stressed out

Create a powerful life using your ancestral archetypes

You want to decrease your stress – align yourself with your instinctual self. The psychologist Carl Jung over a hundred years ago directed us towards parts of ourselves that are our psychological DNA. Joseph Campbell picked up Jung’s work to lay out how throughout history we have viewed and experienced life from four primary archetypes.

When you acknowledge and then use these deep parts of yourself, you shift from struggling with instinctual needs to using these needs to as your ally. I invite you to go on a personal archeological dig to excavate these valuable aspects of self.

Here are the four archetypes that show up across cultures and time:

Lover

The lover is the part of you that appreciates others and life. It is the part where compassion lies. Through open hearted communication, this archetype comes alive. Through taking the risk to express your feelings, you allow your lover to show up. By allowing old grief and sadness to be release the empathy and joy of the lover deepens.

When the lover is present, you are happy – you are experiencing what it is to be human. You are relating to others, feeling and expressing those feelings. It may take expressing a backlog of unexpressed feelings to be present with your current feelings. Once current, the innocence of a child shows up with his or her joy

Magician

Magic happens when you expand your realm of experience and knowledge. Trusting in something bigger than what existed previously allows you to begin to use more resources to survive as our primitive ancestors did. As your mastery improves, so does your ability to use these skills to create success.

When you surrender to the unknown and to your felt sense (what you body tells you) you open yourself to more awareness. This increase awareness reconnects you to lost parts, the parts that stress took out when you were a child.

Stepping beyond the fear of the uncontrolled opens you to a vista of new experiences. Excitement replaces fear. You now have more resources to draw on.

Warrior

The warrior needs to show up to hold your boundaries – to say no. Without boundaries, you are violated. All the small and large violations you experience can be your biggest stressors.

The righteous warrior performs right and certain actions for his or her sovereign. This warrior holds and defends the innocence of others and self so all may experience life in its beauty.

As the doer of the four archetypes, you want your warrior doing what serves you. The most common take out for the warrior is anger. The repressed anger that can store as frustration or rage accumulated from times as a child when you couldn’t express those justified feelings. Without expressing your feelings and setting your boundaries volitions occurred. You were victimized, maybe only subtlety. Expressing your feelings, maintaining your boundaries prevents you from being a victim. You develop the innate confidence to handle what life presents.

King/Queen - Sovereign

Is your realm thriving? Do you have a vision of what you want? Are you going for it? If any of these qualities of your sovereign is weak, your life will lack direction or purpose. Without focus, you become more vulnerable to stress.

Your king or queen may not do a lot. He or she may just hold the vision of what you want from a state of being rather than doing. Without the power and vision of your sovereign, you have a void that is easy for other desires rather than yours to show up in. You are more likely living someone else’s life, that is always stressful.

Take the time to create the vision for your life. Enlist the other three archetypes to serve that vision your king or queen will hold. The stress that results from working towards what you want is healthier then the stress from having a life that is at effect.

Reunite with your ancestors

When I first was exposed to the four archetypes I said, “sure.” It was difficult for me to believe that, much like our genes, something as amorphic as deep behavior tendencies could be passed on from our ancestors. Today in my own life as well as my clients’ and students’ I see constant illustrations of how, when one of these aspects is weak, our life suffers.

Explore the teachings of Joseph Campbell. He will show you how throughout history and literature these four parts of our always existed. We can learn from our past. We may live in different times, but our ancestral parts are still connected to ancient ways and needs.

Explore your archetypes. Observe them or their absence in others. Call forth their qualities to lead a richer life. These parts of you are your allies that are there to serve you.