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Soulful Living – Peaceful Holiday

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A Soulful Holiday

Yuletide calls us to a sensitive, deliberate turning within to soul. It has been associated with divinities of the hunt, psychologically referring to the search for inner nourishment. In depth psychotherapy and visionary writing, natural shifts of energy are heeded. They align us with life, the nature of things for us that can be quite different than for others. In fact, as we age and grow we become increasingly defined. Our uniqueness is, hopefully, appreciated by us and those we love.

Troubles during the holiday come when folks are pressured to get together. It’s good for us to share time with those we enjoy, those of kindred soul. And, if it is not so with others, then let that be. We do not have to get along with everyone or everyone with us – be they kith or kin. Differences can be respected. A holiday can be enjoyed.

 

Live More Quietly and Deeply

Dreams of patients and protagonists in my novels urge balance. When the season grows dark and cold, dreams address the need to listen more deeply and live more quietly. As friends and family do the same, harmony prevails. If not, there is discord. Family fights, friends falling out, anxiety and dysfunction set in when personal and relational limits have been violated.

In The Unholy, the church demands everybody believe and live according to rigid dogmas. In Goddess of the Wild Thing, discord and bona fide evil hit the scene when people demand loyalty. In the end, each story unfolds as people make decisions that seem small but have big consequences. Little decisions during the holidays make the difference between soulful living and high-pressured craziness. Winter bids us relinquish a year worth of rigid buildups, dysfunctional ways of living and relating. The dark and cold draws us within, to the warmth of a quieter and deeper life.

 

Quietude Births Consciousness

The visionary story that is our life is an evolution of decisions made and lives affected. We stand the chance of making soulful choices that bring peace of mind as we take time for quietude and turning within. Let this Yuletide be one of quietly enjoying yourself and those of kindred soul. Let the holidays usher us into realms of the imagination and intimacy through reflective living, relating, and reading. Let the dark womb of a soulful interiority be our realm this season so that soon a new light of consciousness may be born.

“Live Deeply…Read Daily”

pauldeblassieiii.com

 

Madness, Reading, and the Soul

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Dreams last night popped with shocking images, some horrifying. They set me right and got me back on track. There’s nothing like a bit of shock and horror to shake up the soul. Oddly enough (or maybe not), I feel better. The week of doing depth therapy with traumatized patients, clearing the way through dark forests and troubling times, is settling ~ mind clearing. I think I’ll write, do hot yoga, great meals, and lots of love all weekend.

Soulful times generate soulful living. Reading is integral to my daily life, takes me into soul. There’s a place inside that can be nourished, satisfied, only through reading. I have to enter in visionary worlds that sometimes are horrifying, land me in a realm of madness as the protagonist encounters light and dark energies in daily life. It’s a time of conflict and pain, no resolution except by going through what needs to be gone through.

Reading visionary fiction is a lot like dreaming. In dreams, we can’t help, force or cajole, what’s going on or about to happen. I know there are people who try and control their dreams. The psyche does not take well to being controlled. There’s always kickback when we attempt to manipulate, conjure, what we want to happen. Old religions did this via prayer, thinking they knew what was best and wanted to force the hand of their god to comply. Healthily, sanely, we live in accord with life, letting events and dreams play themselves out as we consciously decide to find our way through tight spots.

Life is tough. Reading helps. Settling into an old chair, taking up a book we’re into and letting our mind go with the flow of the words and paragraphs and scenes – the story of a life and the mysteries and magic that take them by surprise – does something to us. It nurtures and strengthens our imagination. Stories make a difference in the quality of our life.

Madness is a private thing. It’s a matter of quality living. When we’re in touch with our private madness, we discover an imaginal world similar to the stories we’ve read. Feeling out of control, wanting to slow it up and shut it down, wishing things away only to make things worse is part and parcel of private madness. It’s our way of learning if we listen and give it a chance to speak.

So, give yourself some soul time. See if there might be a visionary novel that’s whispering your name. You’ll find that your unconscious mind guides you to just the right literary medicine. Trust your instincts, browse through your favorite online or brick-and-mortar book retailer, and pick up a copy of a story that just might touch your private madness and forever touch your soul.

Live Deeply…Read Daily”

pauldeblassieiii.com

There’s a Plan Going On In Our Life

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There is a plan

There’s a plan going on in our life. We can’t see it day to day, but it’s there. We’re busy living out our stories. Meaning happens once time passes and we look back, we see it all had a purpose.

We get into trouble due to anxiety that pops us out of soul. When I treat patients in depth psychotherapy or write visionary fiction, I’m caught by the power of anxiety. With patients, it lures them out of self. It takes them down dark alleys of despair. Characters in visionary stories lapse into waves of overwhelming stress, a toxic situation that clouds their mind and at least temporarily cripples positive behavior.

Reading visionary fiction taps us into a realm deeper than our anxieties. We step into another imaginative space and time that offers us a way out of a mental rut. The imagination, as psychologists have explored, opens us up to psychic energies that pop the top of our rule-bound heads off—they get what’s old and worn out and present an invigorating challenge and life-changing revolution.

