Living the Unlived Life

 

How do we deal with our regret and frustration about the lives we didn’t lead, the choices we didn’t make, the potentials we didn’t fulfill? Jerry Ruhl explores how symbols can connect us to the deeper unity beneath these seeming conflicts and transform our lives.

 
 

LECTURE:
Living the Unlived Life
Friday, July 18
7:30 - 9 pm
$15 ($10 Jung Center members)
1.5 CE hours

WORKSHOP:
The Symbolic Life: Reconciling Life's Contradictions
Saturday, July 19
10 am - 4 pm (1.5 hour lunch break)
$90 ($80 Jung Center members)
4.5 CE hours

 
 

LECTURE: Living the Unlived Life
What is unlived life? We can hear its distant drumbeat in our inward mutterings about what we would have, could have, or should have done. It arises in mysterious longing or unexpected grief that come seemingly out of nowhere. We all carry with us a vast inventory of unlived life. No matter how full our lives are, there are significant experiences that have been closed to each of us. For everything we choose, something remains unchosen. In this lecture, we will explore how the promptings and callings of the unlived life are an invitation to consciousness: an expansion of our vision and our capacity to embrace the full measure of our being.

WORKSHOP: The Symbolic Life: Reconciling Life's Contradictions
Could we get through life without feeling divided? Day to day, we are faced with innumerable decisions, small and large. Contradictions can tie us in knots. Inherently, everything that human beings experience consciously is brought to us in pairs of opposites. This workshop explores how, when we allow both sides of any issue to exist in equal dignity and worth, a synthesis is possible, bringing new insight, meaning, and potential in our lives.

We draw on the wisdom of the ancient Greek myth of Castor and Pollox, the twin stars of the Gemini constellation, as an image of the unity that exists behind every duality. Unified in their childhood, this pair came to be separated, fragmentary, and miserable. One is mortal, the other divine. Only after much struggle are they reunited. Their story can serve as a prototype and navigation point for all humans on the path to wholeness.
Attention will be given to the everyday nuts and bolts of the symbolic life, and the shift from "either/or" to "both/and" thinking. Practical tools will be provided that can help us surrender old limitations, enrich our relationships and work, unlock new options, and be more truly present to our lives in the moment.

 
 

Jerry Ruhl, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice near Dayton, Ohio. He has studied spiritual practices in Japan, Bali, Thailand, Nepal, and India. With internationally known analyst Robert A. Johnson, he is the co-author of Balancing Heaven and Earth (1998) and Contentment (1999). This seminar draws upon material in the newest book by Dr. Ruhl and Dr. Johnson, titled Living Your Unlived Life. Dr. Ruhl received a master's degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and earned a PhD in clinical psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. He was formerly a trustee for the C.G. Jung Society of Colorado.

 
 

You can click here to REGISTER ONLINE for the Friday evening lecture, and click here to register for the Saturday workshop.

If you prefer, you can call The Jung Center at 713.524.8253 to register for this event. You can also click here to download a registration form - fill it out and fax or mail it to us.

 
 
 
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