We are born with all the human traits; greed and generosity, productivity and idleness, and, organization and spontaneity. However, in order to be accepted into our childhood family we learned very early which qualities were valued more than others and which were perhaps, not even allowed. We may have been told, ‘Don’t cry’ or ‘You’re […]
Revisiting Our Families
For the most part, we end up in a ‘family’ – whether biological or adoptive. It is a place we call ‘home’, or at least, a place we associate with childhood, with some type of authority or caretaking figures. A healthy family environment provides children with a sense of physical security (food, shelter, bed, clothes), […]
Challenging Our Inner Authority
One of our inner archetypal masculine voices – The King – deals with our personal authority. This inner force, which also shows up in dream images, appears as The Leader, Boss, Father, Chief or Supervisor. We want our inner King to be organized, confident, level-headed, perceptive and benevolent. We want our ‘ruling’ energy to be […]
The Tyranny of the Should
‘Shoulds’ are a list of ironclad rules about how we and other people ‘ought to’ act. These rules are indisputable; and, any deviation from these is deemed bad (by ego). We feel we ‘have to,’ ‘must,’ ‘need’ or ‘ought to’ do certain things out of duty, obligation or compulsion, never bothering to question our actions […]
Our Sense of Power
As previously discussed, people tend to work from either an external or internal locus of control. People who externalize a locus of control have little or no sense of their own power. People with an inner locus of control have a sense of ownership in what happens and are willing to take action (exert their […]
The Benefits of Journaling
It takes a great amount of psychological and physiological energy to withhold emotions. It also takes much energy to be wrestling with decisions and in feeling stuck or burdened. When we hold on to feelings and indecisions, this stresses our bodies; we become irritable, sullen, achy and fatigued. Disclosing (often for the first time) and […]
