Will – in all its faces

What is Will?

How does Will aid in our sobriety and sabotage our healing?

The form of all addiction is the dis-empowerment from Spirit

The key question here is: What resources do I have? We must look inside our self and see what we have and what nature has to offer. Great Spirit is ever present in nature, all the time, every time. By connecting with our self and knowing and being in Nature we will be able to know our own strength.

There is a series of questions that we seek to answer as we delve deeper into our addictive patterns. The questions are:

When did I separate myself from my Natural resources?

How did I separate from Spirit or Life?

When did I lose the inner voice of self-caring?

How did I lose the self that cares enough not to destroy myself?

In what way did I begin to use my substance to change my physical being so that it became addictive and then I became out of control? (if more than one substance or behavior, address each substance/behavior)

HIDDEN WITHIN THE FORM OF ALL ADDICTIONS IS A LOSS OF WILL

Addiction nullifies on a molecular level that part of the brain that holds will. It also hits and throws out of balance the second chakra, our Path chakra. When this happens our will is weakened and consequently our will power, passive will and/or active will may crumble.

The intent of the Third Step, Form ceremony, is to re-establish our Shideh’s Will Triangle so that we are able to access the Hokkshideh’s free will. It is this re-building of the Will Triangle, of our will, which activates our applied intent and focus. Each point on the Will Triangle is an expression of our will to live. This will is based on the knowing that we deserve to succeed. Self-deservement is our freedom.

However, the form of our addiction distorts what freedom really is. Take this far enough and our addiction will destroy our actual physical form.

In this expression of our will to live, we must understand the Triangle of Will. Any triangle teaching works to show us how to engage with life, the tip of the triangle. What to be receptive to (the left side) and what to do as we put our selves out into the world (the right side).

Will Power – Assume authority and take responsibility for our life.

Passive will – ability to receive pleasure and keep pain out of our circle. Are we receptive to pleasure and done with pain?

Active will – How will we make our life happen? Will we take action when we engage?

Free will – at the core of everything. Acting on and feeding our uniqueness, individuality and autonomy. The core of our worth and healing is free will.

Take a moment and reflect on what you know of your patterns, habits and responses to the stressors in your life.

Write in your APP journal what you know at this point.

At this step in our healing/recovery, we need to identify what our symbols are for WILL, for our will to live, our self-deservement and our freedom. Then we need to get symbols for will power, active will, passive will and free will. What is it that we mean and understand when we speak of WILL? What is it that we have sacrificed in our selves by choosing the addictive paradigm? (Look at each of these energies and find for your self what these energies mean and how do you relate to them?)

Now we look at all the faces of WILL

WILL IS THE INNER MOTIVATION TO BE IN CONTROL OF ONE’S LIFE

 A DEFINITION OF TERMS

We look at this wheel starting in the NE. This is the place on the wheel where all addictive patterns hit first. Priorities are confused or too great or not followed. Stress replaces relaxation and the addictive substance or pattern prevents any focus, any direction, any success and happiness. Addiction is a choice. And this choice precedes and precludes all further decision-making. You are at the effect of your “drug of choice” or “addictive pattern of choice”.

NE – Will — apply everything that you know about the NE and you will begin to understand Will. Take a moment and inventory what you know about NE energy. (Ask others that have more knowledge about Medicine Wheels about NE energies.) Will is the inner motivation to be in control of one’s own life. It is inversely proportional to how much you give your power away to others. Priorities, decisions and choices are the first to be affected when one becomes an addict, when you are at the effect of your choice of ‘drug’.

N – Active Will – this is our motivation for action as a response rather than reaction as a response to something that happens. When caught within the Addictive Paradigm, we are usually in reaction, which puts us constantly at the effect of what is happening. We either watch or wait for things to happen. The loss of Active Will results in hopelessness and an underlying blanket off despair. Active Will is MAKING IT HAPPEN.