The soul knows

The imagination is the home of the soul. It knows how to take us back inside so we find ourselves again. Dead-end troubles in life, as visionary fiction highlights, often tear us out of what’s true and real. They shake up the good and make us believe there’s only bad. The soul, the source of age-old inner wisdom, knows better. It knows the way back inside. It gets what’s terrible and awful and says voila I  have something new for you. It has a plan to get us into the new, the better, the revolutionary.

Some say it’s a leap to believe in soul. Actually, there’s no leap. There is no stretch of mind or faith. Soul simply is, whether we believe in it or not. Mind-numbing pain jettisons us into a wall that forces a decision to either believe in self or not. That’s soul or soullessness. It’s a plain as a New Mexico sunshine-day reality and depth psychological psychic truth.

If you’re up against an emotional/spiritual wall, stop and take a deep breath. Maybe it’s time to get real quiet, do a little online or favorite bookstore search, and read. Go to an imaginative place that speaks to you with a read that offers a tug. There’s a gentle or strong pull to reach out to that bookshelf or click the online button and download. As you start with the first word, sentence and paragraph you’ll feel like you’re settling into a well-worn chair in a warm and comfy home. A soul place. Read and take to heart the visionary story.  It will speak to you and show you the way. There’s a plan going on in our life, and the soul knows what it is.

“Live Deeply . . . Read Daily”

pauldeblassieiii.com

 

Falling in Love with Soul

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Ahhh…to fall deeply in love with soul—not many have considered it. So few have discovered it. It remains a central need for us. We so easily become soulless, lose soul. There’s tiredness that won’t go away. There’s a vague sense of unhappiness lurking like a shadow. There’s that quality to life that it’s not wholly satisfying. These are symptoms of soul loss.

I’m preparing for vacation with Kate. We’re off to a secret place of new sites, smells, tastes, time together. We dwell on the past year, what’s new that we’re seeing in the places we visit. It’s a time of reflection, absorbing, and experiencing. Most of all, it’s a time of being together.

Doing depth psychotherapy and writing every day is consuming. Your work-a-day life is consuming. Life takes a lot. And, life can give a lot. But, soul is required. If we’re moving too fast, having lost enjoyment because of the speed at which we live, then there’s soul loss. We’ve fallen out of love with soul.

When I write, and when I do psychotherapy, I love what I do. When I prepare for vacation, I love the anticipation and the getting there. And, once I’m in the doing of what I’m doing, there can be utter joy. That is soul. That is falling in love with soul and a soulful life.

The visionary fiction I write dramatizes soul. There are people who’ve lost it or come close to losing it. They feel crazy or on the verge of crazy. When we get to the edge of sanity, we teeter and totter. Oh, it’s a very scary time. Sometimes the teetering goes on and on. We feel ill inside, lost and empty. Physical sickness strikes. Mental anguish bears down and won’t let up. The characters in my stories struggle with what it means to be a woman or a man living with pain from the past and abusive people in the present. What do you do? You can’t run from the past forever. You can’t pretend the toxic people in your life now aren’t as bad as they seem. They are. And the truth of what they are and how you play into what they do has to be faced. This is a visionary story—intense, loaded with choices that make the difference between soul and soullessness.

I do therapy and write and live from what I know and have gone through. If I didn’t my patients and readers would feel it. Instead, I’ve been told that what I’ve offered makes sense and helps hurting souls. I’m glad for that. The past week doing therapy has been tough, and I’ve given it my all. The past year nurturing two books in visionary fiction with another on the way has been hard work. I’ve given everything workwise my all. Even more importantly, I’ve given my personal life my all. At least, I believe and hope that I have. There’s been a lot of going through rough times and coming out the other end mentally and spiritually more clear and with sharpened consciousness. Doing therapy and doing writing, living as authentically as I can in my marriage and with my family, has been my priority.

Take some time this summer to make falling in love with soul your priority. You and I can do it by slowing our roll and taking in the joy of being with those we love. We can do it by slowing our roll and reading what nourishes us. Read with deliberation, care, letting the words and meaning of the story settle in like a good meal. On vacation, I like to slow our roll, not move fast and furious. I’m taking a beautiful visionary book, Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo. It’s a classic in the genre of magical realism. Acclaimed as a masterpiece of the surreal, it’s a story of one man’s quest for heritage and soul. Tormented spirits share secrets from the past.

I’m going to take my time with this read. I’m going to take my time with my wife, Kate, the sites we see, the moments lingering together. Falling in love with soul, for me, always means falling in love all over again with so much. What is right before me and with me every day comes once again to light. I realize how scary it is to lose sight of life and soul by living so fast and in such a demanding way. So, let’s take time together, live a little slower, read a little slower, and fall in love with soul.

Paul DeBlassie III, Ph.D.

Paul DeBlassie III, Ph.D., is a psychologist and award-winning writer living in his native New Mexico, crafting visionary thrillers energized with trickster mischief and natural magic.

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