In Pursuit of Balance

By Diogenes the Phoenix

The Pursuit of Balance is a user manual for the emotional and spiritual parts of your body. It was written while recovering from severe trauma and abuse and is intended as a handbook for how to climb out of the pit of despair.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Feb 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9781665737579

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Copyright © 2023 Diogenes The Phoenix.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical,

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permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

ISBN: 978-1-6657-3758-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-3757-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023901224

Archway Publishing rev. date: 03/14/2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS

About the Author

Chapter I:       Philosophy, Psychology and Religion

Chapter II:      Love Cards (1997)

Chapter III:     Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (1962)

Chapter IV:     The Enneagram or Nine-Sided Shape

Chapter V:       Energy/Chi/The Force/Good AND Evil

Chapter VI:      Resonance or Frequency

Chapter VII:     Yin/Yang

Chapter VIII:    Our Painful Path

Chapter IX:      OODA Loop

Chapter X:       Using it all together

Post Script

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I was the firstborn and only son of an engineer father and an artist mother. I gathered wildflowers and painted on the walls, I visited art, science, and history museums in the nearby metropolis. I had fish, then a dog that I love still to this day although he was allotted only 14 years with us, and went to sports events with my father while my mother took me to art classes. I had an amazing childhood, despite being molested by a neighbor boy. That damaged me to the core, but that demon kept itself hidden for decades- I realized that I was molested at 5 years old while I was in therapy at the age of 33. I had been withdrawn and fearful most of the rest of my adolescence. What I became was a fiend for knowledge, I voraciously read through novels, watched Shark Week and any WW2 history, learned new skills and information quickly, but was always socially awkward. I excelled academically but emotionally I was broken and naïve. When a senior in High School, I applied to a dozen colleges but when all my friends got their acceptance letters back- I had not. I assumed that I was getting rejection letters, so I sought a path that didn’t include fast food, as I was already overweight. That’s when the recruiter found me, and changed my life for the better. I learned confidence, I learned a trade, I learned discipline. I had been accepted to many of those colleges but I had already signed the agreement to show up to MEPS and was unaware I could still go to college if I didn’t take the Oath of Enlistment.

After boot camp, I went to my trade school training (not infantry) and was then sent to my first duty station. I was at first underestimated and assigned to a platoon medium machine gun team as we were an Infantry battalion. When I wasn’t at a gun shoot, I was working and then the command noticed my competency and drive. They trained me in other aspects of our trade, and when I mastered that quickly- they gave me more. When the Iraq invasion came, I was pulled from the gun team and given more responsibility. With that responsibility, I was repeatedly trusted to ensure that my different units passed inspections over my decade of service. After Iraq, we were sent to Afghanistan where I re-enlisted in country for a tax-free signing bonus and orders out of the Infantry. I served in a Base Unit, a Tank Company, a Command Unit and worked with Reservists. The years were rough physically and when it was time to re-enlist again my body said no FOR me. I left the service for government contracting in simulations, training deploying units. I did this for eight years over two different simulations devices and four different bases. Contracting paid so well, I purchased a friend’s business and when I stopped training others- I ran my store and eventually made a second one.

Despite all this success, I was still not whole-depression hounded me. The reason was that loss followed me: my first divorce while I was in service drained me for years, my second divorce cost me everything I had built contracting, but my third divorce is what broke me- I lost my daughter. I was inconsolable for 9 months, then the things I had been studying to try to understand it all began to connect. I found the answer to every question I had ever asked and would ever ask again. With that relief, I found the desire to share this answer.

The path you are on is not easy nor is it pleasant, but it IS rewarding.

CHAPTER I

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PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY

AND RELIGION

T O UNDERSTAND MY PLACE IN all of the chaos that is my life, I mentally and emotionally travelled the paths of philosophers. It also helps that my son was pursuing a Philosophy major and I love to encourage him. Like most of you reading this book, I had the Existential question of WHY!? I was at my darkest and lowest point of my life. I had ruled out suicide after my first divorce, but this time I questioned my religion and embraced Nihilism- was Agnostic for three days. I was angry at the world, angry at my country and angry at myself.

I had been a Deconstructive Empiricist; If I can clearly