Finding Your Tribe
Who are you surrounding yourself with?
If you have a petri dish of mammary gland cells that are healthy and have plenty of food, what will they be doing? They produce milk. If you place one cancer cell in the middle of these healthy cells, then what will happen? Most people think that the cancer cell will take over, and then you will have a petri dish of cancer cells. Others will think that the mammary gland cells will take over and kill it. What really happens is quite remarkable. The cancer cell ceases to act cancerous, and becomes a partner in producing milk.
This is because of a thing called intercellular communication in which the cells will communicate with each other using RNA or small protein chains to the task at hand.* The reason the one cell has become cancerous is because the interior RNA of the cell has become damaged, so it no longer has a plan or direction of what to do. So it starts acting crazy like Charles Manson or Dick Cheney! When you have healthy cells next to it, they send out RNA molecules reminders of who they are, so that they are on the same page. This enables the cancer cell to receive the correct information so that it knows how to behave with its surrounding tribe. The cancer cell only continues to grow out of control when the surrounding cells are sickly, and the surrounding cells can't send reminders, love notes, or Christmas cards to the other cells.
In the body every cell tells the cell next to it what it should be doing. And it becomes something different. Cells next to muscle cell say "Let's get pumped!" Cells next to nerve cells say "I'm nervous!" At the end of a joint, a cell tells the cell next to it "that's far out man."
Every cell in the body tells the next cell what to do. Your whole body is being run by gossip. This is so that your big toe knows what your ear is doing.
In the body there are many different members, some are for a more honorable purpose, and some are for a more dishonorable purpose. One of these members can be an ear, an eye, or a mouth which are very important for communication. In a large group, you have probably noticed that one of the people is an asshole. Just as in the body, if there is not an asshole then you are full of shit and you die.**
The people around us influence who we are. Your tribe will help you keep your identity, remind you of and hold you accountable to your passion. This is how the body grows from one cell to trillions cells. It's all about community. The first cell is just a cell, how does the cell know how to grow? How does this happen? It's by being a part of the tribe. Biology, your life, it’s all the same thing!
You cannot do this alone. If you want your passions to come to fruition, you must find your tribe. These people will hold you accountable. They will ask you, "Hey why aren't you following your schedule?" or "Did you hear about the carbon fiber 3D printer that we can use for our spaceship?" or "Did you hear about Brad, he broke up with Janet?" Or they will check to see how clean you house is, or if you have a bad haircut. Your tribe will let you know so you keep on task.
Who do you surround yourself with? Do these people support your passions? Are these people the naysayers of your passions? Do they remind you, when you are not feeling well, what your real goals and passions are in life? Do they isolate you and make you act crazy? Do they support you and help you on your rainy days?
You can have more than one tribe. Family tribe. Work tribe. Religious tribe. Exercise tribe. Game tribe. Shoe tribe. Work tribe. School tribe. Hobby tribe. Cooking tribe. Bicycle tribe. Space tribe.
...but what is your Passion Tribe? Which tribe will support you in your passion? The tribe here has a goal of helping you with your passion. Kaivala is a "we-will-help-you-tribe." This is different from a self-help-tribe. Self-help-tribes are very lonely. It's like self abuse. One person's tribe is another person's prison.
A tribe only needs two things. The first is shared interest. A tribe that has a disjointed interest will fly around like a plastic bag from one story to the next and have no direction. If a tribe is clear on its interest, it will be easy for them to develop relationships and trust each other within the tribe. The second thing that a tribe needs is a way to communicate. A tribe that does not communicate will not grow, and will not be able to keep itself safe from becoming overtaken by other interests. If a tribe is clear on its interest/intent and communicate with each other, this will be a solid tribe to be supportive of you.
In order to discover who our tribe is, we need to hone our powers of observation, understand our passion, examine what we schedule time for, and find out what motivates us. Once we understand what our passion is, we will be looking for others who listen to us with rapt attention. What kinds of people do we find ourselves attracted to?
We all have our special circle of friends that we feel comfortable with. Friends that know us well. Friends that know our good points and know our bad points.
You may have heard the song "Sometimes you want to go, where everyone knows our name." These circles of friends vary in size from three or four people, up to several thousand. They may have different jobs, different personalities, and different goals, but the best tribes always have one thing in common. They all have the same interest.
When we get into our tribe we must know how to communicate. Communicating is not nagging, bitching and complaining. Communication is listening, evaluating constructive criticism, and redirecting a person to their passions. This is why many groups, when they get together for meetings, will read bylaws, or mission statements at the beginning of the meeting, to remind everyone in the tribe what their purpose is. They may need to remind everyone that is a part of the watercolor group, that this is not a high heel shoe group. The high heel shoe group will meet next tuesday at 2:30.
What is your main tribe? Is your focus with so many tribes that you do not end up getting anything done? The most important tribe is 'what is your passion tribe'. This is why yoga is so important. Yoga yokes you to your tribe. It helps you to maintain balance. These people will come together to pursue their mutual interests. They form clubs, go to internet sites, attend conventions, read articles, and dress up in ways that let the world know who their tribe is.
When you ask your friends to join you, they will either accept you or they will laugh at you. This will tell you what tribe they belong in. Do you want fear to keep you from finding your tribe? Do you want to be surrounded by cancerous people for the rest of your life?
Rejection is wonderful, it frees you up. When you get rejected you know that others aren't interested. You have many people to search to find your passion… Go Find THEM!!! Rejecting others is also a joy because this makes our commodity more valuable. In sales our product becomes more valuable when we tell people that what we have is for the elite, vip, most intelligent, or the ones with the most money. The same goes with yourself, if you spend most of the time with the best, you will not be a loser nor will others see you as a loser. This is the Tom Sawyer Effect.*** Humans want what they cannot have. The best way to be more valuable is to become unavailable.
Revealing which people attack or promote us will help us understand who our tribe is. As humans we need to feel like we belong. This is as important as air, food and water. We are complex and want to belong to more than one tribe. If we belong to more than one tribe this improves our chances of survival. As we are rejected by others, we realize that they are not our tribe. As we reject other people, it helps us understand that they are not members of our tribe. They may be good people with good qualities, but they are not really members of your tribe.
When you find your passion you will need to find a tribe that has the same passion. They will support you and help you along your path. To get anything done you will not be able to do it alone. You need a team!
If we are around sick people, do we become sick. If we are around people that are trying to be healthy, we will have a better chance of being healthy ourselves. Whoever we hang around will influence the directions that we take in life. These people become our tribe. What are your goals? Health? Wealth? Knowledge? Wisdom? Compassion? Whatever our goals are we need to find people that have similar goals.
You can have more than one tribe. Family tribe. Work tribe. Religious tribe. Exercise tribe. Game tribe. What is your Passion Tribe? Which tribe will support you in your passion? The tribe here has a goal of helping you with your passion. This is a "we-will-help-you-tribe." This is different from a self-help-tribe. This tribe's goal is to help you with your passion. Self-help-tribes are very lonely. Its like self abuse.
Kaivala is a we-will-help-you Tribe. You need to schedule several hours a week to be with this tribe. Homework to empower your passions will be included.
Genetic disposition