A breakdown of former meaning is the first sign of a breakthrough.

Unreasonable expectations lead us into unproductive guilt or demoralization. Demoralization is not so much about meaninglessness as it is feeling disempowered to create meaningful changes in our lives or the world.

What does a multicultural, pan-spiritual yet atheist-inclusive myth-inspired guide look like?

We risk despair if we’ve overcommitted our life, sense of self, and meaning to be contained within a narrow realm of possibility, a self-imposed prison. This is being lost in the finite. On the other hand, becoming lost in the infinite is falling into an abyss of aimlessness or fantasy by avoiding commitment to any path.

Trust your curiosity to guide you to places of significance. And trust any moments of awe as signals that you’re on the right track.

As the poet Rilke exclaimed, “I want to know my own will and to move with it. And I want, in the hushed moments when the nameless draws near, to be among the wise ones—or else alone.”73

The critical task is choosing the ‘new’ life you want to live, one governed by your personal values, not your previously existing habits of mind and behavior that do not serve your greater sense of purpose.

What are our own cultural traditions around personal or spiritual growth? Can we reclaim them if we’ve lost contact with our heritage, our origins?

The ego can experience a type of whiplash moving rapidly from transcendent states and back into the material world. Its response is sometimes to double-down on defense mechanisms to convince us we’re in control.