Erick Godsey invited us all to play a game, his MF game. A game that offers the full curriculum and resources from his university-level Mentally Fit course.

Months ago when it was announced in the Dharma Artist Collective, I checked it out, listened to some of the podcasts on my walks, and checked out as life kept lifing and I couldn’t responsibly find dedicated focused space for it - although I wanted to play.

Or did I?

To Play or not to Play?

Maybe I didn’t really want to play. Yet.
I was scared - of the mental part.

Heavily focusing on the game of the mental realm finally broke me down nearly 10 years ago. My deepest and longest dark night eventually broke me through, but only after years of reconnecting to my soul.

For a very long time I wasn’t fit at all. For way more years and many more aspects of my life than I liked to admit.
As of today, I believe I am mentally fit as a byproduct of getting myself to a place of being emotionally, spiritually fit, and in soul-aligned service.

Am I kidding myself? I don’t think so. And I don’t feel so.
But am I really mentally fit?!
Scanning through the resources, I see many ways I can find evidence for both sides of my inner argument.

So let’s find out. There is a safe game to play.
To find out where my blind spots are and grow my roots even deeper.
I am sure it will throw me off kilter occasionally, but I am not scared of that.
I know how to access and use my anchor now.

Today, I trust my foundations and am ready to play despite the fear of finding out what I am meant to find out.

I am taking the step to revisit the game of consciousness from the masculine, scholarly perspective, through the knowledge of others who cared to share. To complement my lived experience and gnosis with which I am arriving to this starting point.

My Game Rules

I promise to myself

to gently reconnect with the knowledge, the masculine approach outside of self in a healthy way this time;
to keep myself anchored and safe by maintaining the living equilibrium of both consciousness and life force while exploring;
to integrate what serves and let go of what doesn’t;
to embrace the fear and face it graciously anyway;
to plant seeds of wildflowers allowing the aligned unexpected to unfold.

I promise to you

to play the MF game for the next 3 weeks before the last cohort of the Mentally Fit class starts;
to spend 10 minutes every day sharing one thing I have learnt.

Insane?

Attempting to comprehend over 3000 pages in 3 weeks after 3 days of contemplating if I can make this a priority and actually follow through? All that while running a business and having a life?

I think it would be insane not to do it as my soul has spoken.

Do I risk being overwhelmed by too much, too fast?
Not really. I know my capacity and rhythm.

My sacred structures hold me in a safe spaciousness.
And knowing that the spaced repetition and deeper contemplation in the second round with the live cohort community will be much sweeter makes the process of evolution and integration even more profound.

Well, and while writing the last lines, a copy of Sacred Derangement was delivered to my doorstep - what a beautiful cosmic wink!

Let’s Play!

Day 0

Playing to win, Setting myself for success, Calm & Curious

The waters are freshly stirred after the lunar eclipse.
The endings make space for new beginnings.
Yet it would be irresponsible to recklessly commit to something that could burn me out fast.
This is not how I operate.
I honour the nudge and the gut feeling.
And I back it up with a plan.
Challenging enough.
Safe enough.
I am calmly curious.
After seeing everything I can from up close as well as the bird’s-eye view, I decide.
I am in!

D0: Learning, Integrating & Asking

→ all materials ready at one place

→ adequate time blocks allocated for next 3 weeks

→ day-to-day rituals and rhythm adjusted for the elevated information input

What if my biggest lessons are in cultivating better questions I get to ask?

The last time I read with such conviction and speed was almost two decades ago at university - devouring quite similar kinds of books. Let’s see where it leads me this time.

I believe that because there is no female author in the whole curriculum, I was naturally drawn to a book sitting right in the middle. My neurodivergent brain is very happy about that and agrees to follow intuition now, and the linear structure later. Maybe ;)

D1: Learning, Integrating & Asking

myths are universal imagination and experience of age and culture we stopped learning to understand as such when we killed religious god in the 19th century (to think mythologically and travel into our inner world is a skill)
Psyche, Aphrodite, Eros, Pan
“Whatever has wounded you will also be instrumental in your healing.” (Aphrodite’s altar)

→ diving deeper into 4 tasks for evolution of consciousness (ultimate synthesis of opposites on all levels)

In what areas of life do we live under the domination of our animus?

