April 23, 2008

Heart Freedom Exercise (4): Freeing the Fool

Heart Freedom Exercises
Exercises To Do On Your Own

Freeing the Fool

Time for Exercise: five to 15 minutes

Properties Required: none

Steps:

When have you felt foolish, embarrassed, or humiliated? Recall the circumstances of those situations. What if these things had happened to someone you love instead of yourself? Would they seem as emotionally loaded and devastating as they were when they happened to you?

The King’s Fool

Imagine you lived at a time when there were kings, and you assumed the role of the king’s fool. What is the role of a professional fool? What is the emotional significance of foolish, outrageous, and silly behaviors when they are done consciously?

Do we have to assume that the fool has a negative status? Must the fool be stupid, ignorant, or lacking in intelligence? Is it possible to see the fool as entertainer, as therapist, as possessing properties of kindness, generosity, and wisdom? Is it possible to see the fool as creative, funny, fun, and spontaneous? Can the fool be mature, intelligent, even enlightened? Can the fool be a kind of sorcerer or magician? Can the fool be in humble service to the good? Can the fool be a healer? Can the fool be a most trusted advisor?

Would allowing the fool within you to manifest some or all of these positive qualities improve your life? What are some ways you can allow yourself to lighten up, to act a bit foolish, to stop taking yourself so seriously, and to let go of control?

Try deliberately doing one foolish thing per week for the next four weeks. If you like how those experiments have changed your life, try acting foolishly once per day.

Comments:

The Tarot fool is a fully realized, self-actualized, splendid human being. He possesses all the following qualities.

wisdom

freedom

courage

likable and lovable

approachable

flexible

creative

fun and funny

heart open

accepting/non-judgmental

lightness of being

open to change

acts in spite of fear

follows his bliss

of service to the good

sharing

self-love/high self-esteem

self-confidence

loved by children

trusting

humble

risk-taker

independent

cares not what others think of him

entertaining

feels everything

vulnerable

bridge between heaven and earth

optimistic

comfortable with mystery

surrenders

Excerpted from our new book Sensual Love Secrets for Couples: The Four Freedoms of Body, Mind, Heart and Soul, by Al Link and Pala Copeland, Llewellyn, 2007

Available at Amazon.com

Also available as an eBook in pdf for Adobe Reader, prc for MobiPocket, or on CD.

Check also at Amazon.com, Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying (Paperback) by Ram Dass