Living an Imaginative Life

So many people are suffering because of a lack of a deep inner life.

But, the world of dreams, intuitions, feelings, even visionary encounters can bring you wonder and great wisdom. 

For over a hundred years, in psychotherapy rooms across the globe, therapists have helped their clients interact with their deeper selves. While this therapeutic context is, and continues to be, a great service to the world, you need not shut yourself off from your personal experience of inner life.

According to Dr. Mary Harrell, author of Imaginal Figures in Everyday Life: Stories from the World Between Matter and Mind, it's time for the nurturing of soul life to move beyond the consulting room. 

Suffering, the inescapable common denominator of the human condition, is never pleasant. But, Dr. Harrell says that if you tend it well, that very suffering can transform into human compassion and love. It is so common that during times of suffering the imaginal world, animated by a host of figures, guides you in finding your personal path to transformation. 

The confounding and increasing violence in the world, especially as expressed in mass shootings, is signaling a need to return to the deep wellspring of inner life. The trustworthy guides in the imaginal can become the antidote to isolation and confusion that results in so many young people who become lost to themselves. 

Listen in as Dr. Harrell joins hosts Andrea and Lisa to share more about her book, as well as what can occur in the depths of the unconscious and why it's so important to acknowledge its importance.