Where does our anima hold a knife to kill instead of a lamp to transform?

Is in love the most profound and universal gateway for collective transformation?

Continuing to be a bit rebellious with regard to the syllabus, I feel the need to revisit Tiago Forte’s work. I read his Building a Second Brain book the summer it was published and implemented it straight away — I know how much calm it brought to my life, so I am curious about his second book, which I hadn’t even noticed had been published. There is a part of me that thinks it might be just an expanded version of the PARA method I have learnt, but let’s see.

D2: Learning, Integrating & Asking

“… changing your organisational system to fit your evolving needs and goals, instead of trying to force your needs and goals to fit your system.”
“You can’t change anything until you’re completely honest with yourself about what needs changing.”
to prevent digital hoarding, ask whether it is useful, not just interesting
the Resources folder is often used to avoid important responsibilities

→ moved some Resources to the Archive

→ changed a resource to a project & committed to it

How much collective suffering stems from individual systems not being updated regularly?

It’s a rainy Friday night.
A fresh pot of tea steaming.
Candles lit.
A cosy warm blanket ready to welcome me.

That can only mean one thing.
A party.
To meet my animus through mythic knowledge.

(Exactly! I couldn’t put this book aside for much longer once I met her.)

D3: Learning, Integrating & Asking

unconscious perfection - conscious imperfection - conscious perfection (the journey through separation must be made to arrive at the same place)
a touch of consciousness first appears as a wound/suffering until redemption/enlightenment
The Grail, The Fisher King, Parsifal, Heart’s Sorrow, Red Knight, Gournamond, White Flower
3s, 4s, quintessence
6 relationships to the feminine - beware of contamination
to serve the Grail is to serve the inner woman

→ more clarity and courage gained for my upcoming quests

What is stopping me from satiating the collective consumeristic Grail castle hunger by pointing to pathways leading down, left and over the drawbridge?

I feel a bit guilty as I would love to continue reading Robert A. Johnson’s books, but also feel the urge to read Tiago Forte’s second book on the list, and in addition to all of that, I am questioning whether some part of me is, for some reason, avoiding beginning with the Sun Wheel, or if it is another part allowing me a little rebellion in low-stakes matters.

Well, I fished out the hardback copy of Building a Second Brain and found out that I actually hadn’t read the whole book and left my highlighting colouring pencil as a bookmark on page 152. So I’ll read this one first, to finish what I began while completing the bigger task of this whole exploration…

D4: Learning, Integrating & Asking

“Innovation and problem-solving depend on a routine that systematically brings interesting ideas to the surface of our awareness.”
life changes when you start expressing your ideas and knowledge turns into action
tacit knowledge

→ updating my 12 favourite challenges

How can we introduce more conscious convergence into the prevailing mindset of divergence that gives the illusion of productivity without yielding regenerative outcomes?

It’s time to return to the beginning of the curriculum. Today is uncomfortable – as it’s meant to be. I listened to the first three episodes of the podcast series almost a year ago, but I have not yet read the meditations, and I know it will be challenging to get through – not because I avoid the topics, but because my brain prefers to spend more time creating solutions and making a positive impact rather than revisiting the horror stories. Yet, I see there is potential for deepening and magic. Let’s dive in and face it …

It will be interesting to compare notes between then and now – that is what I am most looking forward to.

Afternote: I think I might have confused The Horizon Series with The Shimmer Series. This one is beautifully hopeful!

D5: Learning, Integrating & Asking

4 functions of myth
mythic pragmatism (beware traps of Postmodernism, Moral Relativism, Pluralism, and Model Agnosticism)
Good Explanations + Critical Rationality/Optimism

→ first draft of my thrice born story

→ revisiting & contextualising stages matrix in Ken Wilber’s work

→ started a list of my finite myths

What motivates the shifts in individual horizons, trickling from the bottom up quickly enough to transform the systems before we reach the point of no return and destroy humanity on Earth?

What if the current instant-gratification culture is perfectly prepared for a quantum leap transformation?

