiring me so that I would want to do a great job for her and the restaurant. Now I don't.