Status Updates From Finding Meaning in the Seco...

We’re easily seduced into believing we are serving the soul when we are serving our own needs for ego reinforcement, comfort, security, and the approval of others. We rebel against social norms in the belief that this is individuation, when it is merely self-indulgence masquerading as difference.

I’m sad I’m nearing the end, as this has been an incredibly eye-opening and revealing read so far.

What we don’t know about ourselves (childhood agendas, infantile longing, the burden of our assignment for personal growth) will be projected onto our beloved. They can’t/shouldn’t carry responsibility for the task of our life, the projections fade and the relationship becomes a power struggle. We seek to control. We profess innocence and believe our rationalizations, but we have in fact victimized our beloved.

Latest recommendation from my therapist. Not necessarily for people experiencing a “mid-life crisis”, more for those undergoing various adult challenges looking for guidance in navigating developmental passages (which I suppose some would call a mid-life crisis). Hollis challenges the reader to embrace the “insurgency of the soul” and identify the needs of the “Self” through self-reflection. Solid start.