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!
