One of the only antidotes to the poisonous black-sap from the Méxican chechén tree is nectar from another tree called chaca, which grows very near it. From this Mayan legend* has grown the lore that in the wild, every poison is accompanied by an antidote within the radius of human vision.

For example, for poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac, the jewelweed grows nearby. The antidote ‘horsetail plant’ grows very near ‘stinging nettle.’ I believe that these seemingly opposite and contradictory elements aren’t limited to the physical realm. They form the basis for psychological growth and healing.

Years ago, my honour's thesis at Concordia University in Montréal was on Event-Related Slow Potentials of the Brain. The findings of the studies we conducted were compelling.

In that pre fMRI era, we did surface EEG recordings of three “diagnosed” groups and compared results with a “normal” control group. The experimental paradigm was as follows: subjects listed for a “warning’ tone (P1) that signaled that another tone (P2) was about to occur. On the second tone, the job was to push a button and – task done. Without exception, an expectancy wave arose in the brain while it was anticipating the second tone. 

Blocks refer to either persistent outdated beliefs of a company, or to a description of people who are stuck in the past through denial. If you have a critical mass of an outdated belief system and stuck people (33% or more), you’ll spin your wheels no matter how hard you push on the gas.

How to Identify Blocks:

Behaviors vary according to style and situation, but these are tell-tale language cues: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  “We’ve always done it this way.”  “That would never work here.” “We tried that once and it didn’t work.”  “This is just another fad, it’ll pass.” “I’ll hide until this computer trend passes.”

Tangles develop in companies that have been told to speed up and are trying to move faster without first streamlining their focus. They form most often when vision is fuzzy, priorities unclear, ambiguity and uncertainty high, workload high. The greater the anxiety, the more tangled. People in Tangles are used to them and don’t know that they are dysfunctional. Tangles will stop progress in its tracks.

How do you know if you're Tangled? Here are Five Signs:

Changes you’re going through at work seem never-ending. Some days I bet you just want to lie down and let it all go by. I get it.

I wasn’t acting or feeling very pilgrim-y during the first couple of weeks of my 40-day pilgrimage across Spain to Santiago de Compostela. The trek was more difficult than I had anticipated, with long daily walks of 20-30km of ups and downs in the rain, snow and everything in between. My pack was heavy, my shoes hurt, my toenails were off. I was tempted to check into a hostel and check out six weeks later and saying that I had done it. Who would know?