Motherhood: Facing and Finding Yourself

Joseph Campbell noted that hero stories usually involve a visit to the abyss where the protagonist must face a frightening ordeal.

Or you may silence the promptings of your inner voice and be overly reliant on collective dictums about how to parent. Doing so can relieve the tension of self-doubt, but this relief will come at the sacrifice of authenticity.

Running away—from children, commitments, places—appears as a magical solution when we have never fully consolidated a strong sense of self.

When we have had damaging experiences in childhood with our parents, these become internalized and continue to affect us as adults. It is as if our early experience of our parents becomes the pattern for how we treat ourselves and how we unconsciously expect others to treat us.

In Celtic mythology, sacred wells were points of access to the other world, and their waters had magical or healing properties.

posited that the overarching one was an innate desire to realize one’s potential.

This is analogous to the hard work that one must undertake to recover from childhood trauma or emotional abuse. It may take us years to break the spell.

who most gets under your skin. What about that person irks you the most? It is likely to be that quality that you have repudiated in yourself.

When interpreting a fairy tale psychologically, we start with the assumption that all elements in the tale are aspects of a single psyche.