People can find their stable base from which to take this journey in many ways.
Leonardo DaVinci found his base in nature, as do many who can see through life forms to the metaphors and actions of natural life forces. Ray Bradbury found his base in libraries, as do many who discover the people and perspectives from across time who wrote and filled the books that bring us worlds we never dreamed of on our own. We recognize them when we find them.
Following your work to where it leads can be a base. For example, if you sell shoes, you learn about the manufacturing of shoes, and you learn about feet. Eventually you will learn not only about different kinds of feet that need different kinds of shoes.
Emerging life during metamorphosis. Not what it was. Not what it will be. Always true to itself. New way of being is here.
You will learn about feet that have no shoes. And you will learn about the ecology of shoes and the lifestyles and working conditions of the people making the shoes.
The whole chain of obtaining the material through to placing a shoe on a foot becomes clear, with all the consequences, good and bad, involved on that chain. And you, staying with your job, expand your work as you expand your consciousness and honor your values.
If you wish, and someone is available, in-depth psychotherapy can introduce you to this journey and create a structure as you proceed. Someone who understands the psychic world and respects your own uniqueness can help you hold the tumultuous challenges, celebrate your advances, appreciate your pain without collapsing into it and help you recognize the quality and meaning of the choices you face.
Working with your dreams, using guided imagery and active imagination, and exploring your responses to images and metaphors in life, in art, film and story can show you the rising of feelings, perspectives, yearnings and knowing long buried and unarticulated in yourself.
Your adventure, because this inner journey is what many consider the greatest adventure, is to maintain a conversation between your conscious self and your unconscious self. This dialogue not only reconciles the conflicts within you.
It releases energy that has been bound in those conflicts. New energy coupled with your appreciation of who you are and what you really care about propels you into your more expanded life based on your core of authentic and evolved identity.
Action for Your Authentic Life in Six Steps
Action for Your Authentic Life in Six Steps - Steps One and Two
Action for Your Authentic Life in Six Steps - Step Three
Action for Your Authentic Life in Six Steps - Step Four
Action for Your Authentic Life in Six Steps - Step Five
Action for Your Authentic Life in Six Steps - Step Six
Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Written by Joanna Poppink, MFT. Joanna is a psychotherapist in private practice specializing in eating disorder recovery, stress, PTSD, and adult development.
She is licensed in CA, AZ, OR, FL, and UT. Author of the Book: Healing Your Hungry Heart: Recovering from Your Eating Disorder
Appointments are virtual.
For a free telephone consultation, e-mail her at
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