The Archetypes of Stress, and a Question for the Steemit Community!

in #naturalmedicine6 years ago (edited)

There are three types of people in the world.

We've all heard that one before (or some version of it), and I will wager a guess to say that each person has experienced within themselves, and seen in others, all three of these types. There's a funny thing about humans... that thought that our personalities define us, that once we develop from childhood into adulthood, that we "are who we are". I will hazard to disagree with this notion, as I feel that people, through many different channels, are capable of change, even to the point where, over the span of a life, we barely recognize the person we once were.

The subject of this essay has less to do with the kind of "person" we are, and more to do with the way we handle stress in life. Though, as many of us know, we can all be the best kind of person when things are going along swimmingly. It is, of course, when the chips are down that the phrase she/he is showing their true colors is heard. But, are these our true colors? Is it personality? Or are they just patterns of conditioning, and habitual methods of survival?

Do each of us have conditioning and habits that reflect each "archetype"? No one can be The Survivalist all the time, nor can anyone play The Victim forever. Is it situational? Personal? With those questions asked, which one are you, which one am I, during which times, and in which situations do we find ourselves embodying each archetype?

Let's talk about these three "archetypes".

iu-4.jpeg

The Victim

In times of struggle, you will find The Victim blaming and finding fault. Sometimes, The Victim will find fault and blame other people, other situations, other decisions, or even random things, like bad traffic, or the general unfairness of the world. But I have also caught The Victim blaming themselves, cursing their own fate, or coming down hard on themselves when things "don't go right". A favorite phrase of The Victim is, "why me?"
Unfortunately, we see that this archetype also struggles with self confidence, self awareness, personal growth, and have a tendency to be the creators of their own misery on a daily basis.
For personalities, mindsets and habits such as these, we see a lot of concurrent black-and-white thinking, and repetitive patterns of unhappiness, victimization, and coming to emotional conclusions of blame and fault, rather than considering responsibility, which requires neither blame nor fault.
The Victim suffers continuously, and often they suffer without help from others, either because they don't accept any tangible help from others, or because other people have given up trying to offer assistance.
The Victim frequently feels isolated, and lonely, and seeks the company of similar victimizing energies.

For The Victim, mindfulness and neuroplasticity practices are really key. Recognizing thought patterns that lend more toward fault and blame, right and wrong. Replacing those patterns with a broadened outlook and more options is usually very helpful. There are ALWAYS more ways to look at any situation, and very few of those options include black-and-white thinking. In fact, practicing this neuroplasticity of always considering more ways of looking at a situation is actually an antidote to black-and-white thinking, as it embodies a very different energy. So much of our narrow thinking patterns start in emotion, and just stay there, never to expand into problem solving, or evolution, or transcendence of thought. And so many of these patterns are rooted in anxiety. Often, if we consider this, and take a breath and a step back from ourselves, with less judgement, we will find that it only takes practice to have an open mind and to expand our consciousness beyond The Victim mentality.

iu-5.jpeg

The Survivor

In times of struggle, you will most likely find The Survivor hustling, making the best of a poor situation, or sometimes treading water, trying not to sink, but finding ways to manage until the struggle passes or resolves. The Survivor is always able to get by, but always at a cost, and the cost is usually at the expense of personal health and wellness, and emotional vitality, as well as self awareness. The Survivor is able to set emotions aside during stressful times, and can excel at compartmentalizing. This type is a scrapper, and can be amazingly innovative, often thinking outside of the box to "make ends meet" during difficult times. Often, The Survivor thrives in challenging times, and you may even find them creating challenge in their own lives to practice their own survivor skills. There is often a lot of pride that comes along with embodying The Survivor, but also often a mindset of Lack rather than Abundance. You will hear The Survivor say, "When shit hits the fan, I make it work to get by".

