WP_Query Object
(
[query] => Array
(
[category__in] => Array
(
[0] => 19
[1] => 67
)
[post__not_in] => Array
(
[0] => 7804
)
[posts_per_page] => 50
[ignore_sticky_posts] => 1
[orderby] => desc
[_shuffle_and_pick] => 3
)
[query_vars] => Array
(
[category__in] => Array
(
[0] => 19
[1] => 67
)
[post__not_in] => Array
(
[0] => 7804
)
[posts_per_page] => 50
[ignore_sticky_posts] => 1
[orderby] => desc
[_shuffle_and_pick] => 3
[error] =>
[m] =>
[p] => 0
[post_parent] =>
[subpost] =>
[subpost_id] =>
[attachment] =>
[attachment_id] => 0
[name] =>
[pagename] =>
[page_id] => 0
[second] =>
[minute] =>
[hour] =>
[day] => 0
[monthnum] => 0
[year] => 0
[w] => 0
[category_name] => peter-borten
[tag] =>
[cat] => 19
[tag_id] =>
[author] =>
[author_name] =>
[feed] =>
[tb] =>
[paged] => 0
[meta_key] =>
[meta_value] =>
[preview] =>
[s] =>
[sentence] =>
[title] =>
[fields] =>
[menu_order] =>
[embed] =>
[category__not_in] => Array
(
)
[category__and] => Array
(
)
[post__in] => Array
(
)
[post_name__in] => Array
(
)
[tag__in] => Array
(
)
[tag__not_in] => Array
(
)
[tag__and] => Array
(
)
[tag_slug__in] => Array
(
)
[tag_slug__and] => Array
(
)
[post_parent__in] => Array
(
)
[post_parent__not_in] => Array
(
)
[author__in] => Array
(
)
[author__not_in] => Array
(
)
[suppress_filters] =>
[cache_results] => 1
[update_post_term_cache] => 1
[lazy_load_term_meta] => 1
[update_post_meta_cache] => 1
[post_type] =>
[nopaging] =>
[comments_per_page] => 50
[no_found_rows] =>
[order] => DESC
)
[tax_query] => WP_Tax_Query Object
(
[queries] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[taxonomy] => category
[terms] => Array
(
[0] => 19
[1] => 67
)
[field] => term_id
[operator] => IN
[include_children] =>
)
)
[relation] => AND
[table_aliases:protected] => Array
(
[0] => wp_term_relationships
)
[queried_terms] => Array
(
[category] => Array
(
[terms] => Array
(
[0] => 19
[1] => 67
)
[field] => term_id
)
)
[primary_table] => wp_posts
[primary_id_column] => ID
)
[meta_query] => WP_Meta_Query Object
(
[queries] => Array
(
)
[relation] =>
[meta_table] =>
[meta_id_column] =>
[primary_table] =>
[primary_id_column] =>
[table_aliases:protected] => Array
(
)
[clauses:protected] => Array
(
)
[has_or_relation:protected] =>
)
[date_query] =>
[request] => SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS wp_posts.ID FROM wp_posts LEFT JOIN wp_term_relationships ON (wp_posts.ID = wp_term_relationships.object_id) WHERE 1=1 AND wp_posts.ID NOT IN (7804) AND (
wp_term_relationships.term_taxonomy_id IN (19,67)
) AND ((wp_posts.post_type = 'post' AND (wp_posts.post_status = 'publish' OR wp_posts.post_status = 'acf-disabled')))
AND ID NOT IN
(SELECT `post_id` FROM wp_postmeta
WHERE `meta_key` = '_pilotpress_level'
AND `meta_value` IN ('','employee')
AND `post_id` NOT IN
(SELECT `post_id` FROM wp_postmeta
WHERE `meta_key` = '_pilotpress_level'
AND `meta_value` IN ('' ))) GROUP BY wp_posts.ID ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date DESC LIMIT 0, 50
[posts] => Array
(
[0] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 8267
[post_author] => 1
[post_date] => 2021-05-21 18:56:38
[post_date_gmt] => 2021-05-21 18:56:38
[post_content] =>
When I was 13, I learned that it was a good idea to start carrying a mini pack of Kleenexes in my backpack. You know, just in case. As I entered young adulthood, I began to bring a sweatshirt, water bottle, pens, notebook, and snack with me. And if you had asked me if I was a good planner, I would have proudly said, “Yes!”
