Monday, March 19, 2007

Overcoming the Fear of Change - Notes from my Workshop with Guy Corneau
Jung in Ireland 2007

Universe is constant change, as we are. Change for more happiness, express gifts - permission after mid-life to go this route.

What is the change I can bring about to allow me to have more joy?

Life is expression. What got in the way of expressing who we are?
Fear needs to be witnessed. Observe first device nature - signal danger - functional fears: Examine and observe it so you can go beyond it.

Security Measures: We move less. How much time is devoted to what you want to do as opposed to the necessities?

How we manage not to feel fear? Compensations. We put one need in place of another. Substitute a drink for intimacy with another. Compensations are the expressions of fear of change.

We develop a personalities to get our needs met - means of survival.
Fear of abandonment - Develop an agreeable personality, compliant, defending oneself against the repetition of problematic situations. Mask rigidifies, lacks fluidity. We identify with it. This is how we're recognized and rewarded.

The more you use your personality to get from the outside, the greater the loss of yourself you may recognize - prison-lose yourself.

Intensity, novelty are basic drives. One side going to security, the other pushing toward intensity. We need stability and adaptation.

Watching TV - questions aren't present. Addiction has to do with availability of a thing. Best compensations are things you can carry with you or buy at the corner shop. It answers the existential fear of not existing. Compensations becomes a demand. Observe the mechanics. Where is the ignored passion? The deeper self?

Compensation buys status quot. Change = immediate discomfort but may be satisfying in the long run. Shadow side - if I stop overworking, need to be creative to fulfill.
Write a letter to compensation, 1. acknowledging gratitude for its help, 2. yes but if I didn't do this, what could I use to replace it that would be better for me?

We then proceeded to an exercise (which I've misplaced) that I believe is in his book: Le Meilleur de Soi. This book is currently still only in French but you can access his other books: Here are two I read in English and felt that I was learning a lot as I read them!
Lessons In Love: The Transformation of Spirit Through Intimacy
Absent Fathers, Lost Sons: The Search for Masculine Identity

No comments:

Post a Comment