Recently, we explored the big idea in which I asked you what myth are you living. If you’re still ruminating on this, here’s another tool that might help you drill into it: archetypes.
The concept of archetype is something Carl Jung spent a tremendous amount of time exploring and is so rich! Caroline Myss has built on Jung’s work and expounded on how we can access and utilize archetypal energy to better understand ourselves and the world.
A powerful way to help understand where you are on your life path, is to recognize what story or stories are playing out in your life. This is a question/idea that comes from Carl Jung. He famously said:
I was driven to ask myself in all seriousness: “What is the myth you are living?”
I found no answer to this question, and had to admit that I was not living with a myth, or even in a myth, but rather in an uncertain cloud
of theoretical possibilities which I was beginning to regard with increasing distrust.
Happy New Year!
Are you ready for 2025?
It still feels pretty new, which is why it’s helpful to employ some anchoring exercises to support you as you get clear about how you want this year to be for you.
I always start my year by choosing a word or phrase, something to focus on, dive into, and act as a theme or inquiry for the upcoming 365 days.
Some of the ones I’ve chosen in past years include: receive, relax, joy, shine, communion… you get the idea. Once you hit on your word (or phrase), the invitation is to spend the next 12 months deepening into how you can experience it in your life.
I love sharing spiritual tools with you with this blog.
Sometimes it's a poem, mantra, prayer, breath exercise, or affirmation. But each technique is one I’ve tried and tested over the decades and is now part of my box of go-tos. The ones I rely on when I need additional support, assistance or help reconnecting to the truth of myself, which is love.
Today I felt called to share one that I return to again and again. It's a breath I was taught by my guru over twenty years ago called the Chittakash, which is the heart space over the head.
The other day I saw this quote by Stephen Covey:
“The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.”
I’ve always considered myself a good listener, how about you?
I enjoy paying attention to what others say, but it’s definitely a different kind of listening when we truly want to understand what someone else is saying!
And despite thinking I was good at this particular skill, I got a whole new perspective a few years ago when I received training from a facilitator who was part of the Compassionate Listening Project
In today’s bully infested world, kindness is seen as weakness.
You and I both know that simply isn't true.
AND
Who wants to live in a world where we pull each other down and make each other wrong?
Instead, let's support one another, help us reach up and become our higher selves.
Which is why I'm making a stand for kindness.
Think about it.
How do you feel when you’re mean or cruel to someone?
Now think about how you feel when you’re kind.
Like fear, kindness is contagious.
Have you ever met someone and been truly inspired?
That happened to me with my first yoga teacher, Jayanta. His classes immersed us in bhakti or devotion. With every pose that we did, it wasn't about sweating or getting a work out, it was prayer in motion. It was an act of connecting to the divine and expressing that love through movement.
Recently I reconnected with him, and it inspired me to remember to infuse life with love and embrace prayer in action.
Because everything we do – from brushing our teeth, to mowing the lawn, to making a phone call - is an opportunity to share the love of God and to celebrate being alive.
Have you ever asked yourself what success really means to you?
Look around. People hurry and rush, busy chasing someone else’s definition of success – be it a parent, society, or cultural expectation.
Isn't it time to define success for yourself?
Take a minute, well okay, maybe 20, and dive in.
Ask yourself:
Have you ever wanted your moment – whatever was happening to be different?
When that occurs, how do you feel? Frustrated? Annoyed? Aggravated? Whatever the emotion, it’s a form of suffering.
For the past week, I’ve been exploring this idea – of wanting my moment to be other than it is - on a microcosmic level because I’ve been sick. And I was pissed about it.
I did not want to be sick.
Today more than ever it seems like we’re struggling with this idea of truth. We’re being bombarded with talk about real news, fake news, and it begs the question, what is truth?
Truth is fact, truth is honesty, and in personal life, truth is the willingness to put what you say and believe on the line.
Are you motivated to be more truthful with your loved ones?
I was never much of a football fan. I've always preferred art galleries and concerts.
In college I used to give my boyfriend a hard time for watching his beloved Bengals until one afternoon he said to me, “you don’t like football because you don’t even know what you’re looking at.”
Well, that got my attention.
Life then took me to Asia and I lost the little knowledge I had of football until recently.
