There is nothing worse than a false prophet because it exploits people's hopes and dreams for personal gains - be those gains material or immaterial.

The reason I bring up false prophets is because who we become and how we transform throughout our lives is heavily influenced by outside people, ideologies, philosophies, norms and rules. Ultimately, we all are complex puzzles, with each piece traceable to another human being who - directly or indirectly - had access to our mind.

Some of these guiding and transformative forces are genuinely positive and constructive, but some can be willingly or unwillingly detrimental to our development, growth, and transformation. Over time, these influences can help us grow, or, they can stunt and prevent us from expanding into our own power and identity.

One of the most powerful tools I use in my personal life is the intentional inquiry into the origins of who I am. This critical thinking-based process involves honesty and humility and also a librarian type of mindset.

Like a librarian, we can search and catalogue our library of ideas and principles acting at our mental, emotional, and moral core. We can connect the dots of our thoughts, trace them to the moment when we first acquired them, and - most importantly - we can question their validity and relevance in our lives.

In some sense, when we choose to be deeply involved in the making of ourselves, we act as researchers, designers, and architects of who we are.

If we surrender this process to external systems, we become extensions of those systems, pieces of social puzzles, validated because we fit in, yet rendered relatively irrelevant since clones are easily replaceable.

Somewhere in the "middle" we struggle to negotiate and make sense of the collision between who we are and who the society wants us to be.

More so, societal systems never stop adjusting us into place, until slowly we identify ourselves with the place we are given and the tasks we perform within society. For most humans, this process provides a sense of security and even comfort, while for others this is a traumatic experience as they attempt to remain true to themselves while being under the pressure of fitting in. Artists are the one category that expresses this struggle the most, but all humans experience this inner conflict to some extent - regardless of age, or social status.

Because of this conflict, we experience various degrees of stress, and stress requires - demands, even - our mental and emotional present involvement in order to manage it. As much as we’d like to outsource the management of our inner stress, work is demanded of us in order to maintain our balance.

Having a personal Guiding System is a phenomenally powerful resource and strategic ally in our daily negotiations with life. For many, Faith is their guiding system, for others like myself, a Socratic approach feels better grounded and more practical, then, for many others who lack a consciously applied guiding system, life may seem like whitewater rafting or a never ending rollercoaster from dawn to dusk.

A personal guiding system is crucial if we wish to establish our inner sanctuary, it is the buffer between the real world and who we are at our very core and designing such a system takes some time and energy invested in introspection. Once this system emerges from our mind, it can remain fixed - which often happens if the system is faith-based - or, it can adapt, expand, and change along with us as we experience life in its wonderful diversity and unpredictability.

Needless to say, a personal guiding system is akin to driving skills. The more skilled we are, the less we are prone to crashing. Ironically, a guiding system can be empowering even when it is in reference to our limitations. For example, knowing that we cannot sustain loud noise for too long of a period, can help us navigate around and away from such a loud environment, thus, helping us maintain our inner balance.

This does not mean that we are weak or that we avoid loud noises. Our inner guiding system is not meant to perform action, but to guide our decision-making. A guiding system is not an engine, but a navigational system closely connected to who we are as individuals.

Without an inner guiding system, we are more inclined to errors in our choices, less capable to change and pivot when it would serve us well, and eventually prone to getting lost more often.

Just like our bodies and our minds, an inner guiding system requires training and determination. In fact, the origin point of an inner guiding system is self-determination - a profound need and desire to ourselves in a world designed for standardization.

An inner guiding system is empowering. Necessary even, if we wish to sustain the obstacles and challenges we inevitably encounter in life. Whatever system you may adopt or design for yourself, if it works then it serves you. How do you know if it works? It brings balance to your inner chaos.

What system do you have in place, to help you navigate life and its sea of conflicts, big or small?

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At KineOasis we are dedicated to the empowerment and creative freedom of our students through the exploration and intelligent study of movement in a relaxed and non-toxic learning environment. We use Movement as a means to naturally empower ourselves and our students, to intervene with development as needed, and to enhance everyone's quality of life. Movement As Sanctuary - A method and teaching philosophy life.