A Mason's Work

[00:00] we started this process this week with a named kind of fear and a situation we were trying to
[00:08] be able to respond with courage to we begin began this process with a certain understanding
[00:15] and that was that this was going to be work right it's a tough process it takes time to cultivate
[00:24] this capacity like any new skill like anything that you're going to learn or grow or develop in
[00:34] a meaningful way what you'll find is that you as you gain agency and capacity and develop that skill
[00:44] you get quicker at it your process here that you're going through to take that knock of fear
[00:54] route it to the appropriate location deal with it in a meaningful way and then move it into your
[01:01] launch base to figure out how to react that process in the beginning is going to take like deliberate
[01:08] work like maybe hours maybe days maybe a couple of weeks even to kind of get through it what happens
[01:18] over time is that process goes from you know hours to minutes to seconds the whole cycle compresses
[01:28] and you are being you know you now have the ability to respond with intention as opposed to
[01:38] all of this stuff was happening on autopilot in the past the fears would trigger a instinctive response
[01:46] that maybe you would run or maybe you would go self-medicate in some way maybe you would go do
[01:52] something destructive and whatever those responses were you have by going through this process
[02:01] began to own them and in owning them you get to control them in the launch space we really want to
[02:12] work through how we can best respond the first tier response might not be to immediately stop for
[02:21] example the first tier response and this you've probably experienced this if you've ever had issues
[02:26] with your eating right the first tier response is to never outlaw all things uh the moment you say
[02:33] i'm never going to eat you know sugary things again uh you have created a situation that is untenable
[02:39] because the world does not tolerate that kind of extremism let's say so when we talk about ways that
[02:48] our lodge can respond that internal lodge that process um we want to start tier one with harm reduction
[02:54] harm reduction is a clinical term uh and what we're really talking about here is the ability to do
[03:01] something less destructive it may be that you self-medicated before with drugs or alcohol or you know
[03:09] some other you know um solution that was not good for you in some way or another your use was abusive
[03:16] your uh the way you did it was you know not productive for everyday life uh counter to flourishing
[03:22] whatever that might be right so when we first reduce harm you might replace going out and having a cigarette
[03:30] with going out and having a vape and then you might replace that with going out and having a stick of gum
[03:35] or a walk around the block but those stepwise changes from most destructive to least destructive
[03:43] to the opposite are also how you turn these fears that you have into the engine for growth into the
[03:52] mechanisms by which you challenge and improve yourself and do the work of the lodge this entire process
[04:00] can happen uh and you are in control of the whole shooting match if you choose to be once you've
[04:08] identified something you want to work on and you've figured out you've named that as a thing or as a
[04:13] problem you want to overcome you can then use these different lodge functions the tiler the persivant the
[04:21] examining room the preparing room and the lodge itself to build a better response to the world around you
[04:27] do everything outside and in that process you increase your agency and you become a better version
[04:34] of the person who entered the lodge to begin with that's our work keep going