[Neurons] 2008 Meta Reflections #50

[Dr. Hall]

From:  L. Michael Hall

Nov. 10, 2008

Meta Reflection #50

                                    

 

                                                    THE LEASH OF FREEDOM

AND THE REFLEXIVE DOG

 

 

I recently made a new friend, Buddy Lucas.  Well, let me restate that.  I
didn't make the friend, he was the one who made me his friend.  But there
was a problem-my new friend is a dog.  That isn't a description of his
character, but his species-Buddy is a real dog.  I don't know who actually
owns him, Buddy might belong to Cheryl, Carey, Jerome, Kai, or Mable.  I
don't know. 

 

Actually, that is probably the wrong frame.  Instead of Buddy belonging to
anyone, I think perhaps the reality is that he has lots of people who belong
to him.  I think the truth is that he collects people as his pets-then he
blesses them by taking them on walks, teaching them how to get him food, to
pet him, snuggle with him, and so on.  Buddy's pretty smart that way-getting
people to work for him and to be at his beck and call.  Quite a leadership
skill, if you ask me.  Actually dogs in general seem to know this and use
this strategy.  They trick people into working for them-buying their
favorite treats, taking them on walks, playing with them, and so on.  They
also encourage the deception that humans have that they have a pet whereas
in truth, they are the pets.

 

Anyway while in South Africa, I took Buddy on some runs in the mornings
before our Meta-Coach trainings.  He always made me run faster at the
beginning of the run than I wanted to as we ran up and down the streets in
Pretoria.  This is the time of the year when the Jacaranda trees are in full
blossom-bright purple and lavender blossoms flowering in a way that
completely covers the trees so that they are quite majesty.  And in
neighborhoods where the tree limbs reach out over the street, they create
beautiful purple tunnels that give off a stunning scent.  And then a week
later, I saw the trees as they began to rain purple.

 

Once the leash was on Buddy and we enter into the world of purple tunnels,
the leash gave Buddy the freedom to run, to explore, to discover his
neighborhood, to go so "hello" to other dogs behind fences.  It was a leash
of freedom.  Without the leash, Buddy couldn't have had that freedom.
Unused to cars, traffic, roads, growling dogs-Buddy would not have survived
very long.  But with a leash, he was free.  The leash provides a control and
management of his energies.  The leash focuses his energies so that he can
run without being run over.  The leash provides direction and guidance.  The
leash is also connection-connection to me as the person offering guidance as
we ran to new places.

 


>From Buddy I learned something new about leashes that I didn't write in

Unleashed.  While leashes can tie us down and prevent our full potential,
and interfere with our unleashing, there's another kind of leash-the leash
of freedom.  These are the leashes that enable us to handle the true
constraints that are in the world so that we don't "run off in all
directions at once," but channel and guide our energies in useful ways.
Leashes of freedom enable us to hold back the wildness of our energy so that
we can channel it and direct it and give it a productive direction.

 

On the second day that Buddy took me for a run, when we returned to the
yard, he did something incredible.  I let the leash drop to the ground, so
he turned his neck and with his mouth got ahold of the leash and began
leading himself around the yard.  What a sight that was!  He was using his
leash to go for a run in the front yard.  A reflexive dog!  It was as if he
knew that the leash was a key to freedom and fun and play and adventure and
he wanted more of it!

 

By the third day, he would be at my door scratching and letting me know that
if I wanted to be a good pet, I needed to get up and use the leash to
release him from the house and yard.  Running with him on the leash was a
learning experience for both of us the first couple days; he often wanted
room to run after birds or other dogs and so to give him more freedom, I
went with his leash oftentimes drug into a sprint to keep up.  But then
there were times when he counted on me to hold him back just enough so that
he could act ferocious but not have to prove it!

 

As I ran and reflected, I wondered about my own leashes of freedom: What are
they?  What leashes actually give me new freedoms and unleash new potentials
with agreed-upon boundaries.   Then I realized that every value sets such a
boundary within which I'm free to turn my energies loose and outside of
which I feel the constraint of conscience.  Then there are the decisions,
choices, intentions, and plans which provide me an area and range of
movement and activity and beyond which I don't go because I don't allow
that- it would take me away from my desired outcomes and highest visions.

 

But then there is the meta-question-the question of reflexivity: Can I take
my own leashes of freedom and use them for my own self-guidance,
self-direction, and self-management.  Do I have permission within myself to
do that?  Will I grant myself that permission?  Will I allow my highest
values and best vision of my potentials operate as a leash of freedom for
pursuing the grandest and most noble meaning?  Then I realized, that's what
coaching and especially self-coaching is all about. 

 

So meta high-five Buddy for the lessons in freedom, reflexivity, and the
unleashing of more potentials!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

L.  Michael Hall, Ph.D.

International Society of Neuro-Semantics

Meta-Coach Training System

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO.  81520 USA

1 970-523-7877

1 970-523-5790 fax

     www.neurosemantics.com 

      www.neuro-semantics-trainings.com 

      www.self-actualizing.org

      www.meta-coaching.org

      www.ns-video.com 

 

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