Meanwhile, if you asked me what courses I would be taking the following semester, where I’d be living in a year, or how much money I wanted to be making, I would have drawn a blank. (My wife probably had all of these things written down by age 12.)
I mistook a little short-term preparedness for real planning. When it came to actual planning – as in, crafting a plan for how I intended my life to proceed – I was pretty resistant. But I eventually learned that a lack of planning often led to suffering. It could mean disappointing other people, feeling scattered and disorganized, and being limited in what I could achieve.
So I began to plan out of necessity. Making plans allowed me to have working relationships and a functional medical practice. Yet, I still hadn’t expanded into planning out of creativity. That didn’t dawn on me until years later.
Then it hit me that planning is the pivotal act in accepting one’s role as a creator of one’s life. From this perspective, planning becomes like playing. It combines imagination and intention, and when we really open ourselves to this form of play, it’s truly magical.
We created The Dreambook to help people approach planning this way – as a means of creation. It’s so much like playing that when we’re immersed in imaginative play, we may sometimes set new creations into motion. Briana started doing this spontaneously as a child.
A few years ago, she found a diary from her tweens that she had completely forgotten about. In the diary she had written about what her adulthood would be like. It wasn’t quite the deliberate process we teach; rather, it was more of a free, self-trusting expression of what she expected to create. And even though she forgot about it, we were amazed to discover how accurately her future turned out to match her diary – right down to the dates when certain achievements would occur!
I believe it’s an especially important time for all of us to begin to approach life-creation in this way. When bad news can so easily color our experience of the world, it’s vital that we stoke our inner creative fire. I’m proud of how well the Dreambook has helped people recognize this fire and feed it.
I hope to get more people using the Dreambook and being part of the big, loving, supportive community that has formed around it on Facebook, so that we can all consciously co-create a better world. Currently, all Dreambooks and Dreambook accessories are 50% off, so if you've been wondering if/when to dive into this process, now is the time!
Be well,
Peter
[post_title] => Planning from Creativity Rather than Necessity
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => planning-from-creativity-rather-than-necessity
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2021-05-21 19:48:38
[post_modified_gmt] => 2021-05-21 19:48:38
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://thedragontree.com/?p=8267
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
[webinar_id] => 0
)
[1] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 8447
[post_author] => 3
[post_date] => 2022-01-09 00:16:00
[post_date_gmt] => 2022-01-09 00:16:00
[post_content] =>
This year I’ll be writing a book about reconnecting with the natural world. This was the subject of my doctoral thesis years ago, but while that was a 500-page document that few people would want to slog through, I’m finally revising it into a work that’s shorter and accessible.
The crux of it is the idea that we belong to Nature – though we’ve forgotten this. Nature isn’t just scenery; it’s the substances and forces that created us and provide for all our needs. It also isn’t just a bunch of resources; it’s our greatest teacher. It’s constantly displaying lessons on how to be in balance and have a fruitful life, and it demonstrates a vast palate of virtues that are available to us. All we need to do is remember.
Today I’m going to share a little blurb from the section on Water. Here I discuss the virtue of clarity or transparency. As you read the following, see if you can call up an image of the clearest water. Imagine that every water molecule in your body (and it’s about two-thirds of what you are) contains the virtue of clarity – it’s already in you.
One of water’s most striking characteristics is its transparency. Just as clarity is the foremost measure of quality in a jewel, so is there something magical about clear water. Have you ever visited water that’s so lucent you can see the rocks and fish below as if looking through a window?
If we're going to drink it, the clearer the better, since this tends to signal purity.
If we plan to swim or bathe in it, clarity means safety - it has nothing to hide.
And if we aim to be refreshed, clear water is the ticket for cooling us, moistening us, and cleaning us out.
When we embody clarity, it has a similar effect on our experience of life and others’ experience of us - pure, clean, refreshing, nothing hidden.
Few things are as conducive to both power and peace as a clear mind.
With clarity, we avoid most conflict. Our energy can be invested more wisely. When we’re transparent, we know ourselves. We’re aware of our strengths and weaknesses. We know what we're capable of and to what extent we’re channeling or obstructing our potential. We have a realistic accounting of our resources. We see clearly how we’re utilizing them and what kind of return we get on this expenditure.
