A Teaching:
Every morning, two gremlins are at the foot of the bed, challenging us and threatening us: fear and lethargy. Fear says, it’s too much, it’s too big for you. You can’t handle this life. And lethargy says, chill out. Tomorrow’s another day, turn on the television, try to be distracted if you can.
Dr. James Hollis, Jungian analyst and author of several books including a new audio series: A Life of Meaning: Exploring Our Deepest Questions and Motivations.
A Truth:
It’s easy to see how lethargy has distracted me from life: a bottle of wine, a new pair of shoes, a series of fiction novels to take me out of my life and into someone else’s. Yes, lethargy and I go way back.
There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a crisp chardonnay, a day of shopping, or experiencing the magic of creative writing when we’re doing it for the sheer pleasure of what it offers. But when pleasurable things become an exit strategy from facing our fears and moving forward, we become their hostages.
Fear is more difficult for me to see. My ego doesn’t like acknowledging fear. So it cleverly disguises it as self-sacrifice with thoughts like: I have to continue doing work I don’t enjoy. I can’t trust someone else to manage our business finances. They won’t do it as efficiently and we’ll lose money. My kids deserve to live in a nice house and go to the best schools.
In a recent podcast, Dr. Hollis points out that when we live a fear-based agenda then our life is always constricted. Fear sabotages the expression of our possibilities in life. “Only boldness can deliver us from fear”, says Dr. Hollis, “and if the risk is not taken, the meaning of life is violated.” Listen to the full podcast here.
A Take-away:
How do we address fear and lethargy?
- We begin by recognizing them in our lives. By becoming aware that we’re not moving forward and embracing our true potential.
- Then, we go within and find out why. There’s a reason we can’t stop overeating, drinking too much, or engaging in dysfunctional and unfulfilling relationships.
Dr. Hollis points out,
90 percent of the energy that is blocking you really has its origin in your childhood, where everything was overwhelming. That’s where we are stuck. And everybody has stuck places in life, and the triggering of moving through whatever the stuck place may be, activates a field of archaic anxiety that lies in the basement for all of us. And we have to realize that’s where it’s coming from, it’s all from the past.
Many of us need guidance navigating the murky waters of our past. Consider seeking a therapist to help heal the blocks preventing you from living your best life. I don’t look back on the times when I needed the help of a therapist as the worst moments in my life. I see them as the times I chose to heal.
