Facing your fears and your own inner demons: Entering the Abyss

You have left the safe harbour of the familiar and the known. You have listened to the call of your spirit, and found the resolution you needed to make the changes you wish to make; the changes that will take you closer towards your dreams. You managed to resist the negative and doubt filled reactions and voices of those who would keep you stuck, and you can feel the sense of possibility opening up in front of you. You found your courage!

Is this where we get to skip to the final destination? Is this the smooth home run you may have envisaged in your personal dreaming? Does that courage remain unwavering? Probably not is the answer.

When we are left with ourselves, what exists in the silence and space? Is this is the phase of the journey where we are more likely to be faced with only our own doubts fears and insecurities?

You may have given up a job, a relationship, a steady income stream, or a relatively comfortable way of life, and in the face of that, wouldn’t it be lovely if we never doubted these key decisions we make? The truth is however, that we have simply entered the next phase of Hero’s Journey, the part where we may be confronted by our personal doubts, insecurities, and shadow voices and may just find them even louder than those outside of our own self!

In psychotherapeutic practice, this is commonly referred to as ‘shadow work’. It’s where we get to see what limiting and perpetual scripts we have running, and learn how they are dictating our choices.  It’s where we the hear the Inner Critic repeating negative messages based things such as not being good enough, feeling like an outsider, always getting it wrong, or being too much. As a result of these core beliefs, we react in the world from a place rooted in these hidden aspects of the psyche; we feel vulnerable so we enter counter-attack, we feel scared so we defend our corner ferociously, and we are most certainly no longer responding from presence.

It can be convenient to blame all of our shortcoming upon the influence and impact of others, so what does it feel like when those influences are removed and we find that we are still coming up short of our own expectations? Self-doubt can be one of the biggest Demons we ever have to face in life, and as we move closer towards our dream destination, this is almost inevitably going to be the next stage of our evolution into greatness; the facing off of our own ego identity.

When we approach the Hero’s Journey knowing that this will be one of our Rites of Passage, we are far more likely to be able to overcome this challenge. In order to bring home the treasure, we must first slay the dragons. Are you ready?