Building Success Habits

E24 The Self And Inner Balance |IBGR | Donna Kunde & Londina Cruz “Remember that your perception of the world is a reflection of your state of consciousness.” Eckhart Tolle Good news! We are not forever stuck in the loop of expressing ourselves in the world to experience transient unity and then returning to suffering. If the Self were only the Ruler, the cycle of suffering and redemption might be endless. Fortunately, this stage also incorporates the Magician, the Sage and the Fool into the journey. On the psychological level, each of the four Archetypes is an aspect of the integrated Self. When all four are in balance, the psyche is peaceful and the cycle of suffering and healing is suspended. The Ruler is associated with the creation of psychological wholeness and order. The Ruler’s goal for the psyche is the creation of a single, unified, fully manifested Self. The Magician is the element that can continually heal and transform the Self when the order gets too rigid. The Magician is the part of the psyche that can integrate the Shadow and transform it into useful energy. The Sage is the part of the psyche that is experienced in mediation as the objective Self. It watches our thoughts and feelings and is the Wise Old Woman or Man in our dreams who gives trustworthy counsel. The Fool is the element of the psyche that represents multiplicity of consciousness and continually undercuts our sense of a unified Self. The Fool teaches us that we are always expressing our Selves in the world, not a single Self. Together these four major Archetypes help us be integrated and responsible, healthy and connected, honest and wise, multifaceted and joyous. They are the reward at the end of the journey. When the Ego dominated, we lived in a world of scarcity, but now things feel abundant.

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E18 The Hero’s Journey Soul Initiation - Becoming Real |IBGR | Donna Kunde & Londina Cruz

“The living soul of man, once conscious of its power, cannot be quelled.”----Horace Mann Initiation begins in childhood with our first experiences of confusion, suffering, intense love, longing and frustration. The story of Pinocchio is a well-known example of this process. He starts out as a wooden puppet and transforms into a real boy. On the symbolic level, living life only at the level of the Ego is like being a robot, toy or other inanimate object. We feel a burning desire for a more genuine experience. The quest with its call to Spirit is only the first step to finding such genuineness. Initiation shakes up our way of seeing the world and requires us to connect with our deeper wisdom to understand what is happening to us. This initiation may anticipate the experiences of suffering, deprivation and loss brought on by the Archetype of the Destroyer, the capacity for genuine and passionate love and connection associated with the Archetype of the Lover, and finally, the union with one’s Soul, which allows for the birth of the new Self (the Creator).

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TAGS: IBGR, IBGR Network, Donna Kunde, Londina Cruz, comfort zone, get out of your comfort zone, how to get out of your comfort zone, the comfort zone, what is comfort zone, leave the comfort zone, comfort zone meaning, how to expand your comfort zone, breaking out of your comfort zone, how to get out of your comfort zone tips, life begins at the end of your comfort zone, new comfort zone.

E19 Shifting Soul Perspectives on The Hero’s Journey |IBGR | Donna Kunde & Londina Cruz

“Always trust your instincts, they are messages from your soul, they are that inner part of you that strives to make you whole.”----- Anonymous When we let go of everything in our lives and consciousness that needs to die, and we are open to what needs to be born, we learn to feel the awe and wonder that our own willing participation in these cycles can bring. It is difficult for our Egos to understand Soul suffering in any form. The Innocent wants to deny unpleasant truths, and just have faith. The Orphan takes death and suffering as further indication that life is not fair. The Caregiver and the Warrior both try to protect the world from suffering - the Warrior through trying to find and slay the cause of suffering and the Caregiver by taking all suffering on itself to save others. A shift of perspective is basic to all initiating experiences. We have to learn to see, hear and think in ways that make new levels of experience accessible to us. This is also an exercise in altering our perceptions. Most of us do not consciously choose our initiation. It just happens to appear and often is quite a shock! We can be shocked into disorientation by sudden suffering, loss or pain. We can also become disoriented through pathology, disability or betrayal. Others become disoriented by an overload of stress and an inability to cope with their lives. The hectic pace of modern life may be a strategy we use as a culture to overwhelm ourselves into disorientation, but these usually backfire. Disorientation by itself is not initiation. Initiation happens only when we are thrown enough that we begin to search for meaning at a deeper level. The challenge in this is to not try to pretend everything is under control. Stay with the sense of disorientation and powerlessness while staying open to a deep inner knowing of what you need to see that you have not seen .. What is the lesson? In these moments the rational mind wants to figure it all out. This is the Ego’s way of jumping in, but Ego cannot help at the Soul level. You can quiet your mind during initiating moments by saying, “This seems like an initiatory experience to me. I know I can figure it out. I also cannot push harder and get the situation under control. I can use my Ego to act responsibly in the world while this is going on (take care of my responsibilities). But it is my Soul that is being awakened by these experiences. All I can do to deal with this is to wait until the learning I need comes to me.”

