Alrighty, so let’s talk about slavery.

This is how you make a cross out of the four pillars and crucify yourself.

So I used to teach karate at the local YMCA. I was the big deal. I started when I was a teenager and God, I taught continuously there until I was 22, 23 years old.  Yeah, the year I got hurt in the riot.

That’s a long time.

And in that time I continuously experienced the four happy chemicals, the four pillars.

I got serotonin because I was the karate kid.

I was the guy that started as a teenager. I was known as the young fellow that was shy.

I don’t know if anybody knew I peed the bed but I was the shy bed wetter, you know, the geeky kid, the sick kid who eventually started teaching karate as a green belt and continued until he was a second degree black belt there.  So I had status in town. I was always in the newspaper, always giving exhibitions.

I also had oxytocin, fellowship.

I had guys that, well they started when I was a green belt and they became my first brown and my first black belts. We had fellowship there.

The YMCA was like a family. The organization, we cared about each other. There was a family feel, not only within my group that I taught, but within the organization that I worked for.

We really were family. I can remember Marge Boyd was the director for many years and we all stood by her because she cared for us.

What else? There was dopamine.

Always looking forward to what we were going to do in class. I had all sorts of different games we played and drills.

You could imagine. You’ve trained with me. Imagine me as a young fellow teaching martial arts. Same thing. There was always a lot of dopamine.

What are going to do, what will we be doing next….

What guest I’d be bringing in to teach or who’d be showing up to train with us because we developed quite a reputation.

We had a lot of out-of-towner’s stop by over the years and train with us in one way or the other. Teach us things we didn’t know.

And finally endorphin.

It’s obvious, I mean in that kind of kind of training, there’s going to be endorphin, right? A lot of fun. But here’s how I crucify myself with it, or how I could.

SLAVERY AND ADDICTION 

I don’t (end up a slave or addict) because I understand how this works.

Yep, those were the good old days. There was a lot of fulfilment with teaching, and here’s a definition that I want you to tattoo (on you)!

FULFILLMENT AND FREEDOM

You really get fulfilment when all four of those are showing up in your life. When you’ve got the four happy chemicals, you experience a sense of fulfilment.

“If only I could teach karate again.”

Well, I’m 52, I don’t practice that anymore. My martial art practice now is very different. But if I kept pursuing teaching as a way to experience that fulfilment, it’d be very limiting, wouldn’t it?

So I could just get let go of it and go into a funk, a depression. “(Because I) Can’t do that anymore.” When was the last time I threw a jumping, spinning back kick or did my David Lee Roth on dry land?

It’s been awhile. So I could experience depression if I go in that direction. Sort of like a weird now. Yep, I remember when I could do that.

Another way that you can approach this and crucify yourself with the four happy chemicals, really it’s more like, let’s say that first bit was about crucifying yourself.

Don’t Spear Your Own Deer

This next bit is like spearing your own deer. Sticking a spear in yourself, letting the wind out of your sails. And that is to continuously chase one or two of these (happy chemicals).

Side Note:  Sorting Patterns

And another area that I teach, I talk about what kind of people, what kind of sort are you? How do you sort your world, what shows up in your stories?

And there are five major sorts and psychologically healthy people have two or more very active. If they just have one running the show, they tend to be pretty imbalanced.

A little weird. For those of you who know that, this next bit’s going to, notice how this slides in. But if you don’t know that, it doesn’t matter.

Chasing happiness….

If you’re continuously chasing oxytocin, you’re going to keep trying to find ways to connect with people.

Fellowship, you’re going to chase it. Here’s the problem. Oxytocin is not always available. If you chase it, if you have to have it.

In other words, if you have to have it, you’re doing a yes-no. I have it, I don’t, I have it, I don’t. How do I get it? Who do I call? What can I do to get a group of people around me?

What can I do to have someone just special by my side?

Dopamine, oh my God.

I find that people that need (crave) dopamine, that are heavily dopamine oriented, also become heavily like, oh my God, what’s going to happen next? If they’re not experiencing that dopamine that they crave.

If they can’t find something (lovely) to anticipate. They’ll anticipate bad.

THE SOLUTION

By the way, the thing is, if you notice you have one of these running your life, start adding the others in.

Serotonin?

Man it’s interesting because almost some cultures are very based in different ones of these.

I dated a girl whose family was from, they were more Polish Slovak, and they were, the whole family was very oxytocin, very fellowship oriented.

I knew another family, they were from another part of the world and they were very all serotonin.

Oh my God. It’s almost like the Japanese thing where you can’t lose face. Oh my God, you took away my status, right?

And the Japanese historically…

(seem to) have of all sorts of rules and regulations and things you have to do to restore and status and stuff.

Talk about weird, and of course is it any wonder that some cultures believe they are the best culture, right?

Not saying that Japan believes that, but just notice these things. It’s fascinating to pursue this.

And finally endorphin.

The person who lives to experience that hit, they destroy their bodies, right?

So don’t. If you find that you tend to … I really, really love one of these, make sure you’re putting all four in, right? Imagine up at you that has all four of these, not in balance, but a blend that really, really gives to you.

Because a balance, again, this is more like story writing than mathematics.

Wonder why I love story writing.

Alrighty, so run with those guys. Okay. Just notice. Victoria’s going to put up a pretty cool post on this and if this is a future, future dream driven day bit for you guys

I’m going to include that in the article here, but she’ll be putting that up when she puts that up. But just notice something like that. Just notice these two and ask me questions.

Have a great dream driven day. See ya.