The Checklist--Optimizing the Portals for Fundamental Well-being
To explore how your body-mind benefits from maximizing the effectiveness of the Six Portals (or core experiences, or Selves, or internal Personae) we need a way to check in with each one.
At any given moment of your day, one or more of the Portals is ripe for attention. You already are familiar with this when it comes to the physical body; you know that at various times during the day you need to eat, or drink, or rest, or exercise.
You are so used to recognizing and responding to your body's signals that you don't have to devote much thought to giving what it needs next.
Eventually you will intuitively understand which feeling-states to favor at a given time, the same way you now do with physical states. But in the beginning it's helpful to have a tool. A useful one is the AHA Checklis
This is a list of the 5 or 6 or 8 feeling-states that are part of your personal emotional RDA. Our Six Portals are a good starting point; yours may differ. You go down the list one at a time, asking, “Is THIS the core experience I would benefit most from right now?”
In some cases the answer will involve something done on your own, but you can also use family, friends, and colleagues to evoke one or more of the states.
Ask questions like these:
AWE: Is Awe what my psyche would like to experience most right now? Is the emotional feeling-state most in demand a sense of wonder at the mystery of my self and the universe? If so, what phenomenon in my current environment elicits such a state? Is there an online experience, like pictures or videos of Art, or Nature, or astronomy, or historical figures, or music, that reliably puts me in awe? [In 2025, the most consistent source of awe for AHA members is the miraculous power of current AI. We are still gob-smacked by the questions it can now answer with authority.]
GRATITUDE: What can I do to inspire Thankfulness in others? What are things in my immediate environment I can feel grateful for? What is something I can do that will bring about a shared sense of gratefulness in myself and loved ones now? Who can I reach out to to share feelings of gratitude?
LAUGHTER: Does my psyche feel a need for humor? What did I find funny in the last 24 hours? What memory can I call up that always makes me laugh? Can I just laugh spontaneously for no reason?
HERO’S JOURNEY: Can I feel a yearning for a sense of communal self-sacrifice for the common good?
Did I hear of something a friend or family member did that showed uncommon valor without self-benefit?
Can I think of a news story that showed people triumphing over hardship? Can I contribute to an existing project that serves others selflessly, or create my own?
MICRO-EXPERIMENTS: Do I find myself craving a different experience, nothing akin to my existing routine? Would I appreciate diving headfirst into something I know nothing about? Would my brain feel like it’s been flushed with cold water and ready for new adventure if I used it in a vastly different way for a while? Can I find something, perhaps in an online video or article, that presents an interesting challenge that will transport me far from my current routine and leave me refreshed, with new thoughts and sensations?
BRAINSTORMING: This comes last in the list, because the preceding ones are preparation for it. Once the mind is stretched by awe, heartened by gratitude, inspired by heroic action, pulsed with laughter, and refreshed by a deep dive into something completely different, it is ready to invite a brainstorm. This means thinking of an issue in one’s life and work, and exploring to see if there are wildly disparate insights from varied parts of the brain that can shed new light on an issue and find a fresh, overarching approach or solution. The more the previous core experiences are invoked, the more often the ability to brainstorm is enhanced. Nowadays this usually involves some kind of conversation with ChatGPT or another AI.
After you've used a written checklist for a while, you will internalize the questions and will no longer need a reminder. Eventually it will just be obvious which feeling state would be most beneficial to your psyche at this moment.