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TAGS: IBGR, IBGR Network, Donna Kunde, Londina Cruz, comfort zone, get out of your comfort zone, how to get out of your comfort zone, the comfort zone, what is comfort zone, leave the comfort zone, comfort zone meaning, how to expand your comfort zone, breaking out of your comfort zone, how to get out of your comfort zone tips, life begins at the end of your comfort zone, new comfort zone.

E20 Archetypal Influences on Soul Development |IBGR | Donna Kunde & Londina Cruz

“My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there.”------ Rumi The four Archetypes most active on the journey to becoming real (like the puppet Pinocchio became a real boy) are the Seeker, the Destroyer, the Lover and the Creator. Together they help us experience meaning and authenticity in our lives. Each parallels a different element or aspect of the Soul. The Seeker seeks enlightenment and transformation but initially is very controlled by the thinking process of the Ego. The Seeker’s journey requires courage to break away from dependency and leap ahead into the unknown. We always fear what we do not understand or know. The Seeker in each of us challenges us to explore what we fear most. By braving the unknown, we ourselves are transformed. All heroes know we cannot gain the treasure without the willingness to confront the dragon. We first come as Warriors believing the dragon is outside ourselves. We slay it and win the treasure of Ego strength. When we confront it again, we recognize the dragon is ourselves and we gain access to the treasures of our Souls. The inner Lover Archetype comes through unification of our opposing attributes within us like our conscious and unconscious minds. This allows us to feel redemptive, compassionate (agape) love not only for another, but also for ourselves. This results in a deeper and more unified experience of the Self, characterized by greater and greater aspects of wholeness, potency and power. The Creator Archetype helps awaken the seed of our genuine identities deep within us. It is part of what we call the imagination and provides focus to our imaginative efforts. We can experience these four Soul-related Archetypes consciously in analysis (or dreams); through spiritual searching or through day-to-day experiences in your life.

TAGS: IBGR, IBGR Network, Donna Kunde, Londina Cruz, hero's journey, the hero's journey, hero's journey, the hero's journey, the heroes journey, the hero's journey stages, joseph campbell hero's journey, joseph campbell hero's journey, the hero's journey joseph campbell, a hero's journey, heroes journey, joseph campbell the hero's journey, hero's journey explained, the hero's journey joseph campbell, my hero's journey, hero’s journey.

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E17 Soul Initiation on The Hero’s Journey |IBGR | Donna Kunde & Londina Cruz

“Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.” – Swami Sivananda The purpose of initiation is to help us recognize the meaning and significance of the experiences it symbolizes in our own lives. The uninitiated do not lack the experience of Soul, but they fail to recognize its power and meaning. The Hero’s Journey is an initiation into the realities of the Soul Journey. This journey requires us to establish and let go of control over our lives in order to experience life’s wholeness. To do this, we must expand our Ego’s narrow view and let go of sentiment, safety and predictability and even our concern with physical safety, effectiveness and virtue. Without Soul, we feel like robots. We go through all the right motions, but it ends up being movement without meaning. Every time we enter into initiation we go deeper and deeper into our levels of understanding. There is no punishment for failing to connect with our Soul except the ever-present sense of meaninglessness in our life .. which is punishment enough!

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TAGS: IBGR, IBGR Network, Donna Kunde, Londina Cruz, hero's journey, the hero's journey, hero's journey, the hero's journey, the heroes journey, the hero's journey stages, joseph campbell hero's journey, joseph campbell hero's journey, the hero's journey joseph campbell, a hero's journey, heroes journey, joseph campbell the hero's journey, hero's journey explained, the hero's journey joseph campbell, my hero's journey, hero’s journey

The Ego: The container for the soul with Donna Kunde & Londina Cruz

“Your ego is your embodiment and your self is your potentiality and that's what you listen to when you listen for the voice of inspiration and the voice of 'What am I here for? What can I possibly make of myself?” —-Joseph Campbell

Although the Ego has been thought to be the enemy of the Soul, it actually helps us create and maintain our boundaries. Properly developed, the Ego grows but then empties itself in order to become the container for the Soul. Without a well built container, there can be no real psychological or spiritual development because there is no safe place to put it.

Why has so much negative been said about the Ego? Why is it often linked with egotism? Why have so many wise people argued that we must renounce Ego to find true selves or to find spiritual enlightenment? Let’s dive a little deeper to uncover the answer!

Simply put, we have misunderstood the nature of the Ego. Additionally, many Egos we encounter are not very developed. They are threatened by the process of individualization, by exploration of repressed thoughts and feelings and by any sense of intimacy. The primitive Ego is also egotistical.

