Your Fast Track to Personal Growth

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There’s a useful theory about archetypes and pathways for personal growth. It states that we all have a “highway” to knowing ourselves and our deepest truths. There are 4 archetypes and 4 paths (and endless variations of each one).  I believe you’ll recognize yours and benefit from naming it.

Of course, you can experience something deeply from each of these paths, no matter what your archetype, but you will find yourself most easily immersed in one, if you pay attention.

The first path is contemplative practice. These are the people who gain so much value from meditating that they recommend it to everyone as an indispensable practice. This type generally recognizes meditation as crucial to their sense of well-being and connectedness the first time they meditate. Seated, silent meditation comes relatively easy to people of this archetype. It makes complete sense, and it is true, for this type that meditation is important.

The second path is art and celebration. This path includes rituals, chanting, burning of incense, creation of art, writing, poetry, and celebration through musical practices, anything that expresses the creative spark. I see this tendency in most artists, music lovers and poets. There is something profoundly true, meaningful and beautiful in appreciation and expression of creativity. If you are a person of this archetype, you will find yourself deeply immersed when creating or viewing something that touches your creative center.

The third path is the process of separating what is true from what is untrue. My brother the mathematician is probably one of these. Many rabbis, scientists, and many, many skeptics (who unfortunately devalue the beauty and profundity of their own path) belong to this archetype.

The fourth path, which is the one I belong to, is a physical path. Many yoga teachers are of this archetype. Many of my friends in Search and Rescue, at the gym and on bike rides are also this archetype. The point is you’ll know it when you’re doing it. When I am doing something physical, like yoga, my mind becomes clearer and I feel fully inside my own life and experiences. I experience my own sense of what is true for me most strongly when I am moving.

A meditative state naturally and most readily arises when you are knowingly engaged in activities on your path. Recognizing it as sacred allows you to acknowledge and honor it for the place it holds in your life.

Related posts:

1. Why you don’t need to learn to Meditate
2. Get Motivated, Get Back on Track – Free Teleseminar