I am very apprehensive about starting this book. As my relationship with my soul is very much experiential, I am resisting the studious left-brain approach here the most, although I have no idea what journey this book will take me on. So I am acknowledging my projections, tuning into my curiosity, and opening my mind to find out what The Soul’s Code has to say.

D6: Learning, Integrating & Asking

the Acorn
a calling is seen better by others without projections (how > what)
safely growing down only after the full recognition of the genius
discomforts and disorders as a disguise for daimon at work

→ connecting more dots of my childhood

→ leaning into learning to see stories differently

What pathways can I co-create to honour the daimons’ calls, so they are expressed in wholeness rather than distorted into demons?

I feel I need a little break from the inward and hindsight work intricately hidden in stories, so I am choosing Mastery today to get cosy with the familiar style of writing as well as to create a balance and let the subconscious marinate in yesterday’s reading while strengthening foundations for mastering the outer expression.

D7: Learning, Integrating & Asking

the false path is often marked by following attention and approval
original path + conventional path = dimensional path

→ deepening my reverence for practice

→ widening my fields of interest

How can I personally contribute to the current movement towards Renaissance?

How and where can I keep honouring the journey of self-mastery even more and deeper?

Mentally Fit Curriculum Day 8 — Day 8

Back to the final

I feel it is the perfect time to revisit Erick Godsey’s book as I am now exploring the materials that shaped his synthesis. The Art of Dharma was the first and only book I read cover to cover this year, before I embarked on this MF quest. So here we go! Time to step back for the bird’s-eye view again, before diving deeper into the parts.

D8: Learning, Integrating & Asking

“The universe has an arc, and it bends towards creativity.”
remember you hardships, wounds and shortcomings as echoes of your destiny
move to your soul community circle
re-tracking, redirecting and recommitting is okay & part of the journey

→ revisited my childhood obsessions

→ * what am I terrified to do list to watch children of Mara in my world

How can we create more environments where telling the truth is an encouraged of course?

Although I haven’t finished the Sun Wheel yet, I need to go back to the depths of my inner world. Owning Your Own Shadow sounds like a very beautiful bridge after the last two books.

D9: Learning, Integrating & Asking

wars as expression of accumulated collective shadow unexpressed in a healthy way
our hero-worshipping capacity is pure shadow
the ceremonial world prevents outward destruction as shadow is played out symbolically
contradiction vs paradox (shadow as a doorway to unity)
peace-making, unifying, healing mandorla - a prototype of conflict resolution

→ preparing innerscaping for launch (moved back to active projects)

Which is the shadow I am meant to navigate first on scale?

I thought the next book was going to be Atomic Habits, to keep the balance between inner and outer explorations – even though most of the materials so far have acknowledged both worlds. However, after reading Owning Your Own Shadow, it doesn’t make sense to me to read anything but No Bad Parts next. I know of Internal Family Systems, but I have never studied it fully in its simplified form. I look forward to discovering what I missed while bringing the pieces together on my own.

D10: Learning, Integrating & Asking

protector-led vs Self-led social activism
blind spots reflect our burdened parts
“When we have lots of exiles, our protectors have no choice but to be egotistic, hedonistic, or dissociative”
“The presence of Self in a system helps protectors relax and elicits Self throughout the organization.”
my protector hurts your exile, my Self Loves all your parts

→ added a new clove to my family

→ met an exile & sought help to work with it

How can I safely bring the integrative awareness of the IFS model into day-to-day embodied relational practice?

I have a feeling this is one of those podcast episodes where I will understand only a fraction of what is being said, but when I look back in a couple of years, I will be grateful that I let my curiosity lead me down a new rabbit hole. The homework is to “Somatically understand that, because we are always at the beginning of infinity, nothing is impossible.”, so let’s buckle up!

D11: Learning, Integrating & Asking

people’s explanatory creativity (evolution can’t creatively imagine)
wealth as a set of all transformations we are capable of bringing about
if optimism is true, there is no limit to wealth
chase interest, not curriculum
don’t destroy the means of error correction

→ a new rabbit hole opened

What good explanations bridges can I start building to connect disconnected universes?

