POSITIVE ENERGY:
THE ART OF BUILDING ON OUR STRENGTHS.

By Roberto Dansie

Latinos call “Buen Aire” (Positive Energy) to the process of bringing forth our best self and the best self of others to every individual and collective task. Buen Aire is the constant companion at every one of our successes and the quiet strength by which we endure adversity; It is a process of discovery and transformation, of making a path with a heart; Buen Aire is not only present at the end of our journey, but a way of working and making community. For centuries, this positive quality, although identified in our cultural wisdom, has remained elusive in our workplace and academic world. Our present challenges demand that we bring it out to the open and highlight how to cultivate it in our work and community.

Here are the 10 key elements of Buen Aire. The first five begin with “I”, and the second five with the letter “C”.

Let us see the first five elements.

1. - Information.-

The place from which we share information, that is, our appearance, our anima or our alma, determines our degree of community making in any setting, the deeper the source of communication, the strongest its power to bring people together. The first level has been called “mascara” because it deals with the role that we play in any given organization or social setting. It deals with the surface of reality, appearance and formality. The second level is the one of our true emotions, what is known as “anima”, which deals with our emotional reality and that of the people around us. The third one comes from our deepest self, “Alma”, the only one from which we can experience timelessness and togetherness, the transcendence by which we go beyond our limited selves. This third one, Alma, is the spirit of a community or organization, the collective positive self of its members.

2. - Intelligence.-

For over one century our educators and social leaders focused specifically, and at times exclusively on “mental intelligence”. Tests were developed to measure mental intelligence –the famous “I.Q”- and the results of these tests greatly determine the educational course of the students.

Important as the mental intelligence is, we have come to learn that there are other intelligences just as important, which are, “physical intelligence” –the intelligence of our body which goes back eons of time- “emotional intelligence” –our ability to know ourselves and others, which is key for resiliency and rise to the challenges of life-, and “spiritual intelligence” that is, our ability to find meaning and purpose in our lives.

3. - Intuition.-

Intuition, a faculty that exists in all of us, has to do with our knowing with our entire being. It involves body, heart, mind and soul. It unfolds with spontaneity and trust, and with qualities that are enhanced with present moment awareness, or as one of our poets stated, “When we make a path by walking it.”

4. - Individuation.-

Individuation has to do with the process of coming “into your self.”

It requires critical thinking as well as honoring personal experience. It consists of the integration of all of the aspects of our being into a meaningful self. It is in this stage that we come in contact with the gifts that we bring into the world, the music that we were meant to share with the symphony of life.

5. - Inspiration.-

Inspiration literally means “in spirit”. It brings the best in us into fruition, which is connected with the process of bringing forth the true self into being which our ancestors called “educate.” It is not about placing something new within, but actually bringing out what is already there. And what is already there? Spirit!

In our journey of life we all have had the experience of knowing or learning about others who’s way of being has the power to “inspire” us. Inspiration elevates us. It is the power by which the invisible spirit transforms the visible world. Thus, by connecting to spirit, our source of inspiration, we experience a continuity of life that moves us and transcends us.

The next five faculties begin with “C” and deal with domains that are internal or external, individual or collective.

6. - Conduct.-

Conduct has to do with the external and individual domains. It is objective, and has such as become the main focus of behavioral sciences. And yet, it is not all, for we have also an internal faculty by which we interpret and give meaning to the world, the faculty of consciousness.

7. - Consciousness.-

Consciousness has an individual dimension, but contrary to conduct which is external and visible, consciousness is internal and invisible. Its subjective nature has made it unreachable to materialistic science. Nevertheless, consciousness continues to be alive and well, and the center by which we witness the world and find meaning for our lives.

Consciousness has three main levels, namely, pre-personal, personal and trans-personal. Pre-personal consciousness consists all of all o those aspects that have not yet been incorporated into our conscious self. Personal consciousness has to do with all of those aspects of awareness that begin and end with the individual self. And transpersonal consciousness is that aspect of our awareness that goes beyond ourselves into the higher domains of unity and transformation.

8. - The next “C” is the one of “Culture” which deals with that which is internal but collective rather than individual. It is in culture that we find the faculty to view and experience the world from a collective perspective and have access to means by which we can share this experience with others.

Leaders in teaching and healing not only invigorate culture but often have the power to transform it by adding their experience to the collective wisdom.

9. - The other “C” is the one of “Community”, which deals with the external and collective domains. When we think of the moment of our last breath and are given the opportunity to share a few words with a person of our choosing that which we feel and share is the ground of community. The transcendence that we experience in these peak moments is the ground of community.

10. - Circle of Care and Compassion.-

The last “C” the one that holds the key to all domains of teaching and healing is the one of “Compassion.”

Compassion is rooted in our ability to be with ourselves and others, to see them as what the ancient Toltec called “Cuate” my “other me.”

Compassion unfolds from solidarity and from the sense of unity with the one that lives in every one.

So, here we have the 10 key elements of our individual and collective journey in life:

Information
Intelligence
Intuition
Individuation
Inspiration
Conduct
Consciousness
Culture
Community
Compassion


May you continue making a path with a heart in our world!