The Stories That Shape Us: Waking Up Your Discernment and Increasing Your Impact

When you meet someone for the first time, how do you get to know them? Isn’t it through shared stories, about your lives, about what matters to you, about your experiences and beliefs? Stories connect us deeply and naturally. They are the human patterns that tell us who we are and who we might become.

The stories we’re living are key drivers of personality, choice, and expectation. Human communities create collective stories. That’s why Jung’s concept of archetypes is so useful.

Archetypes are universal stories common in every human experience, expressed diversely depending on culture and human experience. They are the threads we weave to understand our experiences and connect with the primal, powerful collective unconscious, the space where our dreams, imaginings and myths vibrate in a matrix of story that connects us all.

Our stories are influenced by this matrix and the cultural stories that manifest around us, but the exhilarating truth is that every one of us has the tools to weave our own interpretations of archetypes. If we are willing to live our stories consciously, they can strengthen our self-understanding, and ground us with authentic and satisfying relationships and achievements in the world.

Archetypes are primal human processes, linked intimately in our Mind, Heart and Spirit. They offer tools for discovery accessible to everyone because they already vibrate at the core of our human experiences.

I use archetypes as a way to help leaders in education and other positions of power identify their patterns, preferences, and growing edge. Carol Pearson’s system (which includes a wonderful archetype indicator, the PMAI — accessible, clear and revelatory!) has helped many of my clients frame their relationships and professional identities in ways that move them forward towards satisfaction, resilience, and greater impact.

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THIS IS AN EXCERPT FROM MY BLOG POST AT the Columbia Center for Spiritual Living. Read more…

Use this link to sign up for Myth, Mysticism and Story offered by Carol Burbank and Carol Pearson on March 15, 22 and 29.