A Mason's Work

This episode shifts the lens inward, exploring how the function of the Guide can be applied to our own internal "headspace" to navigate personal struggles and behavioral changes.

High-Value Quotables
[01:00] "When we talk about the guide, we're talking for ourselves about extending that care and concern to note well when we are stumbling and struggling and alter our path." 
[01:30] "The guide is not an education role... The guide's responsibility is essentially to notice the situation, evaluate the path you're taking... and know whether or not those are helping you achieve your objectives." 
[03:13] "The guide really does not offer a meaningful judgment. That function just evaluates the situation. It is like an awareness function." 
[04:13] "Conduct a little bit of like a risk analysis, like, 'Hey, am I doing something right now that represents a high risk behavior? And will that undermine my objectives long-term?'" 
The Core Concept: Internalized Awareness
Guiding yourself involves using the "Guide function" to observe your own choices and behaviors that may seem mysterious or even unhealthy. It is not about harsh self-discipline or "smacking the donut out of your hand," but rather about observing when a strategy isn't working and compassionate course correction.

Key Takeaways:
  • Care and Concern: Extending the same empathy we show a Brother in the Lodge to our own mental and emotional struggles.
  • Awareness without Judgment: The Guide acts as an observer that evaluates a situation objectively rather than providing moral judgment.
  • Evaluating Alternatives: Observing if a current path aligns with your long-term objectives and adjusting the "course of travel" to match.
  • Internal Risk Analysis: Recognizing high-risk behaviors and understanding their potential to undermine your personal growth.
Reflection Question:
In what area of your life could you benefit from being a "compassionate observer" rather than a "harsh judge"? 
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Creators and Guests

Host
Brian Mattocks
Host and Founder of A Mason's Work - a podcast designed to help you use symbolism to grow. He's been working in the craft for over a decade and served as WM, trustee, and sat in every appointed chair in a lodge - at least once :D

What is A Mason's Work?

In this show we discuss the practical applications of masonic symbolism and how the working tools can be used to better yourself, your family, your lodge, and your community. We help good freemasons become better men through honest self development. We talk quite a bit about mental health and men's issues related to emotional and intellectual growth as well.

[00:00] we spoke briefly yesterday about the role of the guide and what the guide is and what it does,
[00:05] but from a behavioral level for your own sort of internal use, it's important to understand
[00:11] what the guide function represents in your own sort of headspace. How can you guide yourself?
[00:20] It's a really interesting question. When we look at our own behavior,
[00:24] there will very likely be parts of what we do and things that we choose to do that may seem
[00:32] mysterious. We may not know why we do the things we do. We may not do some of the stuff that is
[00:43] always the best for us, maybe not the healthiest or not the most nourishing or not the most
[00:51] respectful of our own mental and emotional and physical health. So when we talk about the guide,
[01:00] we're talking for ourselves about extending that care and concern to note well when we are stumbling
[01:09] and struggling and alter our path, to observe when we are doing things that don't work,
[01:18] uh, to evaluate alternative strategies. The guide does not ever provide answers. In fact, it's impossible
[01:30] for the guide to do so. The guide is not an education role. The guide is not, um, uh, super informative in
[01:38] that regard. The guide's responsibility is essentially to notice the situation, evaluate the path you're
[01:47] taking or the behaviors you have or the things you're doing and know whether or not those are in
[01:53] helping you achieve your objectives, whatever they might be. So if you're trying to keep using,
[02:00] uh, losing weight, uh, because it's kind of the easy and obvious, uh, angle. Most everyone in life has at
[02:07] some point tried to either lose or gain weight. Uh, when we look at the guide, it's, you know,
[02:13] the guide's responsibility is not necessarily to like smack the donut out of your hand, right? Guides
[02:20] don't do that. What the guide will say is, you know, listen, the behaviors that you're undertaking right
[02:25] now, um, I have to adapt our course to match. So either we can, an example of, of the diet, we can take
[02:35] the donuts out of the house or make the donuts a special occasion item or alter our path in some
[02:42] way so that it doesn't lead us straight to donuts every day. Right. Uh, now it's an oversimplified
[02:49] example for those of you that are struggling with eating disorder. I certainly don't mean to trivialize
[02:54] this, but it is important to essentially take something that most people know and try and apply
[03:00] some of these principles that we have in the craft. And so your internal experience might be much more
[03:07] nuanced and much more subtle and much more, uh, involved in engaging and difficult. So again,
[03:13] don't mistake the example as, as trivializing your plight. If you're experiencing, you know,
[03:17] that as a difficulty, but when we talk about guiding ourselves as well, uh, the guide really does not
[03:24] offer a meaningful judgment. Uh, that function just evaluates the situation. It is like an awareness
[03:33] function. It, it observes and notices the situation and directs the candidate or directs yourself
[03:41] appropriately. Um, when you're doing this in the room for a brother, uh, it's, it's a lot of it is
[03:48] just making sure that people that you're helping through this process, um, feel cared for. They feel
[03:57] safe. They feel like the risks that they may be taking are ones that are within a tolerable comfort
[04:06] level. Uh, and so in the same way, when you apply this to yourself, you're going to want to conduct a
[04:13] little bit of like a risk analysis, like, Hey, am I doing something right now that represents a high
[04:18] risk behavior? And will that undermine my objectives long-term? Uh, and so take this guide process,
[04:25] uh, internalize it a bit. I would love to hear, uh, some of the ways that you have guided yourself,
[04:32] uh, and your own behavior in that compassionate space where you notice and observe, and then maybe
[04:39] pass on, uh, to the other roles in the lodge in your mental head lodge. Um, uh, those roles to other
[04:48] officers that may have helped craft better solutions than the guide is capable of creating.
[04:54] Uh, so use this work and, and sort of share with us what you got and we'll put it out here on the
[04:59] channel or we'll put a, put it out on the blog or what have you, uh, help a brother out. Thanks.