GRAND Magazine - March/April 2017 - 25
grand life
Clean out your personal closet
BY DR. BOB WRIGHT AND DR. JUDITH WRIGHT
W
e all have unfinished business: something we were
never able to move past: a divorce, a fractured relationship, or a dream unrealized. Fortunately, in our
later years, we're granted a time of rebirth to discover wisdom,
self-revelations, relationship resolutions, and a renewed zest
for learning.
In Greek mythology, the centaur Chiron suffers a searing
wound and endures constant agony. Despite this, he grows to
become a wise and respected healer, often referred to as the
"wounded healer."
The takeaway here is agony can be transformational.
Chiron's suffering allowed him to better connect with the
pain of his patients, because empathy is drawn from shared
25 GRAND
MARCH APRIL 2017
or similar experiences. Facing our painful unfinished business
can lead us to deeper insight, connection, and opportunity for
growth.
Carl Jung wrote on Chiron, "Freud himself accepted my
suggestion that every doctor should submit to a training
analysis before interesting himself in the unconscious of his
patients for therapeutic purposes. We could say, without too
much exaggeration, that a good half of every treatment
that probes at all deeply consists in the doctor's examining himself, for only what he can put right in himself can
he hope to put right in the patient. This, and nothing else,
is the meaning of the Greek myth of the wounded physician." -Practice of Psychotherapy, Collected Works Vol. 16, pg.
115-116.
Our kids and grandkids offer us the opportunity to learn
with them-but only if we're honest with ourselves about our
own unfinished business. Did we miss out on having fun, so
we want that for them? If so, maybe they're here to teach us
how to play. Were we too harsh on our kids? Maybe we can
help soften things for them as they parent their own children.
"The Chiron Return," is said to be a period of personal
growth occurring from the ages of 48 to 55. For women, this
coincides with menopause, but men also go through physiological changes during this period. We can take this time to
face our unfinished business and handle some of the issues.
We can open up the possibilities of a grand "third-third" of
life. Or we can stagnate and succumb to the temptation to live
through our kids and grandkids, having given up on our own
personal development.
It's a time in life for our personal "spring cleaning," to heal
our wounds and recommit to living life more fully.
Continued on next page
https://books.google.com/books?id=yxE3AgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GRAND Magazine - March/April 2017
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