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Would you like to:
- Feel more energized and alive?
- Feel less stressed and anxious?
- Be more resilient in the face of life’s challenges?
- Step more fully into your potential?
- Make a greater impact with your life?
If the answer to any (or all!) of those is yes, I developed The Aliveness CODE TM for you. It’s a simple framework aimed at helping people spend more time in the Aliveness Zone TM, that space where life feels more energized and open, and less stressed and depleted.
While the ultimate goal is the same – moving into the Aliveness Zone and learning how to spend a greater portion of your life there – there are multiple reasons people might engage me for my Aliveness CODE work. Those might include:
- Mental / emotional turmoil (e.g., stress, burnout)
- Life event (e.g., big change, divorce, retirement)
- Obstacles to high performance (e.g., stress at work)
- High performance optimization (improving external results through improving the inner game)
Benefits of life in the Aliveness Zone
Besides simply being more enjoyable, life in the Aliveness Zone offers a bazillion benefits. Here’s an overview of some of them. This list is based on extensive research across a wide range of topics, results I have seen in clients’ lives, and my own personal experience.
Expanded possibility: Greater possibility in your life stemming from a combination of an increased ability to see more of what’s possible and a stronger likelihood of acting on it.
Greater equanimity: Feeling a greater sense of inner calm and peace, independent of what is happening in your life.
Better health: Improved health in a wide range of ways, from less stress to better heart health, to lower blood pressure.
More resilience: A greater ability to bounce back when life goes sideways.
Greater happiness and life satisfaction: Happiness that doesn’t require life to be “just right” and a greater sense of meaning an purpose.
Better self-image: Feeling better about yourself, more confident, less self-critical, and kinder and more self-compassionate.
Better relationships: Stronger, deeper, and more authentic connections with the people in your life.
Greater positive impact: More potential and ability to make the world a better place.
[Take a deeper look at the benefits here.]
The Aliveness CODE framework
The framework is based on two continuums along which life is constantly in motion. CODE is an acronym from those two continuums:
- Constricted – Open
- Drained – Energized
Drained and Energized are fairly self-explanatory, but Constricted and Open could use some clarifying.
On the constricted end of the spectrum are experiences like stress, anger, anxiety, and fear. On the open end of the spectrum are experiences like a sense of flow, an openness to the new, curiosity, joy, connectedness, and compassion.
The goal is to spend as much time as you can towards the open and energized ends of those continuums, and as little time as you can towards the constricted and drained ends. Simple, right?
The graphic below gives a handy way to visualize it. I call that energized and open space the Aliveness Zone. The Aliveness CODE offers an approach to moving consciously and intentionally towards the energized and open ends of those continuums into The Aliveness Zone.
The Aliveness CODE unfolds on two time scales:
Foundation building: Over time, regular application of Aliveness CODE practices can help you build a foundation that allows you to naturally spend more time in The Aliveness Zone. Increasingly, it becomes your home state of being.
First-Aid application: Life isn’t a static event. You can be in The Aliveness Zone one minute and knocked out of it the next. When that happens, The Aliveness CODE offers tools and techniques you can use as first-aid to move you back towards The Aliveness Zone. Part two of this document focuses on First-Aid tips you can apply on the fly.
The 7 Pillars of Aliveness
The rubber meets the road in The Aliveness CODE with seven core pillars. They are:
I. Energy Management
II. Grounding & Presence
III. Story Management
IV. Focus Management
V. Heart Engagement
VI. Meaning & Purpose
VII. Social Engagement
An invitation to life in the Aliveness Zone!