S – Passive Will – this is our ability to receive pleasure and keep pain out of our circle. This is likely the most easily misunderstood aspect of Will, especially in relationship to its role within freedom and our will to live. Passive Will sits in the south. It has to do with our heart space, with love and with our search for knowledge that brings pleasure and joy to our life. Since this affects all other areas of Will, it is important to focus and re-focus our energy on Passive Will. A lack of or negative Passive Will looks like procrastination, approach-avoidance games, busy-itis, or rationalizations based on “I can’t” or “not now,” especially in the area of our sexuality!

W – Will Power – this is the ability to say yes or no, mean it and keep our word. In other words, Will Power is assuming authority and taking responsibility. This is the anchor for all discipline, commitment and follow through. Will Power is readily recognizable, direct and its presence and absence is not at all subtle. We know when we make a decision and stick to it or not. Will Power takes us directly into a confrontation with the NW Nagual enemy of power.

E – Free Will – this is our willingness to follow our vision and use our imagination. In order to do this we must accept our own uniqueness, our individuality and autonomy. We must be willing to grow up! The Grandmothers speak of Free Will simply as: “a willingness to grow up and become mature responsible individuals”. Free Will can only exist within the frame of sacred law and an evolutionary order. However, ‘law and order’ is not a popular frame of reference for the addict.

The misunderstanding and misuse of Free Will can be detected in the voice of “I don’t wanna… I wanna be taken care of…” It is often difficult for us to accept that when our reality needs are being met by others, whatever they ask of us, is proper retribution for the care they provide us. We would rather look to another for direction and assistance and when they respond, even if we know that it is the right thing for us, not follow it in the name of exercising our “free will”. Or we feel resentment even as we are doing what is right for us to do. Yet, nobody said life was fair. Reactions do not change reality. We can only change our attitude and approach.

True Free Will is unquestioningly doing what needs to be done. We are able to exercise our Free Will only to the level of our maturity and the development of our discernment or wisdom.

Now we move to the remaining non-cardinal directions, which are a combination of what is seated in the cardinal directions to either side of each non cardinal energy.

SW – Will to Live – our Will to Live is a combination of our Passive Will and Will Power. It has to do with our enjoyment of being in a body as a space. How present are we within the context of what is happening in our reality?

There are 2 aspects to our Will to Live: acceptance and happiness. The strength of our Will to Live is the determination that we will not QUIT. In order to be in this program, we must all have a measure of this or we would not be here! We have made it our priority and decided that now is the time to face our loss of Will, our patterns of addiction and the price we have paid for those choices. We have decided to keep pain out of our circle and create a space for pleasure. From this open heart space, we are motivated to make it happen. We have said yes to pleasure, to life, to health and we mean it! We will not quit until we have achieved this goal. This is our Will to Live and how we will change our form at this step in the program.

NW — Self-deservement — according to Grandfather Two Bears, self-deservement gets at the core of the addictive paradigm. Review the 5 core beliefs (both in the dark and the light). This is the place of the NW, the place of our rules and limitations, the place where we have been impacted by our image-makers. We have accepted what others have said rather than listening to our own inner voice, even when we knew it was a lie. We have done what others have expected or have done like others despite our body voice that disagreed. In fact, we have tuned out our Hokkshideh’s voice, our connection to the Greater, to the Mystery of Life. It is our lack of self-deservement that established our addictive pattern.

Without self-deservement, we do not have access to our sacred image!

SE – Freedom – In order for us to understand freedom we must look at what it is not: license. We do not have the right to do whatever we want to do just because we are human. Rights are given to us by sacred law and all just laws. These are inviolable and no one can take them away from us. Privileges are earned by virtue of our work.

It is our attitude and approach that gives us freedom. Freedom requires the impeccability of Free Will and Will Power along with assuming authority and taking responsibility for our actions. Without this, freedom is not possible. Grandfather Two Bears said clearly that a Warrior must always go for Freedom and never license.

To be caught within the addictive paradigm

Is to be caught in a prison without walls.

 It is only through ignorance that we surrender our freedom.