Resolving fundamental issues in our unconscious can help us to release psychological limitations and pain, and to identify that which is most meaningful to us but which is buried below the chaos. I think of a scab which has formed over our unconscious, cold and hard until something ruptures the scab and releases the chaos in a way that is often damaging and unhealthy. Too often we fail to take ownership of our internal chaos and instead we externalize the cause, blame others, justify or rationalize our response, or try to forget the experience entirely. Sometimes, we even try to stifle and bury our emotions, but in trying to overpower our emotional responses we use up our well of self-control and resiliency because we have to keep solving the same problem over and over. None of these unhealthy responses does what’s necessary to process the chaos within, so the scab forms over again until something else causes it to rupture.
But more often than not, we set personal, social, and professional limits to protect us psychologically and not disturb our fears, insecurities, and erroneous mental models of how the world works and how we think of ourselves. This makes our world smaller and stifles our ability to discover, develop, and express the most meaningful part of ourselves and to connect with others.
When I reflected on my intense Morning Pages session the other day, I couldn’t identify any specific triggers even though there must have been something that caused it. And if some event(s) caused it, event if they weren’t apparent, perhaps we can learn to welcome, and even actively seek and induce, those circumstances that cause the unconscious chaos to bubble over. It’s perhaps harder to draw those things out when things are pleasant than when we make ourselves uncomfortable and push our psychological boundaries of perceived safety and comfort. But with the right perspective and skills, through journaling sessions such as Morning Pages we might be able to release, process, and purge the internal chaos within.