How do I integrate Stage Red in my life?

[Buck Edwards]

What traits particular to stage red should I have to integrate with my life? 

 

[DawnC]

Courage, bravery, and fearlessness. Rebelliousness, pushing boundaries, and challenging old traditions. Drive for achievement and influence, ambitiousness. Decisiveness, willingness to take action, risk-taking. (Some) Leadership traits.

Edited November 17, 2023 by DawnC

[Danioover9000]

@Buck Edwards

2 hours ago, Buck Edwards said:

What traits particular to stage red should I have to integrate with my life? 

 

   Try boxing, and martial arts.

   For values, it's seeking dominance, bravado, machismo, conquest, the will to power, winners mentality, ambition, drive, will power, killer intent and killer instinct. Shadow work and Archetypes by Carl Jung is a good place to start.

[Juan]

  We don’t know anything about your life and how it’s running daily so I think you’re the best judge for this, study what’s stage red is all about. 

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by Juan

[mrPixel]

If you haven't already checked it out, this site is invaluable. Check out the Qualities and Shadows: https://spiraldynamicsintegral.nl/en/red/

[ricachica]

@koops did a thorough post on this that I’ve been using

[Zest4Life]

On 11/17/2023 at 11:04 PM, Buck Edwards said:

What traits particular to stage red should I have to integrate with my life? 

 

I was born in a country that started both World Wars and might even cause a Third, so a big chunk of the population is still at stage red. It’s one thing to hear about the traits mentioned above but quite another to witness them in action. I would say that the most important trait is being able to thrive in challenging situations. You’d be amazed at what you can do when you’re pushed to your limits.

“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”

Edited November 19, 2023 by Zest4Life

[Nivsch]

Investigate your emotions.

Who makes you feel envy?

Who annoys you the most?

What do you feel you are missing the most right now?

These are things you want to incorporate into yourself BUT in the healthy version of them (not necessarily in the form you see it on the other person).

Don't intelectualize but just wait for a raw emotion to come directly from your subconscious. Be patient.

Then, when you feel the anger, don't just move on but really express this anger, and translate it into a plan of how to become this thing/quality that you are defficient in and supposed to be because you know deep down this is meant to be yours, because this is your deeper self. 

Quality > material thing

For example if I am difficient in sex, the sexi-ness I want to integrate into myself is MORE important than the actual sex (and much more broad than just physical quality) that anyway will come organically easily after I integrate the quality.

Feel the unjustness of why the other person has this and you dont have yet. From this feeling of unjustness - act.

And the most important thing: Be patient, loving and flexible with yourself in the process.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Nivsch

[BlueOak]

As mentioned. I'd second martial arts and boxing etc. This gives you red/blue in a healthy balance if you have a good teacher. I'd pick defensive martial arts personally, as it tempers these aspects of you, I did this lifetime and I probably will the next.

Writing characters that are warlords, or violent in stage red and see it as a natural part of life. Acting, filming etc these types of characters. Then bringing these characters into some blue structure (integration) during a character arc. You can do the same in any sort of art painting for example or crafting, if that's your type of expression.

Picking something that stirs these aspects of you personally. What really gets you angry that you want to fight for? Then find a structure or institution that holds space or facilitates it.

Edited November 19, 2023 by BlueOak

[zazen]

On 11/17/2023 at 10:57 PM, DawnC said:

Courage, bravery, and fearlessness. Rebelliousness, pushing boundaries, and challenging old traditions. Drive for achievement and influence, ambitiousness. Decisiveness, willingness to take action, risk-taking. (Some) Leadership traits.

Good list.

 

On 11/18/2023 at 9:04 PM, mrPixel said:

If you haven't already checked it out, this site is invaluable. Check out the Qualities and Shadows: https://spiraldynamicsintegral.nl/en/red/

This is a awesome site, thanks for sharing.

The main archetype that comes to mind for red is that of the Warrior. Red is the warrior, Blue is the King (order, logos, religious), Orange is the magician (intellect, creativity, capitalism), Green is the lover (inclusive, equality, gaia).

So how can we use the warrior in a developed way and what is the value of the warrior? Some thoughts:

In the dance of masculine and feminine energies, men are assigned the task of bringing order to feminine chaos. Paradoxically, to maintain their masculinity, men require a dose of chaos, and it's the destructive element within man's chaos that makes man masculine. 

The arena of domestic and work life defined by stability and order doesn't provide the chaos that fuels a man's masculine essence or his warrior aspect. Here, he's the builder of order, domesticated by the constructive tasks of bringing stability and fostering the development of those that depend on him at home and at work via his work duties.

Yet, to achieve a integrative wholeness, the constructive domestic and commercial plane must find its counterpoint in the destructive realm. Instead of merely bringing order on external chaos, a man must actively engage in the chaos and destruction of his own endeavors, embracing competition and taking risks, flirting with adventure and life in the arena as a warrior would.

A man who shies away from competition, avoids risks, and refuses to dance with chaos and destruction becomes a tamed soul, subdued by duty but robbed of his warrior spirit. In doing the right thing by avoiding the wrong, he inadvertently loses a part of himself and is no longer virile enough to do the right.

This is why a man needs a parallel existence beyond the confines of his domestic and commercial domain—a space where he can freely immerse himself in the chaos and destruction that preserves the vitality of his youthful audacity, all without jeopardizing the domestic and commercial domain which requires stability and order.

What value does the warrior spirit bring? I'd say the main one of courage. If we have developed our rationality and intellects at a expense of courage, they will be misused. Courage means the courage to face truth. Now if we have rationality and intellect but don't want to face raw truths we will instead use rationality emotionally. 

We create a great many theories and get lost in a subjective echo chamber of them. We rationalize around truth rather than be rational about the truth. We twist narratives to fit our sentiments and feelings. Which is what we have currently in the West. We can call it a ignorant intellect - one which fears truth and use the intellect and cognitive horsepower to avoid it. 

A rational society (stage orange and above) is more developed than a less rational one (stage red, blue) but where the rational society malfunctions and starts to appear less developed or more clown worldish is when they use rationality in this way. Rationality helps us understand different perspectives - moral relativity. The West has indulged this and experimented but hasn't progressed to a mature rationality which not only understands but can then discern which perspectives are more valuable than others - and isn't afraid to face this.

It gets stuck at moral relativity and subjective games of being able to identify however we wish. Moral relativity is like a windmill going in all directions rather than a compass in a single one. If we get stuck going round and round on the moral relativity windmill we will become dizzy, dazed and dissilussioned unable to make sense of the world without direction. This is where courage and the warrior aspect is needed to face the truth of a hierarchy existing, that there can be good and bad, better and worse (but not in such a black and white way) and to have the warrior act of hunting for its prey with eyes on the prize - a destination with a compass to progress on rather than be lost.

Basically, the balls are needed as much as the head. The heart balances the two.

Edited November 25, 2023 by zazen

[Danioover9000]

@Buck Edwards

On 2023-11-17 at 10:57 PM, DawnC said:

Courage, bravery, and fearlessness. Rebelliousness, pushing boundaries, and challenging old traditions. Drive for achievement and influence, ambitiousness. Decisiveness, willingness to take action, risk-taking. (Some) Leadership traits.

   That's kind of stage red values, but I'm thinking of more darker aspects that OP wants to integrate. Also, as I said, boxing and martial arts can be great ways to embody stage red, arts is also good in fact I have a rap journal I made here that's all about expressing that stage red values. Another way is to get off of Tik Tok and reduce your social media consumption down, you need to visualize and imagine yourself as stage red.