I know I am already in the second half of the MF curriculum, and I am still jumping around and not following the structure laid out by Erick, so it is time to be honest with myself and admit that it will most likely not happen until the end of my self-study.
Not feeling guilty about it only fuels my curiosity further. And funnily enough, I believe the next book I chose is meant to be approached in this exact way – though this time, I will read it cover to cover.

D12: Learning, Integrating & Asking

wealth as a positive-sum game (vs status zero-sum players will most likely always exist)
we locally reverse entropy in a globally accelerating entropy
time is all we have - “A busy mind accelerates the passage of subjective time.”

→ gained more clarity about my path, values and principles

How can I inspire the growth of readers and embodied teachers within my circle?

This has been the most difficult beginning of the day so far: deciding what to read next. Some old wounds were triggered, and I’m grateful this did not happen at the end of my studies.

Let’s return to the soul and Bhagavad Gita …

D13: Learning, Integrating & Asking

meaning in experience, doubt as paralysis at the crossroads, transmuting suffering into possibility and light (initiations)
authentic dharma needs to live in the intersection of commitment to mastering The Gift at The Times
decide = to cut off; unification is the very soul of dharma grasping vs aspiration (nonattachment, negative capability, disinterestedness)
discerning action strengthens faith

→ * getting out of the way more deliberately

→ worked with some of my cognitive distortions blocking my soul expression

What is my dharma requiring of me right now? And now? And now?

Where do I see and deeply know the detailed parts and the whole at the same time, in its essence, in Love?

Day 14

Shaping the environment for dharma to flourish

This book feels woven into the culture, and although I haven’t yet read it, I am sure its principles already shape my daily experience through my obsession with optimising my sacred structures. So I am excited to see the full framework and find out what I’ve missed and how I can improve!

D14: Learning, Integrating & Asking

external stimuli + internal emotions
identity-based systems > goals
context > will
no behaviour happens in isolation
imitating the close, the many, the powerful
we love making progress

→ more clarity on my desired tribe and soul family

What cultures and identities do we participate in and create as “normal”? Do we really want to live in them as they are?

Time to go for a walk and remind myself of the horror story of the Shimmer, not to be afraid but to continue navigating it and contributing to its shape consciously. Here I go, bravely!

D15: Learning, Integrating & Asking

overcome mindlessness, rumination, multi-tasking and reactivity by cultivating meta-cognition and training executive attention via concentration practices

→ feeling into the gratitude of my training as a marketer to navigate the Shimmer constructively, and now feeding it with only soul-aligned pieces, seeding the memes I value

→ genuinely grateful for the Dharma Artist Collective, where I have been training with my tribe every day for over a year

What are my ways I am meant to share my experience and knowledge to support visionaries in feeding the Shimmer with soul-aligned beauty efficiently?

How can I best be of service to co-create a world playing the infinite game?

I need to balance the curriculum and go inward and towards interconnectedness.

Erick, if you are reading any of this, yes, I am aware I am dancing with your thoughtfully curated guidance, and I am looking forward to going through it all again in your sequence, but this works wonders for me in this self-study round.

D16: Learning, Integrating & Asking

love vs romance
Western ideal of “true love” as a romantic love is a psychological package of beliefs, ideals, attitudes, and expectations to find meaning, wholeness, ecstasy and transcendence (spiritual meaning)
the only widely accepted place for spirituality and soul to live in its transcendental ecstasy and wholeness is currently romantic love
Pearl Without Price
as a society, we are still placing love and feeling in the service of power and profit
Tristan, Iseult (as a projection of anima), sword power and harp power, wine (morality of love potion)
“By humanizing anima we lose sight of our souls; by trying to make women divine we lose sight of their humanity and rob them of their womanhood.”

→ allowing myself and empower others to embrace the wholeness within and inviting us into the reality of both magical and mundane even more

What are my ways of approaching the feminine more honestly?

How can I contribute to the rebirth of the feminine from the unconscious to peaceful unity in wholeness?

Since I was a child, I have had a beautiful relationship with my dreams and was curious about them, but the only guidance available at the time was the classic cliché of using dream dictionaries. Thanks to the DAC, I started the practice of recording my dreams about a year ago, and only a few months ago I truly dived deeper into the process of their interpretation, with help of a dear friend and Erick’s GPT. It feels right to start the official dream knowledge journey with the article.

