Approaches on moving from shadow to joy
More than 10 years ago, Patrice Dickey enrolled in the inaugural session of my workshop "Greeting the Muse." Patrice was working as an independent public relations consultant at the time, and, like most clients in that workshop, was looking for a way to create a more fulfilling life as a writer.
Patrice was always enthusiastic, but she was also quite impatient with any psychologizing that took place in the room. Like me, she had come to question the value of psychotherapy for people seeking personal growth, but, unlike me, she seemed to believe that just about any obstacle in life can be transformed or transcended.
It is in that spirit she has written a book, Back to the Garden: Getting from Shadow to Joy. Its 332 pages are a highly readable mix of personal memoir and advice based on her relatively new work as a workshop leader and personal coach. All chapters are no longer than a few pages and, although I confess that I find many of her prescriptions too simple because of her emphasis on positive thinking, there's no denying her approach has worked for her and many others.
I do especially like her use of gardening as a metaphor for creating a more satisfying life. Gardens have fallow periods and need fertilizing. "Even the bad periods are good for us," she told me over coffee recently. "I see the manure as fertilizer that ultimately contributes to our blooming, rather than as a big stinking pile."
In her book, she repeatedly warns against "focusing on the problem instead of the solution." On the other hand, she cautions against trying to force change. "In every life," she told me, "there are places of darkness. In America, we always force things, often to our detriment. I compare these dark periods to a moth in its cocoon. It's in complete darkness. If someone snips the cocoon, the moth will be a soggy lump unable to fly. It's actually the pain of molting that energizes the moth to use its wings."
The key, she said, is knowing when to emerge -- when to take action even if we are disinclined to.
Part of her gardening message relates to a story she tells in her book. It was long assumed that babies who do not receive love perish, but a study demonstrated that it was actually when the babies did not have someone to whom they could express their own love that their deterioration began.
"We all need to nurture," Patrice said. "Nature generally is healing because it calms the mind, but tending nature is especially helpful because it fulfills this need to nurture -- just as caring for a pet can. It doesn't matter if it's a garden, a public park or a potted plant at home. Involvement with nature gets us out of ourselves and the results -- lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol -- are well-documented."
Because of her beliefs about nature, she has affiliated with Park Pride, a citizen organization that advocates for increased parkland in Atlanta.
Patrice will be signing copies of her book this Thurs., July 20, 6-9 p.m., at Creative Spirit, 355-D W. Ponce de Leon Ave., Decatur.
Other Events
The Southeast Colloquium of the Imagination is planning a one-day workshop for people who feel creatively blocked. Contact Michael Saunders for full details: srfnturf@bellsouth.net or 404-234-5866. (Full disclosure: I'm involved in SECI.)
The Atlanta Shambhala Center is holding its annual half-price ($75) meditation workshop this weekend, July 21-23. I have been a longtime if irregular participant in Shambhala programs and regard them as the best meditation instruction available.
This weekend's workshop is the first in a five-part series called "Heart of Warriorship." For me, the value of meditation is not achieving a blissful state but developing "mindfulness." You won't sit a minute on a meditation cushion before you realize that your mind is a ceaseless avalanche of thoughts.
Meditation teaches the student how to detach from those thoughts. By developing an observer perspective, we can watch our minds without becoming attached to thoughts that create negative mental states. Eventually, it is possible to slow the percolation of thoughts to nearly nothing for sustained periods. In those periods, "reality" looks very different.
Call 404-370-9650 or visit www.atlantashambhalacenter.org. ...
Mark your calendar now. The Jung Society of Atlanta will host Robert Romanyshyn, a brilliant phenomenologist of the imagination (and one of my former teachers), at a lecture Fri., Sept. 22, followed by a workshop the next day. Call 404-634-6350 or log onto www.jungatlanta.com.
Cliff Bostock holds a Ph.D. in depth psychology.
Related Published Articles
Get Advice from Patrice…
Receive your free copy of 101 Simple Ways to Kick the Depression Habit and Get Happier Without Prozac! Ezine and Your Guide to the Life You Love E-Newsletter
Get Your Copy Now….
