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
According to advent, a Christian tradition of preparation, the 1st week of December is the week of hope.
I always thought advent was about those fun children’s calendars. Remember them? The cute posters with little doors and windows that open for every day of December, and often hold little surprises behinds them.
Apparently there’s much more to advent than candies behind closed doors.
Advent invites us to slow down and reflect.
Did you enjoy the equinox?
Good news because the fall celebrations continue!
Everywhere folks are welcoming in the harvest. In India, it’s Durga Puja, the celebration of the Mother. And in the Jewish tradition, it’s the new year and the days of atonement, otherwise known as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
This time of year always feels like new beginnings to me. Maybe it’s the decades I spent as a student and then a teacher, but the fall is definitely a transition time.
There is a closeness to God now, and we see it actualized in many faiths. The veil is thin.
The spring and summer were all about outward expression, and now, as we have reaped the rewards from nature, it’s time to turn within.
What is it about failing that feels so hard?
Is it perfectionist syndrome?
Has our society become so risk averse we’re all afraid of looking stupid? Inadequate?
Because this fear of failure, it's pervasive!
Students unwilling to raise their hands lest they appear ignorant.
Employees afraid to ask for help, concerned they’ll look incompetent.
When I find myself stymied by the fear of failure, I always go worst case scenario.
Here's what I say, "if this all goes south, what’s the worst thing that can happen?"
The physical body truly remarkable.
And the more we learn about it, the more we see how interconnected our physical body is to our emotional well being.
Thanks to neuroscience, we now know that the body stores stress, memories, and trauma.
In part because the physical body is always present!
Whether you’re watching a movie or sleeping, working on the computer or making a speech – regardless of where your attention is, your body is present in that physical space.
It’s like the silent witness.
The other day I was talking to a young woman who’s been living in the city for a while. On a work trip recently she visited a sleepy town surrounded by national forest. While there, she realized the city was no longer feeding her.
More and more I hear that. And it echoes my own experiences.
I crave nature- trees, water, silence.
How about you?
I recently learned a new spiritual tool!
Do you have one?
If you’re like me and JUST heard about this, you’re in for a treat!
A God Box can be anything – a container you already have, a mason jar or a cardboard box you want to collage.
I’m always about collaging, but when I thought about what to use, I instantly knew.
I was recently asked to do a Daily Insight for the mediation app InsightTimer and the topic i chose was:
INNER JOY
Joy is what we all want, right?And yet is can feel so elusive.
If you’re ready to access that loving, happy place, here are 3 ways you can experience more inner joy right now.
The other day I got asked a question by a client about POWER.
As a woman, I'm acutely aware of when I have agency and when I feel powerless, know what I mean?
As we talked, I was reminded of a way of thinking about power that I learned from a book called Spiral Dance, by Starhawk that I read in the 1980s. (A kind of new age book before we even had that term, lol!)
As I remember it, she explained that there are 2 types of power:
Power Over & Power From Within
What we experience A LOT in our world is people exerting their power OVER others- to get what they want, to control people, to exert will...
But true power isn't about that at all.
True power is about being EMBODIED.
You know the difference, you can feel it.
So how do we awaken and harness our own internal power?
veryone wants to be happier, don’t we?
Yet connecting to that deep feeling of contentment, that absolute joy, that pure bliss often feels elusive.
We know it’s there. We see people who clearly have it. But we don’t.
The truth is, there are no exceptions.
Joy is here for you too.
And if you want to experience it right now, try one or all of these:
Over the past few weeks I’ve been trying to discern between what is feedback and what is criticism.
As a person committed to self growth, I care deeply about how I show up in the world, and with others. I strive to be in alignment with truth as much as I can be. So when I got some feedback recently, I found myself responding to it as if it were criticism.
At first, I rationalized that it was just my hormones. I was being over emotional.
Then I began to wonder what was “true” for me, and what was projection.
I went around and around with this.
Still, I persevered, wanting to know, wanting to identify my triggers.
If you’re a searcher like me then perhaps you’ve spent years trying to discover your “purpose.” Your raison d'être, the reason you were put on this planet.
I’ve spent years, maybe even decades trying to unlock that mystery! Heck, I even designed a 12-week course to help other people find their purpose!
Holy cow!
And then I finally stopped.
I stopped thinking (obsessing really) about it. I stopped trying to “figure it out.”
Let me clarify.
I didn’t stop because I thought I’d failed at finding it, no.
Over the weekend, I went to a basket weaving workshop. It’s my new favorite thing to do. I love writing, and making jewelry, but there’s something so primal about weaving.
I’d actually forgotten about the workshop because when I first signed up in January, I was put on the waitlist. Consequently, it never went on my calendar. So, when I got a call on Monday that I could go, well, I almost didn’t. I’d filled my week with other things! Did I really want to reschedule my appointments and drive to Portland, get a hotel room, blah, blah, blah?
Yes, I really did.
The night before I left, I checked the website again. There was a supplies cost of $5 but what tools? Then I saw a tiny hyperlink that said, SUPPLY LIST. Not only were there tools but a long list of other things to bring! It was 10pm!
Can you feel it?
That need to be creative?
The planets are shifting and realigning, old patterns are falling away, and we, ALL OF US, are being called to open more to our intuition and inner guidance. Being called to show up in a new way.
So what is it that is yearning to be birthed within you?
Ever since I decided to follow my joy, I've been exploring creativity in a new way. Really diving into it.
And part of what I've realized is that SO many endeavors we undertake- starting a new business, coming up with a social media plan, making dinner - ALL of these are creative, right?
This week, I thought I'd share a question I received from a student who is taking my Insight Timer course on mastering uncertainty.
She asks, how can she befriend fear when she has real life problems of paying her rent and health insurance for herself and her small child?
My heart went out to her. Because life can sometimes feel really hard.
When I get stuck in fear, it's as if all the doors shut, the windows are locked and I feel trapped and desperate, as if there are NO answers or ways to move.
So what helps?
This time of year seems to invite us in to contemplate the light within us, the light of faith.
What exactly is faith?
According to the Catholic theologian, St. Augustine, “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”
Mark Twain puts it this way, “Your faith is what you believe not what you know.”
For me, having faith means that I keep moving toward the goals and dreams I have, knowing that I am supported. Even if I cannot see the angels, guides or way-showers, I believe they are there, helping, healing and willing to be called upon for support.
Faith helps us to be buoyed and supported as we continue to choose love amidst all the fear and uncertainty that is perpetually stoked around us.
And as I look back at the turbulent 2018, and ahead to 2019, I feel called to invite all of us to strengthen our faith.
