Tag Archives: School of Service

The School of Service

The School of Service

Do you know someone who absolutely delights in doing things for others? This is the person who plans the family parties, who babysits with a smile, who is the first in line to donate blood or chauffeur the soccer team to their next tournament game. They honestly want to help others achieve their goals and dreams, often providing free advice and resources to help make it happen. When they are asked to do something, their automatic response is ‘yes.’

I have several relatives like this, and they are wonderful people. That said, I worry sometimes about whether they are getting totally stressed out by taking such good care of everyone else. Are their own needs getting sidestepped in favor of everyone else’s?

On the flip side of the coin, do you know someone who demands that everyone else cater to them? There are folks who exude an air of entitlement, who take and take without appreciating (or even seeming to realize) the efforts others are making on their behalf. The dinner menu, the television remote, and division of the household chores are all under this person’s control.

WHORL These two kinds of behaviors embody the extremes of the School of Service. If you have four whorls in your ten fingerprints, this is your school.

The goal of students in the School of Service is to be conscious of the ways in which they want to serve. It is an ability and a willingness to discern and choose genuine, joyful service, without falling into servitude (which breeds resentment and burnout).

In navigating this school, people can fall into the two extremes described above, and suffer their negative effects. In the first instance, if you are constantly giving to everyone else, you may exhaust yourself, begin to feel resentful, and go from joyful, willing service to obligatory, victimizing service. You may also be making unconscious bargains with those you serve—“I’ll do this for you, but you need to come through for me in return.” (This isn’t service, by the way. It’s commerce.)

Any of these scenarios can result in a pendulum swing to the ‘other side’—swearing off being of service because you are tired of others taking advantage of you. You adopt the entitlement posture.

How about you? Do you fall into either of these camps? Whether or not you are in the School of Service, it’s helpful to notice your own service-related behaviors and attitudes!

Fingerprint Type and Life School

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Fingerprint Type and Life School

If you look at the tips of your fingers, you’ll see some patterns there. If you can look at the tips of your fingers with a magnifying glass under a good light source, you’ll see those patterns more clearly.

The patterns in your fingerprints come in four basic shapes or configurations. Here’s a picture of the four basic fingerprint types:

Print Samples Labeled

Arch: An arch is made up of ridges that run almost parallel to each other across the tips of your fingers. There may be a rise or bump in the middle, but there is no looping or poking or twirling around.

Tented Arch: A tented arch looks like an arch that has a tent pole sticking up in the middle (hence the term ‘tented arch’!). The parallel ridges of the arch have to travel up that pole, over the top of it, and down the other side.

Loop: A loop looks like a group of parallel ridges that enter from one side of the finger, rise up to some degree, then double back and flow out on the same side of the finger from which they entered.

Whorl: A whorl looks like a bullseye—a nice roundish target in the middle of your finger.

Each of these fingerprint types is associated with one of the Life Schools:

Arch: School of Peace – Feeling safe and balanced in your body
Tented Arch: School of Wisdom – Developing your awareness and intellect
Loop: School of Love – Recognizing the messages of your heart
Whorl: School of Service – Being of service to others

You can have any combination of fingerprint types on your ten fingers, from ten of a single type to a mixture of all four. Also, more than one type can even combine on a single finger. How many of each type you have determines your Life School(s). (More on that next time.)

So take a look—what patterns do you have on your fingertips?

What Is Life School, Anyway?

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What Is Life School, Anyway?

In the world of hand analysis, your Soul Psychology refers to the three aspects of your unique spiritual self—Life School, Life Lesson, and Life Purpose—that are revealed in your fingerprints. Because your Soul Psychology is based on your fingerprints, it doesn’t change over the course of your lifetime. As any good crime-show fan knows, fingerprints are used for identification because they are exclusive to each individual.

Your Soul Psychology is permanently hardwired into your psyche. It defines what, over the course of your life, will prove valuable and fulfilling for you. Knowing your own Soul Psychology can make a huge difference in your ability to navigate your world in a way that makes your life meaningful.

The Life School piece of your Soul Psychology is the foundation for your ‘world view.’ It’s the water in which you are swimming, the frame around your jigsaw puzzle—or maybe the table on which that puzzle is laid.

There are four Life Schools, representing four aspects of human development:

Feeling safe and balanced in your body
Developing your awareness and intellect
Recognizing the messages of your heart—feelings, intuition, empathy
Being of service to others

Harvard Business School

While we are all engaged in every Life School to some degree, one or two will require extra care and attention. Think of it as a course of study in the American university system. When we go to college, we have to complete general education requirements (dabbling in all of the Life Schools). But we also have to complete courses in our major area of study. Each student has at least one major (and sometimes more than one). Your Life School is your major.

And your fingerprints identify what that major (or majors) is for you.