Ego’s job is to protect the psyche, which is a very vulnerable place. If it wants to stop action, it knows exactly how to do that. The easiest way to deal with the underdeveloped Ego’s terror at change is to observe it with detachment. The most effective way is to remember that the Ego is our ally and needs to be brought on board to work for us and not against us. The second reason the Ego has been misunderstood is that a mature Ego threatens many social institutions. As important as these institutions have been in developing the capacity to respond to the heroic call, the heroic life requires us to go beyond dependency. For some, this might mean leaving those institutions, and for most it means changing their relationships to them.

Ego’s Readiness for the Hero’s Journey

“How to get rid of ego as dictator and turn it into messenger and servant and scout, to be in your service, is the trick.” —Joseph Campbell

The Innocent and Orphan prepare us for the journey by teaching us discernment and helping us differentiate helpers from tempters. The Warrior trains us for battle and develops courage while the Caregiver teaches humanity and compassion.

While we are building these attributes, we often go through a heroic initiation and feel that life is very hard!

When we receive our call and begin our journey as Seekers, we usually are tested to see if we are adequately prepared.

The Innocent and Orphan are tested to see if they can tell the difference between tempters and guides. We almost always have to prove our courage by facing a dragon and we are almost always put into a position to demonstrate compassion.

Generally our journeys don’t progress further until we handle our trials and demonstrate we have been successfully prepared. When we have passed all the tests, we are ready for our metamorphosis and die to what we have been in order to make room for who we have become.

Archetypal influences on Ego Development

“Questing... is not an ego trip; it is an adventure to bring into fulfillment your gift to the world, which is yourself.” – Joseph Campbell

The Archetypes associated with Ego development are the Innocent, Orphan, Warrior and Caregiver. They help us learn to take responsibility for our lives, even when we do not yet know how to do so. Together they teach us the components of character: The trust required to learn the basic skills of living; the courage to fight for ourselves and others and the ability to identify with the greater good. These Archetypes also help establish the fundamental components of Ego consciousness and together they help establish a container, known as the Ego, that can allow the Soul to flow through.

The Innocent helps us develop the mask we wear to establish our social role (our persona). The Innocent within wants to be loved and be a part of things. The Orphan presides over the parts of our psyches we repress, deny or hide so that we can establish a persona acceptable to ourselves and others. The Orphan tries to protect us from being abandoned, hurt or victimized.

The Warrior establishes the Ego per se, with a focus on protecting boundaries and getting our needs met. The Warrior cuts off anything that seems to threaten survival of the body, the Ego, our integrity, and eventually a true sense of Self.

The Caregiver presides over the opening of the heart so our goodness is motivated by genuine compassion for self or others. The Caregiver is asked to sacrifice many of their own wishes, desires and priorities, not only for the good of other people, but also to find the Soul.

The Ego and the Hero’s Journey

“The ultimate dragon is within you, it is your ego clamping you down.”---- Joseph Campbell

Establishing a healthy Ego is the prerequisite for taking the Hero’s Journey safely. The developed Ego helps us meet our needs for survival, satisfaction, safety, love and belongingness. It also contributes to our self-esteem, self-actualization and even transcendence. It balances our individual needs with the needs of others and in that way contributes to the survival and development of the individual, the family, the community, the nation and the species.

Ego is born when we begin to learn that what we do can affect what happens to us. No matter how old, wise or mature we become, each of us has a vulnerable little child within us who still bears the scars of our formative years. The Ego’s first task is to protect that inner child.

The Ego’s next task, and it’s basic function is to mediate our relationship with the outside world. It is the experience of some hardship or difficulty that is critical to the development of Ego strength. The period of preparation for our Hero’s Journey often seems hard, but that is because we don’t yet possess the skills that can make life easier.

Preparation for the journey requires each of us to be socialized adequately to be effective in the society we live in, and then to separate from the collective view of the world enough to assert independent values, opinions and desires. It then demands that we use this capacity for autonomy and independence, not for selfish ends, even though we want to seek our own good, but for the good of the whole as well.

Awaken the Hero Within |IBGR | Donna Kunde & Londina Cruz

1. “The hero of yesterday becomes the tyrant of tomorrow, unless he crucifies himself today.”― Joseph Campbell
2. In episodes 9-11 we explored the shadow sides of the 12 Archetypes and in episode 11 we got a closer look at extreme negative shadow sides in the form of addictions, compulsions and even shadow possession where we take either the positive or negative traits of the Archetype to extremes. 
3. If we are possessed by any of the Archetypes, the way to free ourselves of shadow possession is to awaken our heroic potential. Each of us has a hero within us but we are not always aware of that reality. 
4. The natural way to activate our inner potential is to shine the light on it. When we begin to see that we have a hero within us, the hero naturally wakes up! The same thing happens with our Archetypes. 
5. You can literally ask the Archetype to come into your life, or you may prefer to act. For example, to awaken the Caregiver, give to others without thought of return. To activate the Sage, study and work to improve your thinking skills. Finally, while awakening all 12 Archetypes leads to a whole and rich life, it is not realistic to think they will all be equally active.

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