Steven Barnes connects life writing to Joseph Campbell's hero's journey and the seven chakras, presenting them as developmental centers from the root to the crown. He maps each chakra's function and location, then argues that balancing body, mind, emotion, and spirit is the practical foundation.
Hi, this is Stephen Barnes of Diamond Hour welcoming you back to one of our little clips. This lesson today is on the second major aspect of life writing, the core technology behind everything else. And life writing has two major threads. One is the Joseph Campbell's model of the hero's journey as applied to writing and life. And the other is the seven levels of personality as exemplified in the 6,000 year old technology called the chakras from yoga. Really wonderful way of looking at the human mind, body, connection. And also maps over beautifully with Maslow's hierarchy of human needs. And anytime I see an ancient technology that references a modern technology or supports a modern technology, I pay very careful attention. Now, balance is a tricky and wonderful thing. We all want it in one way or the other. It if we take a look at spirit, which I measure as relationships. Because if you can't see the face of the divine and the people that you love, you're kidding yourself about your spiritual growth. So your relationship with your significant other and your family is essential to spirit. These are just a couple pictures of the people I love best in all the world. My daughter Nikki, my beautiful wife Tinanarib Dhu, and my son Jason. Now, body represents our vehicle in the world. This is just a little snapshot I took in my hotel room. Not bad for a 58 year old body. Not a bodybuilder. I'm a martial artist and a yoga instructor. But it's important to keep your body healthy for your movement through life. Mind. This represents a shot of me at the Smithsonian Institute when I was lecturing there. Just kind of a little reminder that it's important to keep your mind sharp. Now the chakras are represented as seven different levels of existence. They're said to be seven energy wheels inside the body. You can take that as literally as you wish. I look at that as a metaphor for the different states, stages that we move through in life. Different levels of development that we have to balance. And let's take a look at them one at a time. We have Muladhara, Svasthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddhi, Anja, and above the head up here, Sahasarara. So what do they represent? Number one. Muladhara is core survival. It's located between the anal sphincter and the genitals. Base of the spine. Number two is Svahasthana, represents sexuality and passion located at the genital position. Number three, Manipura represents power. It's called the Ahara in Japanese and the Dantian in Chinese. It's a locus of physical balance, located 2 inches below the navel and 3 inches into the body. 4. Anahata represents emotion and love. It's located at the heart center. Number five, Vishudi, communication. It's located at the throat center. Number six, Anja is intellect, located at the brow center above and between the eyes. Number seven, Sahasarara, spirit, located just above the head. Note the position of halos on Renaissance paintings of saints. It's representative of aspiration and existence beyond the ego shell. So those are the chakras. Muladhara, survival, Svyasthana, sexuality, Manipura, power, Anahata, emotion, heart center, Vishni, communication, Anja, intellectual and Sahasrara, which is spirit. Now these are seven and it's a good idea to keep all seven in mind. But if you can't, then the most important minimums are to think about fitness and health. Your belly, brain, emotion and spirit. Your heart center and intellect and thought. Your head center. If you have those three, you are way ahead of the game. Most people do not even think about themselves in terms of a balance. If you work at all three simultaneously and you will journal what you learn as you try to improve all three, you'll learn everything you need to learn about yourself. If you can be honest, these concepts go far deeper and wider. But this is just to give you an overview. I want to build up as much of a collection of these ideas as possible so that we can begin to dialogue. If you'd like to learn more about how this all fits together, be sure to Visit me at www.diamondour.com. sign up for some of the free courses and and I would like to invite you to embrace yourself and to become the hero in the adventure of your lifetime. Thank you.