D17: Learning, Integrating & Asking

dreams as course-correctors (for compounded net positive or negative unconscious programming)
signs vs symbols
it’s okay to “get it wrong” - the dreamer will communicate again in following dreams
if the interpretation doesn’t reveal something surprising and uncomfortable, I am missing the message

→ tried the minute of focused attention without getting lost in thought - and couldn’t do it :)

Lucie, would you be interested in starting a deliberate dream practice? All in. When?

Day 18

Learning by listening to masters

I haven’t yet attended any of Erick’s popular Dream calls live, and have seen only a part of his recorded work with others, so I am looking forward to dedicating this time to the workshop as well as seeing how he helps others navigate the waters of dream interpretation. And hopefully, I will soon summon the courage to share one of mine on a call :)

D18: Learning, Integrating & Asking

keystone habit for the soul, eye of god
layers, parts of psyche, processes in our psyche
reading fiction before bed
active imagination

→ made a commitment to learn more about dream work and start fully listening to my dreamer after I finish this quest

In what ways can I incorporate dream work into innerscape photography as part of my practice, not just as a ritual?

All my journeying into the unknown has always been sober, without any medicine, so there is a part of me that hopes I will be able to understand, although I can’t relate to the lived experience. And even if not, I am sure something will speak to at least a part of me. And if not, that is perfect too!

Afternote: This one was the most challenging one to consume - I am not at all good with audio only (the link to the written version doesn’t work), and especially when intricate references, contexts and stories are told - to the point I feel like I could not consciously retain anything that I haven’t heard/learnt before. Yet I am curious how this experience might play out and resurface later.

D19: Learning, Integrating & Asking

heartmanning

→ having more reverence to the amount of work Erick has done and keeps doing - within and without - even though I don’t understand everything and can’t relate to everything

Where can I be simply more contextual, compassionate and connected?

Day 20

Ready to meet the ways of unknown closer

Experiencing not only Erick’s knowledge, this curriculum but also his lived experiences, I don’t think I need to say more than that I’m ready to dive deeper and practice accessing my unconscious in new ways deliberately when I finish this quest.

So, beginning with this book (which I suspect I’ll need to read more than once), let’s dive in.

I am also grateful for all the available materials, fellow artists’ contributions, and instructions that I have learnt in the DAC during the past year!

Afternotes:
I have so many notes from this book! New rabbit hole unlocked and I can’t wait to start questing this new lifelong path to the unconscious <3

Today I can say that out of the MF curriculum, this book and No Bad Parts have the biggest impact on how my day-to-day exploration and integration of my inner world evolves.

D20: Learning, Integrating & Asking

responsible active imagination after the deliberate practice of dream work

→ a physical copy of this book will soon be in my library

→ dream interpretation supported by a friend, and to be continued regularly

→ I commit to listening to and acknowledging the dreamer more

Where can/will dream work and active imagination take us, culturally? Did I just unlock my new obsession?

How and where can I safely and responsibly encourage more of these explorations?

There is an enormous amount of resistance to this book as I was, in a way, wounded by it over 15 years ago. Yes, I was a completely different person in different circumstances, yet there is a strong part of me trying to protect me from the damage I created for myself in that past version of me.

I know, I know, a beautiful opportunity to do the parts work and revisit this book from where I am now. I will, I promise, and maybe later I will share the story :)

I am not sure I remember the terms correctly, but what is helping me to even open this book again is the knowing that ‘brain dump’, ‘no open loops’, and ‘2-minute rule’ are things I first learnt here and still live by to this day.

Afternote: I also have to give credit to some of the processes that I have implemented without remembering that they were described in this book. I am grateful for the validation that the system I trust, and that works for me, makes sense.

D21: Learning, Integrating & Asking

trust your system
time, energy, priority, context for next actions
horizons

→ I fell in love even deeper with my current system that is working

→ I now see why I wounded myself with this book at the first place over a decade ago

What are the ways I can make my transitions between tasks even smoother and faster energetically?

Yes, the recap and reflection on this whole experience are coming soon!

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Mentally Fit Game - Daily Reflections