Sometimes, I suggest them as a support tool for my therapy/counseling clients. The purpose is to be a physical and visual reminder, a consciousness stimulator, of a commitment the client has made to their own continuing growth. Increased awareness leads to increased opportunities to change how we act, which enhances the chances for new life patterns. Clients are free to choose and be creative about the content of their bands. I start them out thinking by offering the few suggestions that follow.
WWJD – What Would Jesus Do? Poetic license allows the substitution of other individual guides: Moses, Mohamed, Mother Theresa, Gandhi, Nelson, Rosa, Martin. The focus here is on specific teachings and actions. What did they write/say, or what was written/said about them? Remember ideas or short quotes (collect them in a journal) and think on them during the moments of your day. Also, explore how they lived their lives. Find examples of when and where their beliefs were put into action, observable behavior, as they interacted with others. Is there evidence of practicing what they preached?
WWBD – What Would Buddha Do? The only one I want thinking inside the box is the house cat. When we have gotten comfortable learning from the teachings that come from our “givens” (family, culture, faith, language group) it is time to grow into areas of discomfort. Study the teachings of someone outside your developmental upbringing. There is great wisdom in ancient teachings, in other ethnic traditions, in worldviews and experiences that can enlarge and enhance the color of our world. The “myths” of other tribes can illuminate and add to the “truths” of our chosen orthodoxies.
WWYD – What Would Yoda Do? Fantasies and fictions can also offer new lenses through which we can see our own reality clearer, differently and perhaps even better. Most cultures ancient to present have stories that convey the real meaning of life. Some of these stories are creation myths, some are about how the lives of the gods influence the lives of humans, some are “teachables” using animals as the bearers of the messages, some are cloaked as “children’s stories” so the adults who are reading them to their children will suspend their own critical, mature disbelief and enter into the wonder and wisdom of a child teaching an emperor about clothing choices. “Do or don’t do, there is no try.”
WWSD – What Would Scooby-doo? Are you smiling? Aware or unaware, we are a part of nature/creation. We can learn from participating in that intentionally. All living things are programmed to live, survive and thrive, except we try to teach that out of humans. Play, sleep, eat Scooby-snacks, snuggle-up in a puppy pile and enjoy.
WWWD – What Will We Do?
[Please feel free to post any of my articles you find helpful, so that they may benefit a wider number of people. As always, comments, questions, disagreements, snide remarks and silly stories are welcome. Rob]