With a clear mind the process by which our authentic will expresses potential through us proceeds in a healthy, efficient, and beautiful way. If fear and social programming degrade our clarity, we may override the will, investing ourselves instead in behaviors that secure our safety and approval.
When we’re transparent around agreements, we commit ourselves only to what we know we can follow through on. We keep all the agreements we make - both with others and ourselves - and this builds self-trust. The unknown is less frightening when we know we can trust ourselves. If we break an agreement, we recognize immediately the clouding effect this has on our inner waters and we clean it up.
If we keep secrets or try to hide things from ourselves (such as the truth of how well we’ve followed through on an agreement), it fragments us and makes transparency impossible. It also makes us less trusting of others. When we instead prioritize clarity and stop the hiding and secrecy, we dispel potential sources of fear. Clarity makes us less prone to being controlled by our emotions - especially fear.
Sometimes we can be manipulated by fear even while avoiding it or pushing it away. This can form a certain cloudiness around the fear which might make it less intense, but also results in a chronic, vague anxiousness. When we insist on clarity, this means facing the fear and being with it willingly. It can be daunting, but the shift in attitude - from avoidance to curiosity and bravery - immediately changes the experience. The emotional volume diminishes and we can rationally ask ourselves, “Is this something to be afraid of? To be concerned about? Of no concern at all?” And if it warrants action we can clearly ask, “What am I going to do so that I’m reasonably protected from harm if such-and-such should happen?”
In a fearful state, one of the most useful things we can do is to tell ourselves the pure, unmanipulated truth about our circumstances. No “what ifs,” no stories. Just the facts. This gets us quickly to clarity. While it's possible to be afraid even in a clear state, the majority of our fears are unreal except in the murky waters of an unclear mind.
Just as a lack of clarity creates shadows where fear can develop, fear further distorts our clarity, like a storm over the sea that makes the water too choppy to see through. When we feel uncertain about what’s beneath, we tend to stay on the surface, but this only keeps us immersed in the turmoil. Though it may seem counterintuitive, diving deeper takes us to an underlying stillness that’s unaffected by the waves on the surface.
I encourage you to spend some time soon with clear water. Let it arouse the virtue of clarity within you, and invite that clarity into all corners of your life.
Be well,
Peter
[post_title] => The Virtue of Clarity: A Gift from Water That's Available to Everyone
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => the-virtue-of-clarity-a-gift-from-water-thats-available-to-everyone
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2022-01-09 00:23:45
[post_modified_gmt] => 2022-01-09 00:23:45
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://thedragontree.com/?p=8447
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 11
[filter] => raw
[webinar_id] => 0
)
[2] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 8548
[post_author] => 3
[post_date] => 2022-03-06 06:00:06
[post_date_gmt] => 2022-03-06 06:00:06
[post_content] =>
One of the main ways that we get stuck or fail to reach our potential is through persistent psychological patterns. Some would say they’re not just psychological, but psycho-spiritual, or even karmic. Perhaps they’re an expression of what are called samskaras in Vedic thought – ruts or imprints that we’re prone to fall into over and over. The tendency to think and act in a certain way can be difficult to break, even if we know it’s not serving us.
Often these patterns are founded in stories and beliefs in which we have a one-sided view, and the single-sidedness gives them a stronger charge that tends to make them more enduring. Here are some examples:
I am a victim. I mess everything up. I never have enough money. People are selfish. I’m not disciplined enough to live to my potential. Happiness doesn’t last. Life is scary.
Part of why these stories won’t die is because of our inability to see more than one perspective. Often we put ourselves in a certain role, with the opposing role played (usually in our mind) by some adversary, which could be a parent, partner, enemy, God, the whole world, some imagined “lucky person,” or even another aspect of ourselves.
We can get invested in playing the bad guy, the hero, the spiritual one, the rebel, the starving artist, or the martyr. This may cause us to suppress aspects of ourselves that don’t align with this role, which serves to perpetuate the one-sidedness of our position. The exaggerated dynamic it sets up is like sitting at the outermost point on a seesaw; we’re bound to get carried way up and down by our emotions.
Coming from a Chinese Medicine background, I’m inclined to see this condition as an imbalance of yin and yang. It’s a denial of our wholeness and a limitation on our health and power.
