THE HERO’S JOURNEY

The first half of our lives is about building an ego identity. To survive in the world, we adopt a persona at the cost of our inner reality. 

We repressed our anger, our opinion, our voice, as well as our joy and creative energy to fit in.

Then, at some point, it no longer worked, and we realised we could no longer live a lie to make those around us feel comfortable. 

Authenticity is a big part of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung’s life’s work. Jung defined a mature personality as ‘the supreme realisation of the innate idiosyncrasy of a living being’ (CG Jung, The Development of Personality, 1954). 

When the emotionally sensitive person is  ‘sick of normalisation’ (‘The aims of psychotherapy, Jung, 1954), and no longer feel able to hide their truths, Jung saw this as a sign of health.

Jung found that people often suffer from anxiety or depression at the mid-point of life (which for the old souls can mean anything from mid-twenties to late fifties) because they had strayed too far from their true nature. 

At the critical juncture, we enter a chaotic ‘liminal space’— a space where we anxiously float in an ‘in-between’ zone.

As Richard Rohr puts it:  “… It is when you have left the tried and true, but have not yet been able to replace it with anything else.  It is when you are between your old comfort zone and any possible new answer. If you are not trained in how to hold anxiety, how to live with ambiguity, how to entrust and wait, you will run…anything to flee this terrible cloud of unknowing.”  

Internal chaos is a rite of passage as we go through a transformation.

Many great artists and thinkers have to go through this to find their voice and to eventually put their unique stamps into the world.

Jung developed his theory of individualisation out of painful personal experience: Being the son of a paster in the Swiss Reformed church, he discovered early in his life, that he could not subscribe to the orthodox Protestant faith in which he had been brought up in. He did this again in his later life when he openly disagreed with his long term friend and mentor Sigmund Freud. Given Freud's prominence In the 1920s, Jung’s action required tremendous strength.  

Without his tenacity to break free, we would not have the Jung we know. 

Today,  I invite you to see the emotional crises throughout your life in a different light, and learn to honour your existential darkness as a turning page. The next page is authenticity and full aliveness.

Despite it being a precarious journey, it is ultimately worthwhile.

At the end of your existential darkness, you will come to a new level of intimacy with life, with yourself, and with people in your life.

“When we cease to shed what is dead in us to soothe the fears of others, we remain partial. When we cease to surface our most sensitive skin simply to avoid conflicts with others, we remove ourselves from all that is true. When we maintain ways we’ve already discarded just to placate the ignorance of those we love, we lose access to what is eternal’

- Mark Nepo

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YOUR STORY

For the next few weeks, we will be employing a technique in Narrative Therapy, where you get to author/ re-author the story of your life.

You will be invited to write a story- you do not need to think of it as being about you consciously. Free your imagination, and see what comes up!

Today, our task is to define your protagonist.

Sit quietly with a piece of paper and some pens, and try to draw up a protagonist for the story you will be creating.

What are the basic facts about the protagonist? What do they look like? How old are they? What do they do or enjoy doing in life?

What was their childhood like? Who were the major influencers in their life?

What are they good at?

What are they not so good at?

What would be their deepest desire?

What are the major obstacles faced by your protagonist?

Do not censor yourself, relax your mind and trust that whatever emerges would be the right thing.

We will continue on crafting this story in the next chapter.