90 Days of ILP

A clean inbox, a clean desk, a more supple body, a diet composed of fresh produce: none of these seem to be enough. Last evening found me chugging an entire bottle of Yellow Tail while watching the Enron movie all by my lonesome. Today I awoke early, only to spend the entire morning reading Cory Doctorow's Eastern Standard Tribe, nursing the usual hangover headache and sense of disappointment in myself. But, as Casey is wont to say, this too shall pass.

What is it, really, that separates ILP from a hundred other Body-Mind-Spirit systems just like it? On the outset, one would be right to surmise it to be the addition of "Shadow", but even that is at least implied in other systems. No, the real boon of ILP is, I believe, the concept of the One-Minute Module, the idea that ILP's concentrated, distilled practices are so effective that even practicing them for a minute is more effective than anything else you're currently doing.

Indeed, it is a supreme irony that such a grandiose theory as Ken Wilber's integral vision would yield such small-scale injunctions, but that's the beauty of it: integrative thinkers, because they supposedly understand the urgency of the "big picture" of a world gone batty, place a high premium on efficiency. We're busy, and we don't have time for 1-year meditation retreats or even 1-hour yoga classes. The One-Minute Module is a the espresso shot of personal growth.

The ILP kit offers nine One-Minute Modules pertaining to the Four Core Modules (Body, Mind, Spirit, Shadow), yet none yet for the "Auxiliary" (though hardly unimportant) Modules. To alleviate this deficiency, I'm opening it up to see what one could concieve as an effective distillation for each of these. Some opening shots:

Ethics Module: Such an important component for growth seems ill-suited for the one-minute treatment, but let's go for it anyways: for one minute at a time, do something nice for someone else. Especially effective would be to do something nice without telling anyone about it, i.e.: clean a section of your house you've never cleaned, buy your roommates some new food, empty the dryer lint trap, hold a door open for fifteen strangers entering Safeway, or pay the toll for fifteen more strangers on the highway. Search each day for opportunities for random acts of kindness, and see what happens.

Work Module: See Day 7's "three circles" idea, something I nicked from Good to Great. Another possible practice could be a one-minute visualization of what it would be like to be in the midst of your ideal working situation: what would your body feel like, where would you be, what would you be doing, who would you be talking to, what would your emotional state be like? I think that a regular practice of "feeling into" one's ideal work state could serve as a powerful future-magnet (chaos attractor basin, telos point, whatever) which could subtly guide one's actions towards this future goal.

Sex Module: Careful, careful. You won't be serving anyone by having sex for a minute. Even masturbation seems inconcievable for such a short time-span. Should you just look at porn? Compliment your significant other's southern regions? Visualize your genitals filling the entire room? Not sure on this one....

Relationships Module: Yet another instance where just one minute of anything seems entirely inappropriate, even if it's a quick make-out session during a tv commercial break. But if you really want to help your relationship grow, try something more mundane: pluck your eyebrows. Fold some socks. Do a couple sit-ups. Give a back-rub. Be nice to the in-laws (for a minute).

Emotional Module: What, oh what shall we do to exercise our emotional being for only a minute? Have a brief sob? Laugh until it hurts? Stare at ourselves in the mirror and smile? Look for "emotional transmutation" to be a practice offered in further versions of the ILP kit, as well as ILP level 2 seminars.

Unfortunately, this brief thought exercise has failed to rein in the feelings of vague malaise and directionless blase which have afflicted me all day. Let that be a lesson to all of us: no matter how "complete" a philosophical personal development system may be, the acute angles of real existence will always exceed its grasp. Now if I could only get a free minute....