Where The Survivor struggles the most is, strangely enough, when things are going well. Sometimes they take the good times for granted, and become indulgent, further exacerbating that mentality of Lack, and cycling back into survival mode to kick their butts in gear again. Fortunately, The Survivor mentality has a terrific antidote as well, and it resides in Balance and Letting Go of pride and ego. Another great thing for The Survivor is practicing self-care. It is not selfish to practice self-care, quite the opposite. As we practice self-care, we find that we have more energy for those around us, and more energy to be able to manage stress in a positive, self assured, and mindful way.

iur.jpeg

The Bloomer

There is a very interesting archetype that I like to call The Bloomer, and may either be a subtype of The Survivor, or perhaps an expanded version of that archetype. During times of struggle, The Bloomer absolutely thrives, and often becomes a beacon, a guide, and light to those around them. Personal growth is easy for The Bloomer, especially during times of stress, because they are able to take that energy and transform it into something beautiful. It is a type of "emotional alchemy", as this type will take emotions like a piece of coal and use the stressful situation to pressure it into a valuable diamond, transmuting troublesome situations into blossoms of truth. You see this type continually seeing the good in situations, and using an out-of-the-box approach to constantly come up with new ways of looking at their own feelings and their own stress. There is also the tendency to take responsibility, rather than placing fault or blame.
It all sounds lovely, but believe me, The Bloomer has his or her own struggles.

What happens to The Bloomer when these seeds of growth are in well-nurtured, well-watered soil, rather than covered in tons of asphalt? Good question. We have all seen The Bloomer in complacency, and they are Being, they are Living, but it's a tough place to actively grow. As Ernest Hemingway said, "We are all a little stronger in the broken places", but what happens when we aren't actively breaking? What happens when there is nothing here to fix, and no real reason to grow?

Here is where I am actually looking for some advice, or feedback. There is an arising group of people who embody The Bloomer. They suffer from similar challenges as The Survivor, in that there seems to be a real need for struggle to be present for real enormous growth to happen. But, is that really true?

Do those who grow best in adverse conditions, do those who literally thrive in challenge and pain and change, actually NEED those things to grow?

And if not, how is this type best able to grow in a comfortable world?

This is my question for the Steemit community. I would so much appreciate any insight, as I believe there is a growing group of individuals who choose (consciously or non) to embody The Bloomer archetype. And it is essential that these people are able to grow and thrive outside of stressful situations, otherwise they have a tendency to create them out of thin air, for the sake of growth. And there in lies the challenge.

Thank you for reading, and I very much appreciate the insight you all have. We are a growing family of humanity, and are all here to grow and support one another in this growth, and I look forward to connecting more about how to help our human family grow, inside and out.

Xx Tree of Life

Image Sources:
The Victim - www.medicalxpress.com
The Survivor - www.apocalypsesurvivalist.com
The Bloomer - www.mizuyashi.deviantart.com

Proudly supporting the @naturalmedicine curation community! Come check us out, or join us on Discord chat!
My_Post_1.jpg

Sort:  
Loading...

Good evening (here) @thetreeoflife, working to do my small part in support of the great @pifc community, I am writing to let you know I have selected your post as an entry into their weekly contest.

I hope will find encouragement in learning this, to continue all you are clearly doing to add value to our Steem blockchain. Please follow the entry link above to find my supporting comments, to the PIFC Community, for the consideration of your efforts here.

All the best to you @thetreeoflife, for a better tomorrow!

Fantastic @roleerob, thank you! I will check out your initiative here. Gratitude 🙏 and all the best to you as well!

I found this post through @roleerob in the pay it forward contest this week
another interesting article @trhtreeoflife, I think that there's no people was born totally as a bloomer, some might be experienced the victim phrase then if they survived they'll bloom. people are born with such ability to cope with their situation and personality is something that you can develop not something there in your blood, IMO.

you can't survive in many different situation alone, but you can adapt to live with the situation and find the best way to keep growing, some might said it is mean "a survival" but it is not a survival when we can learn from others to keep growing, because we are human and we have mind and sense.

thanks for sharing your thought with us too

I agree completely! We are fortunate as a species to be gifted with consciousness and choice, and how we handle our emotions is a great way to exercise and practice both consciousness and choice. Thanks so much for sharing, I look forward to reading your posts as well! 😊

Great piece!! Insightful.

