the limping shrink

https://www.flickr.com/photos/148686664@N06/44648211715 The Rules of the Game of Life That's what I've been looking for all my life - The Rules that will make it easier or at least less painful to navigate life. We all have an idea of what the Game of Life is about. For me it has been about working out the rules to a level of certainty that allows me to finally relax and enjoy it. For some it is about collecting the most gold tokens. For some the most virtue points. For others it's about popularity, loveability, knowledge, skilfulness, perfecting freedom, deeply knowing ourselves or perfectly expressing our inner world. And for almost all of us either pain-avoidance or unequivocal proof we have been cruelly mistreated. We all have a set of rules that we think will get us what we fundamentally want. That feeling of being complete, belonging, loved, that our existence matters. In Western countries we all start our lives this way, putting our token on the board of the game. It

  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIvOtxfZt8v_lzVWcGp7dzUvzDERd5w_M7MOaHjjzLy_quHHA57ovBC5JTlq2j2gNQ2eITkXwFh696hWZ9LhYlVCNYwRi7rDTUDqwcj2EGTDADOiHgnpExo7m1kxNcRobJ7_PK4OYNem4/s683/hippos.jpeg . Many of us are having trouble finding our true purpose. Wallowing directionless like a hippo in the river of life, envying those people who are already on their personal surfboards and easily harnessing the waves. We have a drive to express ourselves in the 'real' world outside our own heads but feel hampered by not having a clear idea of what that would look like. We are looking for the thing that will give us the pleasure and reward of progress and make us impatient to start the day. Our talent. Our fruit. The individual unique thing that we can give back to serve the world that has grown us.  Our culture has come up with a lot of ways to triangulate on what our true purpose might be, and an overview of these may well be in a future blog, but today I want to

    From wikimedia commons GGF Race 5.jpg                                                                              We all go around seeing only the world we can see through our personal blinkers, right? Our personal preferences Each of us has a preferred way of looking at the world. For me it's often from the point of view of 'What are the most useful and ethically sound rules for my own behaviour?' For someone else it might be 'What does this group of people need to be happy?' or 'How can I act right now to make the thing happen in the most efficient way possible?', 'I must puzzle out the truth wherever it takes me' or 'What happens if I do this? Our personal blinkers All of these are good, healthy and useful ways of approaching the world. But they all have an accompanying perspective that we are blind to. So for me that might be that playfulness creates stronger relationships than sincerity alone. And for other people it might be that if th