For over two decades now I have been preoccupied with psychology, neurobiology, the nature of psychic energy, creativity and the connection between the mind, body, spirit and wellbeing.
My curiosity has led me through a Ph.D., an award-winning academic and writing career, and a lectureship at a leading university. The Immersive Workshops at Symbolic Sight are an amalgam of all this experience and research.
In my personal journey, the first wakeup call I had was a cancer diagnosis twenty years ago. For the first time I felt the life that was alive in me. I began a deep journey of trying to make sense of it. Later I took my curiosity into more formal practice-led academic research. But this time, it also involved the process of healing personal trauma and ancestral patterns. All this led me to questions such as:
- What does the gift of life mean?
- Is life a gift at all when there’s so much suffering and hard-to-resolve trauma?
- How can I create meaning in my life? … or should I be asking instead; what is life asking of me?
I became passionate about finding out if there was a way to access a ‘steady-state’ of the mind, even when we were faced with complete darkness and uncertainty: if it was possible to develop the capacity to be the still point of a turning wheel.
I grew up Buddhist in Sri Lanka and the first time I sat in meditation I must have been five or six years old.
Despite my experience in mindfulness and meditation practice, I recognised that they only get you so far without a broader framework for deeper excavation into the root of an issue.
There were potent psychic energies hidden in these places that needed to be witnessed and worked through – only then came the delightful task of learning to be unfazed by these energies and re-direct them into really productive avenues.
In all this I did find awareness practices (and motivational hacks) to be invaluable, but as complimentary tools, not as means to an end.
I understood that we need to go deeper, to break into the core of who we really are, rather than paddle in the shallows of our soul simply fixing symptoms.
The quest to become unapologetically authentic inevitably led to me the psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s work on Individuation. This gave me the broader framework I was searching for.
Individuation is a process of transformation, of expanding one’s awareness by integrating unconscious, hidden aspects to become a living expression of the whole personality ….. that is, developing our unfazeability (I like making up words!).
So I put myself under the microscope (still do), and meticulously explored my own depths, my light and my darkness.
I had indeed been paddling in the shallows, spending the first half of my life hiding, fitting in … my deepest self was camouflaged, hidden in plain sight!
No wonder I encountered resistance to my personal dreams from the world around me, and pitched against it was the indecision and second-guessing rising from within.
It took me many years to understand the deeper dynamics, make lasting breakthroughs and not judge myself by looking through other people’s eyes.
It was a process of uncovering the truest, and most whole expression of me, ‘warts’ and all!
Why I love Jungian approaches to mental health and wellbeing is they place self development of the person as the cardinal goal in all things relating to resolving our conflicts. The attitude is not of being a victim of an ‘issue’, but of outgrowing it.
These methods also rely on creativity and imagination. I believe these are incredibly effective because most of our problems stem from inner child wounding. Creative thinking allows us easier access to that long-ago realm. Besides, healing doesn’t have to be a dull slog, the whole process can be made playful, and enjoyable.
So how do we become resilient and develop the capacity to continuously re-invent ourselves, rather than simply give up?
I came to understand that the only tool I’ll will ever need in my survival kit is profound trust in myself. Trust that freed me to take accurate action, to self-correct when things don’t go according to plan.
With inner freedom we lay the strongest foundation, find the confidence, courage and humility to break out of the box or gilded cage we’ve placed ourselves in, whichever the choice of metaphor…
…the height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-mastery, the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. … and this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.
― Leonardo da Vinci
And a disclaimer of sorts to end with…
If you decide to work with me, you will soon see that I offer no quick-fixes or hacks. Expanding consciousness is a long process: years and months not mere weeks.
But I have distilled some of the most effective practices and approached an issue from many angles so that you would have speedier progress. There’s no need to re-invent the wheel after all!
The programmes are designed as immersive workshops in the sense that intellectual understanding isn’t enough to achieve lasting change, you need to experience it, live the process.
In many ways the work of becoming whole is never done, but what I can promise you is to give you plenty of tools and exercises that are grounded in research and practice to excavate deeper, deliver new understanding and inspire action.
I also commit to being your companion … as the archetype suggests, the one who breaks bread with you … to hold space as you progress through your journey.
And what you offer me in return is a privilege, a pleasure, and the learning experience of being a witness to a fellow journeyer.
“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation.
Alice replied, rather shyly, “I—I hardly know, Sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”
― Alice in Wonderland