The dark side of doing our best

“We get up in the morning.  We do our best. Nothing else matters”

So said Evelyn Greenslade (played by Judy Dench) in the film, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.  It described life then, it describes life now. 

Over our years, we have built up some pretty good strategies to get up, get going, get on in the world. It is quite an accomplishment, living.  Quite, the miracle.

Nine Gates of awareness

And in a well timed offering, Nine Gates – invites us to look at the dark side of doing our best. Of ‘wanting to do well’.  

Because the very strategies and mindsets we have developed to ‘do our best’ may no longer be serving us. Our strategy of being independent, may be reinforcing isolation.  A desire to appear strong, may be hiding a loss of innocence.  Much of the time, we are unaware of what drives our behaviour. And operate on automatic. But when we shine a light on our actions, we get clearer about what is at play. With this awareness, we gain control and can make more mindful choices.  

Awareness and compassion

Nine Gates encourages us to look at our mindsets, strategies, quirks, idiosyncrasies and patterns with compassion and awareness. 

Ragnar Speicher, the Nine Gates creator, has based it on his own journey. Including the deep study of Enneagrams under the guidance of Claudio Naranjo.   

He has created an audio programme, offered in English and German.  At its core are nine 22-minute sessions, covering a mindset or ‘type.  Beautifully topped and tailed by brain stimulating music, each follows the same format. Providing a sense of safety and expansiveness.  And in a clever combination of depth and simplicity, we are invited to reflect on what they mean to us.  The description of mindsets, are like listening to your horoscope or a good friend. “That is so me”. “I so do that”. The thought provoking questions and mindfulness practices deepen the inquiry in a felt and integrated way.  

As Ragnar says, even notice if you are driven to do this course well.

You may complete it and know you will return. Time and time again.  To see what emerges. And to peel off some layers. Loosen up some mindsets. Bit by bit.

Freeing ourselves

Poets to psychologists have taught us, that whenever we shine light on those hidden parts of ourselves, we get closer to our true nature. To being who we were born to be. Timothy Gallwey pithily told us, performance is potential minus interference.   Rumi, said something similar 9 centuries ago…

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it”.

May we free ourselves.