Recognizing that we contain both sides of each coin is important and useful work, and it’s a primary theme in many healing modalities. It’s part of the integration of our shadow aspect (a term coined by Carl Jung to describe the parts of ourselves we deny, suppress, or are unconscious of). It’s an essential part of The Work developed by Byron Katie for challenging our thoughts. This process consists of asking questions to determine whether a given thought is true and how you’re affected by believing it, after which you “turn it around” to see how opposing viewpoints are equally true.
For users of our body-centered releasing workbook, Freedom, we recommend taking a charged issue or scenario and, after working on it with your usual position, see what comes up when you “try on” the opposing position. Releasing the pattern from both sides promotes a more complete resolution.
Similarly, Leslie Temple Thurston teaches that when we identify the polarized aspects of our stories and then figure out what their opposites are, we discover that both sides are within us (and our adversaries). This recognition shifts our position from the outermost edge of the seesaw to the center fulcrum – what Temple Thurston calls the neutral witness state – and the story falls apart.
To take this deeper, we can examine the interaction of two sets of opposing charges, which creates four perspectives. Temple Thurston calls this working with “squares.” The mind is rarely in the throes of just one duality. Beyond the charge of the two sides of a story, there is an additional dimension of polarization which is the basic push-pull of attraction and repulsion, also experienced as like/dislike, desire/fear, or attachment/rejection. By examining a pattern through all four sides of these interacting charges, we can achieve an even more complete neutralization.
I’ve depicted the basic format in this graphic. Take one duality, which I refer to as yin and yang here, and cross it with the duality of desire/fear to produce four states. Here I refer to the states as desire for yin, desire for yang, fear of yin, and fear of yang. This will all make more sense when we plug in an example to replace yin and yang here:
We all contain the four aspects shown in this square. Typically there are two that are easy to relate to, while the others may be trickier to access. In this example we’re looking at the qualities of the self that we consider acceptable and openly express (our light) and those we keep hidden (our shadow). When crossed with the duality of attraction/aversion, we get four states. The first two are attraction to our light (upper right) and aversion to our shadow (lower left). These are easy enough to recognize since that’s exactly the dynamic that sets up the light/shadow split in the first place.
Finding the other two qualities in ourselves may require looking a little deeper. At the upper left is attraction to our shadow. This can happen inadvertently as a result of the pressure buildup caused by suppressing it. Our shadow may seem dangerous and forbidden, and we may unleash it to defuse the inner charge of disapproval and rebellion. We may find ourselves expressing it in ways that are painful to us or others, and our regret about doing so may reinforce the urge to suppress it.
It’s important to point out, however, that the parts of ourselves we keep sequestered in the shadows aren’t necessarily socially unacceptable. They may in fact be virtuous qualities that we’re simply uncomfortable with. Attraction to our shadow may also occur in a healthy way as we endeavor to be integrated and self-realized beings, in which case we want to know all that we are and to consciously choose which aspects to express.
The last quadrant, aversion to our light, is what Marianne Williamson is speaking to in her famous quote: “Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.” Why do we fear our own light? Perhaps we’re afraid of everyone noticing us. Maybe we believe that if we shine, we’ll then do something to let everyone down. If we embrace our light, maybe we believe we’d outshine others. Possibly we don’t believe our light is even real.
How can we employ this exercise in a useful way? Start by taking a quality you seem to have an obvious desire for or aversion to. For example: desire to be powerful, desire to be happy, desire to be wealthy, fear of being alone, aversion to being sick, aversion to exercise. This quality and its opposite will form the two ends of the horizontal x-axis. Then the vertical y-axis will have desire, attraction, or wanting at the top and aversion, rejection, fear, or repulsion at the bottom. Fill in the four quadrants so that each of the x-axis qualities gets paired with each of the y-axis dynamics.
Then spend some time feeling into each of the four resulting states. Journal about how each state is within you and/or use our book, Freedom, to do a body-centered releasing process on each one. It doesn’t need to take very long, but ideally should be done until you feel a sense of acceptance and a dissipation of the charge associated with the issue. Afterwards, feel into your relationship with the object of this process. What has changed?
I hope this method of inquiry is beneficial to you. Feel free to share about your experience with it in the comments section.
