A practice is powerful and it might be the only thing you need to shift things permanently.
A daily meditation practice.
A daily reading of spiritual material.
A daily journalling session.
Choose something and stick with it for weeks, months, years.
Every success holds within it bitter disappointment.
Every failure holds triumph.
No state contains only good.
Continue reading “Presence”
The only way not to sink deeper into quicksand is to stop struggling. You have to stop squirming and writhing. You have to remain absolutely still physically. When you come to physical stillness, you can drift to the top. You can be released from being stuck and sinking deeper.
Continue reading “Quicksand”Many years ago, I went through therapy that uncovered a very deep and traumatic childhood wound. I fell into a depression after that. This lasted years. The first year was the worst. On some days, I could not get out of bed. I felt lazy.
Continue reading “You Might Not Be Lazy”Every time I learn a new song on the guitar, there is an impulse to want to play something that I already know. This feeling is always there—the impulse to move away from the difficulty. It is the same with emotional work. There is an impulse to push away the uncomfortable feeling. The grief, the anger, the shame—that which is painful.
Continue reading “The First Year Of Emotional Work”
There’s an asymmetry between building something and destroying it.
It takes weeks and months to build a house. Many hands and machines. It takes one fire to burn it down. One person’s anger is enough to make that happen—if the person is resentful enough.
This is is why emotional maturity is important. It doesn’t matter what we build if we cannot stop our self-destructive behaviour.
(Click here for UPDATED VERSION)
In very simple terms, emotional integration is when the internal charge of an uncomfortable emotion dissolves.
The tricky thing is this: We are often unaware of what emotions we have stuffed down. We might not be aware of every single thing that we felt during a traumatic event. Some things stay buried for very long.
On one level, we know that we’ve integrated a trauma when we no longer feel charged emotion when we think about it. But that is not to say that there isn’t still some stuff beneath the surface of our awareness.
Continue reading “What Is Emotional Integration?”
No one believes that they will only have to finish one run to become fit. I’ve never encountered this sort of thinking when it comes to physical fitness. But I encounter this idea often when it comes to emotional work.
Continue reading “Emotional Work Is Analogous To Physical Exercise”
In Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Jung writes about a time in his life where he had many extraordinary dreams and visions. Jung had countless dreams throughout his life—some of which he discusses in detail in his memoir—but from about 1913 to 1917 his exposure to unconscious information was ramped up.
During that period he had accurate visions and dreams about the world war. He encountered various archetypes and, believe it or not, he even received guidance from a non-physical spiritual guide, called Philemon. I found this fascinating. How many scientifically-minded thinkers of Jung’s calibre will admit to seeing visions and spirit guides? I would venture a guess and say, not many.
Continue reading “Jung’s Moon Phase | What To Do When You Are Suddenly And Unexpectedly Bombarded with Psychic Information”Many years ago, I wrote on my whiteboard: “Control someone’s emotions, control them.” I came to this conclusion after witnessing the reactive nature of large groups of people. Highly charged emotions such as anger and fear are highly contagious. Anger is flammable. Fear is infectious.
Continue reading “Why Emotional Awareness Matters”