Ancient Teachings That Are Relevant Today.

Until I stumbled across Gordie Rogers in the depths of cyberspace, I hadn’t really given the concept of lifestyle design any great thought. After all, lifestyle design is the domain of young turks and whippersnappers in their 20s and 30s who have their whole lives ahead of them, who want to work two days a week, spend the rest of their time traveling to exotic lands and retire by the time they are 35!

So, as such lifestyle design doesn’t seem that relevant to an old fart who has more years behind him than in front of him and for whom the concept of lifestyle design and engineering means new kneecaps, hips, etc. That was until I started catching up with posts by other bloggers.

A lot of the basic concepts propagated by lifestyle designers such as self-determination, confidence, positive thinking, etc have been covered by non-orthodox religions and belief systems dating back thousands of years so I thought I’d run through some of the stuff I’ve accumulated since the sixties. After all what the hell is the point in being almost ancient if you can’t dish out the odd bit of knowledge every now and again.

One of the important developments is the way that certain authors have brought ancient teachings into the 21st Century. By making basic concepts easier to understand in terms of the way we live today and relevant to our modern lifestyles, it’s easier to go back and re-read some of what was considered more obscure and come to terms with them.

For example, I never really understood Carlos Castaneda’s South American Toltec Warrior Shamanism until I read about Hawaiian Shamanism in a book by Serge King and another about native American Medicine Wheel Shamanism by Kenneth Meadows who I subsequently met. Both Serge and Kenneth keep the basic, ancient tenets but bring them into today without devaluing their meaning. Castaneda kept his Shamanism in its time and I’m not sure it traveled too well.

By way of explanation what I intend to do is look at Serge’s interpretation of Hawaiian Shamanism. What is great about the way Serge writes is that his explanations and suggestions, plus subsequent tuition, are non-denominational, do not conflict with any other belief system, and can be integrated into your life whether you’re a Christian, Jew, Atheist, Buddhist or whatever.

Probably the most relevant book Serge has written is Huna: Ancient Hawaiian Secrets of Modern Living (affiliate link); there’s even a chapter entitled Designing Yourself – cosmic as us old hippies would say!

In the Designing Yourself module Serge introduces us to the Haipule Technique. Haipule is a Hawaiian word for prayer, blessing or spell but in this context it’s a means for organizing and strengthening your thoughts, feelings and behaviors. To underpin the Haipule Technique there are exercises to increase your energy, verbalizing,visualization and actualization.

Using case studies Serge then walks you though putting these previous four actions into action to help you design your physical (looking at my waistline I must have skipped that bit!), mental and emotional selves.

In other chapters Huna looks at the power of focus and being centered in the present and, just in case all your lifestyle designing pays off, there’s a chapter on the mystery and hinting at the mastery of money.

As you’ll have gathered I haven’t spent a lot of time reading lifestyle design oriented books. I did try Anthony Robbins once but gave up – talk about being the master of the delayed drop! Which is why I like Serge King. There’s no “buggering about,” he gets straight to the point with a simple explanation and backup exercises to drive home his point. Looking at the Amazon book list King has written a fair few books drawing on the same source so it might be argued that he is little more than a one trick pony milking it for all he is worth.

If you want to find out more there’s a lot of good – and free – stuff at Serge’s site.

Related posts:

1. Are Butterflies, Bin Laden and Dead Plants Relevant To You?
2. Lifestyle Design: Take Action, But Don’t Be Attached To The Outcome (Up To A Point).
3. How To Develop Persistence.
4. I Think Young Therefore I Am Young – I Think.
5. 7 Personal Characteristics For Effective Lifestyle Design.