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 the last blog, the focus was on spiritual strategies to help you feel less anxious and afraid. Today, we’re exploring ways to harness the power of your mind to help control your thoughts so they don’t control you.
Ready?
One of the ideas we discussed in the last blog was: How you start your day is how you live your day. Remember?
Intention ties into this beautifully.
Let’s be honest, some days are just hard, especially if you’re a sensitive person!
We can glance up from the microcosm of our lives, and gasp at what’s happening across the globe, from searing heats and drought to political discord.
Maybe you’ve found yourself, your emotional self, teetering on the edge - trying hard not to fall into fear or anxiety- as you face this elevated level of uncertainty.
To support you through these times, I’ve put together tools to help you manage the discomfort you’re feeling be it anxiety, apprehension, dread, fear…
Over the next few weeks, I’ll provide you with tools and practices you can incorporate and use. This blog, is focused on the spiritual level. In subsequent weeks, we’ll look at mind habits, body practices, as well as community engagement.
Let’s dive in!
Is it just me or are you feeling like we’re in a moment of rapid change?
I look around and everything appears to be in motion. People moving homes, getting different jobs, tackling new health problems…
Even though my life feels relatively stable, I’m traveling more and am busier than ever!
And while that all feels exciting, especially after the cloistering we’ve done these past few years, I find that my heart rate can get elevated from managing both the amount of change as well as the rate with which it is happening!
When I graduated from college, I was intent on saving the world from a climate disaster.
I’d taken classes on hydrology and fossil fuel use in my senior year that awakened me the impending doom on the horizon.
And despite the fact that I actually graduated with a degree in art history, I pestered my way into an internship at the Union of Concerned Scientists. There, we created and ran a nationwide symposium on global warming.
It was 1989.
Within a year, I was half a world away in Hong Kong, struggling to figure out how to continue doing environmental work when I lacked an engineering degree and my Cantonese was lousy.
Determined to make a “difference,” I began teaching.
