🌀🐇 #97 jung on archetypes, music for anxiety, lesson from walking

Plus Emotional Weather Patterns  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ​ ​ ​ ⚡️ Enlightening Bolts 🃏 Intro To Archetypes: Understanding Jungian philosophy and the collective unconscious. [Watch it here.](=)​ 🎶 Sona Care: Research-based music for anxiety made by grammy-winning producers. [Try it here.](​ 🚶🏻Why I Walk: An exploration with images on the value of walking and the lessons it can provide. [Read it here.](​ 🧠Free Anxiety Masterclass: 3 traps keep people stuck in anxious patterns. Learn what they are and how to overcome them. [Send Me Access]( ​ 🎇 Image of The Week ​ A shot of the landscape in Utah looking otherworldly. This beautiful photo was captured by [JJ Pickard.]()​ 🔮 An Ask For Support I send this email to make your week a little brighter. We are nearly at 100 consecutive weeks of Down The Rabbit Hole. My hope is these emails can offer you some resources and insights for living with a bit more wisdom and wonder. As time has passed, I've had many correspondences with readers, direct conversations with our retreat and course participants, and even interactions with complete strangers that continue to point me back to this recognition: Anxiety is the great joy thief and dream killer. And it's so common. It keeps people from enjoying the goodness in the here and now. And it stops them from leaping toward their more audacious goals. For months I've been working with our team on a new project that focuses specifically on healing anxiety. And I'd like your help. Next week, we're releasing a free 3-part anxiety masterclass. In the first part, we're exposing three traps that keep people stuck in anxious patterns (often without even realizing it). I feel deeply that this training can help a lot of people. If you know anyone who is struggling with anxiety, whether it be mild flashes or chronic worrying, consider sharing this opportunity with them. Send this link: []( When they sign up we will notify them the moment it's released. I appreciate you helping to spread the word. ⛈ Emotional Weather Patterns Tune into this encouragement from Stephen Fry: "I’ve found that it’s of some help to think of one’s moods and feelings about the world as being similar to weather. ​ Here are some obvious things about the weather: ​ It's real. You can't change it by wishing it away. If it's dark and rainy, it really is dark and rainy, and you can't alter it. It might be dark and rainy for two weeks in a row. ​ BUT it will be sunny one day. It isn't under one's control when the sun comes out, but come out it will. One day. ​ It really is the same with one's moods, I think. The wrong approach is to believe that they are illusions. Depression, anxiety, listlessness - these are all are real as the weather - AND EQUALLY NOT UNDER ONE'S CONTROL. Not one's fault. ​ BUT They will pass: really they will. ​ In the same way that one really has to accept the weather, one has to accept how one feels about life sometimes, "Today is a really crap day," is a perfectly realistic approach. It's all about finding a kind of mental umbrella. "Hey-ho, it's raining inside; it isn't my fault and there's nothing I can do about it, but sit it out. But the sun may well come out tomorrow, and when it does I shall take full advantage." 🤓 Learn This Word Merak: A feeling of bliss and the sense of oneness with the universe that comes from the simplest of pleasures. It is the pursuit of small, daily pleasures that all add up to a great sense of happiness and fulfillment. ⏳ From The Archives A hand-picked classic HighExistence article. ​[6 Brilliant Terry Pratchett Proverbs for Growth, Creativity, and Living a Fulfilled Life]()​ Terry Pratchett was a surrogate parent to me; growing up, he showed me the world for all that it was and could yet be. When he died two years ago, aged 66, from early-onset Alzheimer’s, I cried. In grief, but also in gratitude for all that he’d left behind. His words continue to reverberate through my life as I try to live it the best I can. His novels were incredibly funny, weird, and playful, and so the literary critics hated him. They dismissed his books as frivolous and silly, as mere pun-laden pastiche. But millions of readers thought otherwise and begged, borrowed or stole his books (at one time he was the most shoplifted author in the world). He’s now widely hailed as one of the finest writers of the century, but his genius as both a writer and observer of the human condition went unrecognized for decades. He wrote Fantasy – in the critics’ view, the lowest tier of ‘genre’ fiction. But Pratchett used that fantasy backdrop and his razor-sharp wit to explore what it means to be human. He held up a mirror to our nature and played with the warped and colorful images he saw in the reflections. He exposed the corruption and deceptions of governments, technologies, ideologies, and – most important of all – of the ordinary person like you and me. Amidst the wizards, trolls and vampires, his books burned with anger at the needless suffering and cruelty of the world. He didn’t simply mock and criticize, but threaded small beacons of hopeful wisdom through the pages of his 40-odd novels that lit the way to a better, more compassionate world. So here are six of his finest moments – short quotes I’ve selected from that thread of glowing guides which strike at the heart of life itself. They are all about how to live and live well, while playfully teasing us for how easily caught up we become in telling ourselves stories that can trap and confine us. They’re about growth and change; the dangerous allure of certainty; and what it really takes to be a creative mind, alive to the worlds inside and outside of ourselves. We begin as we’ll all end, with Death – the Grim Reaper himself, who was the only character to appear in every one of Pratchett’s Discworld novels. Despite being a 7-foot tall, scythe-wielding skeleton, Death’s laconic and confused attempts to understand humanity produced some of the most philosophically wry moments in modern literature. This one, I think, stands out: ​[Continue Reading]()​ 🌞 Joy and Self Transcendence On Friday we'll release the latest issue of [Stairway To Wisdom](=) including a breakdown of The Second Mountain: The Quest For A Moral Life by David Brooks. Here's a taste of what's inside: "Joy tends to involve some transcendence of self. It’s when the skin barrier between you and some other person or entity fades away and you feel fused together. Joy is present when mother and baby are gazing adoringly into each other’s eyes, when a hiker is overwhelmed by beauty in the woods and feels at one with nature, when a gaggle of friends are dancing deliriously in unison. Joy often involves self-forgetting.” Stairway To Wisdom A library of insights & actions steps from brilliant books sent in a growth-inducing weekly newsletter. ​ [Sign Up Now](=) 🎬 Endnote We hope you enjoyed this issue of Down The Rabbit Hole. Feel free to reply and tell us what you think. Want to help us spread the word? We love sharing these gems of wisdom and wonder with you each week. If you love receiving them and want to help us spread the word, here is one quick way you can do that: Forward this email to one friend. That's it. It will take 5 seconds and will help us spread the good vibes and reach more people. We appreciate you. With Wonder, Mike Slavin & The HighExistence Team P.S. Did a friend forward you this email? Read previous issues and sign-up to receive future issues here: [(​ ​ ​ Mike Slavin ​[Connect With Me!](=)​ ​ ​[Unsubscribe]( | [Update your profile]( | 40 E. Main St. #1137, Newark, DE 19711 [Built with ConvertKit](=)