An introduction to the MythoSelf ™ Process
start by operating at your best
The MythoSelf ™ Process is a body of work designed by Dr Joseph Riggio and based on the Generative Imprint™ Model developed by Roye Fraser.
It is intended to facilitate an extraordinary experience of being, which in turn leads to an extraordinary way of doing and making manifest intentions.
This work can also be used to assist with change and personal or professional development.
What is the MythoSelf ™ Process?
I've heard the question asked time and time again, and often the given answer is along the lines of 'go to a training or a facilitator and have the experience'. That's hardly helpful - so let me give you a straight answer using a bottle of wine as an illustration (yes, really).
If you asked about a bottle of wine you may be given an array of tantalising verbal descriptions like its dry or sweet, full bodied, hints of herbs and spices, a velvet texture, the list goes on. But, however good the description may be, it is only a description.
What to one person means one thing may well have a different meaning to another. In fact we can never know what someone else actually experiences. Taken from NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) there is a supposition 'the map is not the territory', or as I prefer to say 'the menu is not the meal'.
If I was to say that the wine is red, we are likely to agree, however what I see and call red and what you see and call red could be completely different. The only way to know this wine is to have the experience of drinking it, smelling the bouquet, savouring the flavours and sensations that it produces in your mouth, and finally as the lingering tastes diminish enjoying the pleasant sensations that the alcohol in your system produce.
So since you're still here with me, let me pull out the cork and pour a glass…
An experiential process
The MythoSelf ™ Process in its simplest description is about having the experience of your life - quite literally since it enables you to experience what being alive is really about. You'll come to know who you are and who you are becoming and realize that you can choose whom you most want to become. The starting point is establishing how you are when you are operating at your best, at your most magnificent or most 'exquisitely'.
What do you mean by 'who I am' or 'how I am'?
It sounds like an odd question to ask, but it's also a fundamental one. A MythoSelf™ facilitator works with you in the realm of direct sensory experience, mapping your somatic and semantic structures. (Keep with me - I'll explain what these mean as I go on.) Starting with the preconscious, pre-verbal form prior to generation of symbolic or representational form, working through to the post-verbal trans-conscious experience after creating a symbolic or representational form.
Now that may sound like a mouthful, and indeed it is. These are specifically chosen words to indicate that there is precise science to this work that the naked eye or untrained ear would likely miss completely. If I was to ask you 'how are you' when you are happy, contented, angry or sad you would have to internally generate that experience in order to come up with some words to describe that state of being to me. If asked 'how do you know that you are this way' many people would say things like 'I'm relaxed' or 'I'm screwed-up' inside. And when asked 'where?' they may indicate areas like their belly or chest.
So the bottom line here is that as human beings we hold our states of being internally in our bodies, or to be technical, in our neuro-muscular-skeletal system. In the MythoSelf ™ Process work the mind and body are considered as one single entity.
The position of being at your absolute best
Roye Fraser originally put forward the idea in his Generative Imprint™ Model that there is a way that we hold ourselves when we are at our absolute best. This position would have been available to us from birth when we were completely open to all possibility, when we would be totally engrossed in anything that took our fascination. This position is unique to each of us and is present whenever we are really on top form. Athletes and other top performers sometimes refer to this as being 'in the zone'.
Roye referred to this as the 'Generalized Desired State' (GDS) or 'Ready State'. Like 'this', most people report that 'anything seems possible'. Now, I'm not saying that you may feel that you can instantly start work as a brain surgeon! However, if that was truly your desire, you would know that you would need to embark on long learning journey to get the necessary skills and in time it would indeed be possible. This is truly a position of possibility and a fundamentally important step in the MythoSelf™ Process.
This position is taken further and we considering ourselves in relation to what is often referred to as 'Greater Than Self' (GTS), as in whatever context we choose to describe what it is that contains us. Again this is a personal consideration, for some it is how they connect or see themselves in relation with the rest of the world or universe, for some it may even be a connection with a higher order or God.
When both the GDS and GTS positions are held simultaneously this leads to a highly resourceful position where people often say that they have a strong sense of directionality or that they are 'on their path'. In the MythoSelf ™ Process work this is called 'Intent'.
Filtering information
As human beings, we're very selective about the information around us that we notice or let pass us by invisibly. Have you ever noticed how children can be totally unaware of you asking them to tidy up their toys, yet mention the word 'chocolate' they will hear it at a hundred paces!
We all filter information as it comes in based on the state of being that we are currently holding, then we become aware of certain things and not others. You may well have noticed how 'depressed' people only seem to see the negative aspects of a situation whilst 'optimistic' people will always see the positive points. Is your wine glass half empty or half full?
When you operate from a position of possibility, you change your filters and start sorting for things that will work for you rather than just 'looking for problems'. You will notice things that were once hidden from you. Doors that have been locked will open for you.
How you hold yourself affects your outlook
As I said earlier, we hold our states of being in our body. This is our Somatic structure. In the MythoSelf ™ Process we pay a lot of attention to your physiology, how you physically hold or move yourself, and that is what I meant by mapping your somatic structure.
We then go on to use words or language to describe and label these states. This language is the semantic structure. A MythoSelf™ facilitator will also map these semantic structures for you.
Interestingly, this process works both ways. The way you think and the things you say or the stories you tell about yourself cause you to assume a certain physiology which gives you a particular state of being. Yet when you change your physiology, adjust your body's position or alignment, this effects the way you think.
Sadly for many people, the stories they are living are not necessarily the ones that are the best for them. Often they are living someone else's life or living the way others suggest they should live and all this leads to in misery or a unfulfilling life.
The mythological influence
The MythoSelf ™ Process incorporates the work from the mythologist Joseph Campbell. Most notably the 'Heroes Journey' from his work The Hero with a Thousand Faces. In this work Campbell identifies the common skeleton frame work or template that exists in nearly all mythological stories from around the globe and throughout time.
This 'Monomyth' can be seen in ancient Greek mythology to Star Wars and beyond. In the MythoSelf ™ Process the same idea is mapped onto our own lives. This provides a metaphor for our life either as one full lifetime journey, or as individual adventures along the way.
When being facilitated through the MythoSelf ™Process - after generating the position of 'Intent' - your dominant metaphor or myth is established and you discover how it regularly shows up in your life. We refer to this as the representational form and it shows how you've set yourself up - and how this impacts on the way you experience your life. It can be used to explain the various stages of your life or stages of journeys along the way. You'll learn how the challenges we encounter are normal and often necessary and beneficial.
What will the process teach me?
The MythoSelf ™ Process teaches you how to organize yourself and be aware of yourself physically so that you can operate at your best. You'll become fully open to possibility whilst having a strong sense of direction.
You'll notice things that are a match and fit for you (recognising the things that you do that help you stay on your path), whilst simultaneously avoiding anything that knocks you of track. This gives you a fabulous decision making model and leads to a massive sense of self confidence.
You'll learn how the posture and attitude you adopt effects the way you move through the world and how you interact with other people. When you choose to change the way you move, you will change how you interact and you'll produce different results.
You'll understand how the stories you tell yourself effect your life and learn to identify with ones that help you be the way you want to be. You get to have the experience of your life whilst being aware of both who you are and who you are becoming - an endless process - and you get to decide which way that goes.
Now, did you enjoy your wine? I hope these sips have whet your appetite and suggest a hint of the aroma that comes from the starting point of this work and leave a lingering desire to taste the real experience.
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