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independent woman who both wants to be totally self-sufficient
and alone, and wants to be a nice, gentle lady respected for her
brilliance and creativity. The other is a perfectionistic,
demanding, stodgy man who also wants to be free,
spontaneous, loving, and relaxed. Both produce fantastic
fantasies reflecting their personal mythologies.
2.
Use fantasy and a pillow to heal some of your old wounds.
Imagine yourself as you were during the period of painful loss
or failure. You may be very young, an adolescent, or an adult.
Pretend the pillow is you at this earlier time and you are
hurting. Hug the pillow, comfort the former you, love yourself.
Imagine your Inner Shaman or God coming and touching you
and your former self (the pillow) and healing the wounds made
by the earlier experience (the paradise lost). Ask the healer for
advice.
3.
Have another fantasy that provides a hero or heroine some
solution to the problem you are working on. This hopefully will
guide your "quest" for new ways of coping. This can either be a
fantasy of flowing back on your paradise-lost river and finding
some good feelings that provide relief from the problem (and
seeing how the positive feelings happened earlier) or making up
another long, detailed fairy tale about magical, creative, ideal
solutions--a vision--to this problem. This is your new myth...
but it may not be realistic at all.
4.
You now have an old, out dated view in conflict with a new,
exciting, scary view or solution. The old myth is familiar but
causing you grief (so you may quickly reject it). You suspect
the new way has hidden mine fields but it is so attractive you
are tempted to impulsively try it. If you can work out a
reasonable solution or plan cognitively, perhaps you can avoid
foolish impulses.
(a) Find a motto that fits your old and the new myth.
Examples:
Old Myth
New Myth
I want to be Mother Of
The Year!
Doing something with my life
is important too!
I must be the best, no
time to play.
Better to balance work with
fun.
Having fun is all that
counts.
Have long & short-term goals.
(b) Name the character that symbolizes each myth.
Examples:
