Living Well: A Psychology with Depth

What kind of psychology is needed to transform the challenges of the world? It seems this is not a question of knowing as we typically conceive it. The information we have is not enough to deal with our reality: There is a separation between knowing and acting. What is the role of the heart and the ‘unconscious’ in this? It is perhaps noteworthy that human beings have an inherent ability to relate to the unconscious and to know deeply, yet our minds seem to be working predominantly from an intellectual centre which has rendered the heart's impulses irrelevant. The distance between conscious and unconscious layers of the mind may mean that other sources of information and aspiration, that come to us, are being lost.

Maybe our lives are not entirely of our own making. Does psychology fail to bring meaning to our lives because it is not deep and humble enough to perceive the inner processes of development that lay a path in front of us which - if we walk it - also clarifies our outer strivings? What if the way to understand this, and what is not to be abandoned, lies in our ailing bodies? Both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung already noted that our bodies are not functioning correctly because we face a conflict between social and individual human reality which we repress. The sadness in the eyes reveals this dilemma of a body no longer free and, more broadly, that the development of personality matters. There may be a larger task to search for an authentic life and re-weave our personality with the spectrum of information we can become aware of.

This workshop is an invitation into a deeper psychology of self. A key idea is that there are different levels or centres of meaning which highlight a critical relationship between head and heart, ego and soul. According to this view, our being and becoming cannot be understood without the input of the heart and there is a transformative effect on the personality when these levels of self-experience come into alignment: More of our blueprint is liberated into the world of name and form. The workshop will also consider the mentoring principles of the self and what takes place in our children when we give our hearts to them: The germ of life is there, but it needs to be seen and set free.

Such ideas will frame this conversational workshop and are a vehicle to signal for assistance from intuitive and imaginal realms. This is the information and discourse we want to give priority to. The heart needs attention and deeper relationality.

What to bring & expect: To explore whether a different element can come into our life we must be also willing to work towards this knowing. Are you free to say ‘yes’ to the heart and attend to what is forming inside of you and the hearts of others? The workshop will offer opportunities to enquire into and express this side of human nature, with yourself and others. Please bring something to write and one thing that matters to your heart. This could be a dream, a memory, an object, a poem, or a section from a book. Something with heart substance. The workshop is taking place in an art gallery on the sea front. Spend some time by the sea and/or take in any pieces of art that you come across before the workshop begins.

This workshop is part of Brighton Wellness Festival and connected with another workshop I will be hosting earlier in the week: .

Find out more about my work and get in touch with questions: ‘’.

Host: Adhip Rawal

Host or Publisher Adhip Rawal