First Post

I have spent many hours, both blissful and tormented, alone in a room with a notebook and a pen, drawing, writing, writing songs, writing letters--letters sent and unsent, eloquent and awkward, finished and unfinished. I have carried little books in my pockets and recorded  overheard conversations, nascent song lyrics, morbid thoughts, angry outbursts, expressions of love and desire. I have drawn every friend I have at least sixteen times. I have quoted them and used their quotes to understand and explain what I'm going through. I have struggled and questioned and sweated my way through broken hearts, unprocessed childhood traumas, lost opportunities, and uncertain successes. All of this has been a celebration of inner work, the work I most love doing in this life.  

This blog is part of an independent study (Advanced Studies in Inner Work) at Antioch University. The course is about consciously naming and undertaking the lifelong process Carl Jung called individuation. The foundation of this process, as many psychologists and mystics have noted, involves facing the darkness within ourselves, and I will be working with my shadow aspects through the vehicles of dreaming, creativity, and reading other writers who work with the dark parts of the psyche. I will be posting my thoughts in this blog in the hopes of sharing and making sense of the work in a way that engages and inspires other inner workers. 

I want to thank Doug Sadownick, PhD, for his mentoring and for giving this course its name.