A story

I read the other day a book about Carl Jung, where I learned  that a lot of his contributions to psychology , found its roots in one single understanding:” there is a story in everybody that needs to be told.”

He made a lot of progress in understanding what was not going according to plan under the bonnet of a mentally ill person, by finding the point where telling the story got compromised.

In listening and allowing the original story to pick up where it left of,  he reached an amazing success rate in people functioning well after the treatment he provided. When people pick up telling their own story, uncompromised, many mental ailments vanish.
Jung also gained a lot of insight on the story-telling side of humans and made those insight available to  all people interested in understanding human behaviour more.

It appealed to me so much, since I recognise it, from my work and play.

When life goes on the blink, when the going gets tough, what is happening is simply not within the blueprint of the original story. A small thing can be out of tune, or a number of things don’t correspond anymore. That causes friction within oneself. It needs attention, to go back on track with its natural flow.

I’d say, the attention it needs is not so much from a position as a reader. I personally don’t think that the story is already written in full detail and all you have to do is turn the pages ( be a consumer of your life), although listening to you own story and feeling it, does give may clues on where is starts to derail.

I’d say, it needs the attention of a storyteller, having the inherent understanding of what the rhythm and flow of your story is, the main characteristics of it and a sense of beginning, fluid continuity with interest and end.

Herman Koch, a Dutch writer, explained it saying that the first sentence of a book is given to him (as in a thunderstruck) , and  he senses its DNA, full potential and  he senses  its general shape: a novel. He feels the whole book, although it still has to be written. Every day, he simply picks up where he left of and writes more of it. The novel seems to be writing itself, although he has choices on various details. All is well, he indicates, when he regularly checks if he is still in touch that sense of its DNA blueprint.

I suspect that he, if and when he gets stuck with it, he goes back to the last point where he felt it was fully in line with that DNA of the novel and continues from there.

The DNA blueprint of a story, the DNA blueprint of a person’s story is known.
If you lose sight of it, there are still ways to get connect with it, look into it, to get back on track.

I often say, there are two copies in this Universe of the original blueprint for your life. 

One is within yourself, the other is in  the Knowing.

consumer/creator

In the last three blog posts I introduced the idea that I think people would benefit from being both aware of and actively involved with two sides of their lives: the creating end as well as the receiving end.

The more a person is focussing on life and interacting with life from a consumer perspective, most interested in what is happening on the receiving end, usually the less content they become with (their own) life. “There must be more to life!” becomes a recurring cry- out leading to the question:”But what?”

Shops, the internet and libraries are full with options you can look into answering the question of how to be a fully functioning human being..

Depending on your personal taste, you can very well end up in the scientifical approach of the matter.
The worldly mechanical approach offers things like : self-development, psychology, sociology, biology, chemistry, economy ( to name of few)  usually emphasizing  what you need to do in the ‘seen’.
These approaches usually focus your awareness on what has proven itself in the world, easily to be experienced with your own senses, using your mind and how to keep the Consumer amused with your actions.
Fascinating.

Or, on your wanders, you might end up in the esoteric corner. The spiritual world offers for instance: religion and spirituality. The teachings in this world have in common that they are focussing your awareness on the incredible powers of the Creator (having various names, the Universal Power, God/Goddess, Spirit..... to name a few).
There, the main focus is on a meaningful (soul-) connection with the ‘unseen’, sometimes with recommendations varying in strictness on how to keep the Creator amused with your actions. Fascinating.

Most people combine the two in a customised basket in which they dip when their ordinary responsibilities (work, family life) leave room for it: some yoga on Thursdays, Paleo-diet on weekdays , Tarot-reading once a month, a good inspiring book in bath, fundraising for charity around Christmas and church on (some) Sundays.

Since most people are very much willing to share the insights that seem to work well for themselves with others in return for a small fee ( the investment of your time) or a larger fee ( the investment of some of your money too), you’ve got plenty of choice where to turn to as your providers for inspiration.

So you interrupt your everyday life for a short (or longer) while and dive into the activities provided by retreat centres, churches, diet guru’s, yoga masters, inspirational writers, charity, etcetera.
You’ll definitely feel better for doing that. You are actually doing something about it now! ( A happy consumer of various options).

If, however, after a while of doing these things, this dis-contentment on your own life still rears its ugly tail again, and again and again.... it my even become frustrating. You invested everything that was specifically asked of you ( time, money), you even enjoyed many of these activities. You tried the scientific approach on pure will power, which didn’t do it for you. You walked the spiritual path exercising blind faith, which didn’t  bring you the peace of mind with your situation as promised on the tin...
No, the same structural problems occur again and again and again.

Why is it that what works for others doesn’t seem to work for you?
What to do?

I ( yes, another one of those people investing quite some time in giving you options to choose from,  I see the irony here ), would ask you:” Have you exercised changing your (mental) position?“

Have you left the consumer frame of mind to enter the creator frame of mind?

And by that, I mean not ‘ just once’ (as consumers have a try-before-you-buy period) but have you given it a fair shot, structurally?
By that, I also don’t mean ‘ never to return’.
I do mean:” Are you regularly finding yourself in both positions? Are you able to alternate easily between the two”?

My invitation is one to play with both send and receive.

At times actively being the happy creator.
Confidently in looking,  as a webmaster would do, regularly at what is going on behind the scenes of your own ‘ website’ and playing with making (structural) adjustments there to the content, look and feel and functionalities on your website.

At times, actively being a happy consumer.
Confidently looking, as a consumer does, at what is presented on the front end of your website: content, look and feel and enjoy playing with the functionalities on your own ‘website’.

I observe that in the modern Western World we are conditioned to be mainly concerned playing with our consuming power and activities, thinking that is where we are having most control on what happens in our life.

And we do have a lot of control as a conscious consumer, don’t get me wrong! Consumer behaviour has an enormous impact on your own life and that of others.
All I do here, is inviting you to play with the idea that you have more options available, when you log into your life as a conscious creator too.