To explore each concept, click on its page to the right. This blog gives you a venue to share your thoughts about these ideas.
The GATE is an acronym representing 4 components of healthy living (Genuineness, Awareness, Trust, Empathy). While each letter is an independent concept, it also has traits of the preceding letters (Empathy is built from G, A, and T; Genuineness is built from A, T, and E, and so on…).
When we conjure up an image of a gate, we see an object that simultaneously opens into areas that are cherished and expansive, keeps perceived dangers at bay, and holds in things that are meaningful, even sacred to us. It is the meaning, or intention, that we bring to the gate that provides its primary function. This intention guides us in ways that we may not be aware of; when we begin to feel certain emotional states, we are discovering the ‘gate’ between the conscious mind, or our known thoughts, and our unconscious mind, or the thoughts we don’t ‘hear’ but that influence us directly, and deeply. Opening this gate enables us to create a flow between the conscious and unconscious mind; it helps us to bring our unconscious influences into the light of awareness, or consciousness.
As our consciousness opens, we realize that joy, love and gratitude exist to encourage the behaviors that elicited them; it is as if they fuel themselves. We also realize that pain, discomfort, anger ,etc. exist to motivate us to change so that we can return to a state of joy, love, gratitude, contentment, etc. Once we allow this into our consciousness, we perceive a shift in intention of our own gate; it allows us to see discomfort as a force that can lead to positive change, not just an experience that keeps us stuck in suffering.
Each concept of the GATE is first applied to the self, then to others, as when growing towards freedom and happiness, we naturally turn inwards via thought and meditation to seek direction, motivation and meaning. For this reason, the GATE is designed to help us remember that self-care is not selfish—it is necessary in order for us to meaningfully connect with others.