A Mason's Work

[00:00] we spoke briefly yesterday about the role of the guide and what the guide is and what it does,
[00:05] but from a behavioral level for your own sort of internal use, it's important to understand
[00:11] what the guide function represents in your own sort of headspace. How can you guide yourself?
[00:20] It's a really interesting question. When we look at our own behavior,
[00:24] there will very likely be parts of what we do and things that we choose to do that may seem
[00:32] mysterious. We may not know why we do the things we do. We may not do some of the stuff that is
[00:43] always the best for us, maybe not the healthiest or not the most nourishing or not the most
[00:51] respectful of our own mental and emotional and physical health. So when we talk about the guide,
[01:00] we're talking for ourselves about extending that care and concern to note well when we are stumbling
[01:09] and struggling and alter our path, to observe when we are doing things that don't work,
[01:18] uh, to evaluate alternative strategies. The guide does not ever provide answers. In fact, it's impossible
[01:30] for the guide to do so. The guide is not an education role. The guide is not, um, uh, super informative in
[01:38] that regard. The guide's responsibility is essentially to notice the situation, evaluate the path you're
[01:47] taking or the behaviors you have or the things you're doing and know whether or not those are in
[01:53] helping you achieve your objectives, whatever they might be. So if you're trying to keep using,
[02:00] uh, losing weight, uh, because it's kind of the easy and obvious, uh, angle. Most everyone in life has at
[02:07] some point tried to either lose or gain weight. Uh, when we look at the guide, it's, you know,
[02:13] the guide's responsibility is not necessarily to like smack the donut out of your hand, right? Guides
[02:20] don't do that. What the guide will say is, you know, listen, the behaviors that you're undertaking right
[02:25] now, um, I have to adapt our course to match. So either we can, an example of, of the diet, we can take
[02:35] the donuts out of the house or make the donuts a special occasion item or alter our path in some
[02:42] way so that it doesn't lead us straight to donuts every day. Right. Uh, now it's an oversimplified
[02:49] example for those of you that are struggling with eating disorder. I certainly don't mean to trivialize
[02:54] this, but it is important to essentially take something that most people know and try and apply
[03:00] some of these principles that we have in the craft. And so your internal experience might be much more
[03:07] nuanced and much more subtle and much more, uh, involved in engaging and difficult. So again,
[03:13] don't mistake the example as, as trivializing your plight. If you're experiencing, you know,
[03:17] that as a difficulty, but when we talk about guiding ourselves as well, uh, the guide really does not
[03:24] offer a meaningful judgment. Uh, that function just evaluates the situation. It is like an awareness
[03:33] function. It, it observes and notices the situation and directs the candidate or directs yourself
[03:41] appropriately. Um, when you're doing this in the room for a brother, uh, it's, it's a lot of it is
[03:48] just making sure that people that you're helping through this process, um, feel cared for. They feel
[03:57] safe. They feel like the risks that they may be taking are ones that are within a tolerable comfort
[04:06] level. Uh, and so in the same way, when you apply this to yourself, you're going to want to conduct a
[04:13] little bit of like a risk analysis, like, Hey, am I doing something right now that represents a high
[04:18] risk behavior? And will that undermine my objectives long-term? Uh, and so take this guide process,
[04:25] uh, internalize it a bit. I would love to hear, uh, some of the ways that you have guided yourself,
[04:32] uh, and your own behavior in that compassionate space where you notice and observe, and then maybe
[04:39] pass on, uh, to the other roles in the lodge in your mental head lodge. Um, uh, those roles to other
[04:48] officers that may have helped craft better solutions than the guide is capable of creating.
[04:54] Uh, so use this work and, and sort of share with us what you got and we'll put it out here on the
[04:59] channel or we'll put a, put it out on the blog or what have you, uh, help a brother out. Thanks.