Be well,
Peter
[post_title] => Get Through Your Blocks By Seeing All Four Sides of the Coin
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => get-through-your-blocks-by-seeing-all-four-sides-of-the-coin
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2022-02-24 00:02:12
[post_modified_gmt] => 2022-02-24 00:02:12
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://thedragontree.com/?p=8548
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 4
[filter] => raw
[webinar_id] => 0
)
)
[post_count] => 3
[current_post] => -1
[in_the_loop] =>
[post] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 8267
[post_author] => 1
[post_date] => 2021-05-21 18:56:38
[post_date_gmt] => 2021-05-21 18:56:38
[post_content] =>
When I was 13, I learned that it was a good idea to start carrying a mini pack of Kleenexes in my backpack. You know, just in case. As I entered young adulthood, I began to bring a sweatshirt, water bottle, pens, notebook, and snack with me. And if you had asked me if I was a good planner, I would have proudly said, “Yes!”
Meanwhile, if you asked me what courses I would be taking the following semester, where I’d be living in a year, or how much money I wanted to be making, I would have drawn a blank. (My wife probably had all of these things written down by age 12.)
I mistook a little short-term preparedness for real planning. When it came to actual planning – as in, crafting a plan for how I intended my life to proceed – I was pretty resistant. But I eventually learned that a lack of planning often led to suffering. It could mean disappointing other people, feeling scattered and disorganized, and being limited in what I could achieve.
So I began to plan out of necessity. Making plans allowed me to have working relationships and a functional medical practice. Yet, I still hadn’t expanded into planning out of creativity. That didn’t dawn on me until years later.
Then it hit me that planning is the pivotal act in accepting one’s role as a creator of one’s life. From this perspective, planning becomes like playing. It combines imagination and intention, and when we really open ourselves to this form of play, it’s truly magical.
We created The Dreambook to help people approach planning this way – as a means of creation. It’s so much like playing that when we’re immersed in imaginative play, we may sometimes set new creations into motion. Briana started doing this spontaneously as a child.
A few years ago, she found a diary from her tweens that she had completely forgotten about. In the diary she had written about what her adulthood would be like. It wasn’t quite the deliberate process we teach; rather, it was more of a free, self-trusting expression of what she expected to create. And even though she forgot about it, we were amazed to discover how accurately her future turned out to match her diary – right down to the dates when certain achievements would occur!
I believe it’s an especially important time for all of us to begin to approach life-creation in this way. When bad news can so easily color our experience of the world, it’s vital that we stoke our inner creative fire. I’m proud of how well the Dreambook has helped people recognize this fire and feed it.
I hope to get more people using the Dreambook and being part of the big, loving, supportive community that has formed around it on Facebook, so that we can all consciously co-create a better world. Currently, all Dreambooks and Dreambook accessories are 50% off, so if you've been wondering if/when to dive into this process, now is the time!
Be well,
Peter
[post_title] => Planning from Creativity Rather than Necessity
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => planning-from-creativity-rather-than-necessity
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2021-05-21 19:48:38
[post_modified_gmt] => 2021-05-21 19:48:38
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://thedragontree.com/?p=8267
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
[webinar_id] => 0
)
[comment_count] => 0
[current_comment] => -1
[found_posts] => 361
[max_num_pages] => 8
[max_num_comment_pages] => 0
[is_single] =>
[is_preview] =>
[is_page] =>
[is_archive] => 1
[is_date] =>
[is_year] =>
[is_month] =>
[is_day] =>
[is_time] =>
[is_author] =>
[is_category] => 1
[is_tag] =>
[is_tax] =>
[is_search] =>
[is_feed] =>
[is_comment_feed] =>
[is_trackback] =>
[is_home] =>
[is_privacy_policy] =>
[is_404] =>
[is_embed] =>
[is_paged] =>
[is_admin] =>
[is_attachment] =>
[is_singular] =>
[is_robots] =>
[is_favicon] =>
[is_posts_page] =>
[is_post_type_archive] =>
[query_vars_hash:WP_Query:private] => 7a381b62e6faa6b160edf14a5d7b8f8b
[query_vars_changed:WP_Query:private] =>
[thumbnails_cached] =>
[stopwords:WP_Query:private] =>
[compat_fields:WP_Query:private] => Array
(
[0] => query_vars_hash
[1] => query_vars_changed
)
[compat_methods:WP_Query:private] => Array
(
[0] => init_query_flags
[1] => parse_tax_query
)
)
Cart