Me? I’ve certainly experienced all three. I wouldn’t call them “archetypes” as such, maybe I’ll write something about that and what the term means... but from my own experiences and observations we will all drop into one of these depending on context, circumstances, and available resources.

It’s really easy, for example, for me to drop into being Victim when shit is jut too hard and overwhelming, as it has for the last couple of weeks. What I’ve realised in reflecting on this for me recently was that it was a combination of external blocks which I had no control over, lack of personal resources (time, money, and health), and then layered some Unconscious stories from the past to “explain” what I was experiencing and feeling.

At some point I chose not to give so much weight to the stories, so went into Blooming, using the situation to grow and develop and face the challenges to make some much-needed changes in my life.

So just in that short period I stepped into all three.

The key for me is not identifying with any of these ‘archetypes’ and choosing to use them to my advantage... yes, even Victim. Because the message was loud and clear that I needed to sloooooow down.

When I did that, I had the space to realise the stories were simply that (stories), and was able to shift states. But I kinda needed Victim to get to that point.

I guess I’m saying that these are states and constantly shift, rather than archetypes which have more of a fixed nature (by definition). Maybe we could call them ‘archetypal states’??? Linguistic nit-picking, I know, but that’s just how I roll.

Love ya work 😊🙏🏽☯️💜

Posted using Partiko iOS

archetypal states, yes that's it, I love it. I settled on the word 'archetype' for lack of a better way to describe what I was feeling, tbh. I wanted to show how we all at some point embody these energetic shifts if you will, to show it in a more non-judgmental way as opposed to a fixed personality type. Thank you for describing it so well!
😊
I think you are also describing a really great Point here in the benefits of not identifying with any of these states personally. And that is that when we don't identify them and we don't Place judgement on them, we are much more able to be adaptable and flow in and out and make better choices for where our minds are at in the Here and Now to better manage our emotional states, to be aware of them and then make informed choices as to where to go from there. I mentioned in the post that the victim and the survivalist archetypal States have a tendency to lean toward a lack of self-awareness, however I agree and I think that you have shown with your personal example very well that that doesn't always have to be the case. :-)
Dang bro, you always get me thinking :-) I'm glad you're in a better place now and I appreciate you sharing a little piece of yourself with me and everybody else. I always learn so much from other people and now everyone else here has a chance to do that as well.
😊🙏 peace!

also, I look forward to reading a post about the definition of archetype :-) my question to you is, is an archetype by definition fixed, or is it something that we can embody as an energy temporarily?

The victim mentality is very dangerous, it stops us from developing and taking responsibility for our actions and life. I absolutely love how you created the archetype Bloomer and took the Survival mentality to a brand new level! 💚

Thank you @zen-art, and I completely agree with you on victim mentality. I think too there's always a tendency for people to pigeonhole and judge, when in reality we have ALL at some point been the victim in varying degrees, and it takes effort to NOT embody that archetype. I think that's part of the danger in it, is it's so darn effortless and easy to just blame others or blame crappy luck. Blame anything else rather than take responsibility. It's also unfortunate because that archetype also struggles with empowerment, because in a sense not taking that responsibility is also giving up personal power, and throwing valuable usable energy around like confetti, for anyone to use abuse or exploit.
It's also why victims stay victims, it's a vicious cycle.
Thanks so much for your comment. You always have such great insight. 😊 Have an awesome day.

Xx ToL

¡Hola otra vez @thetreeoflife! Te felicito, ya son dos entradas con tus publicaciones las que estan concursando. Las dos son muy interesantes.
Llegue a su publicación a través de la entrada de @roleerob, te presento en el concurso pay it forward Estas invitada cordialmente a participar. .

Hi I found your post through the pay it forward curation were you were featured by @roleerob.
Just stopping by to offer my small support to your blog.

I am grateful for all support, and offer a small bit in return! :D Thank you for stopping by!

I agree, we are not fixed and 'who we are'. Most of us are governed by our subconscious be it positively or negatively and don't really know fully who we are. Most people will ask you what your job is to estimate a level of respect they need to give you. And most people will answer a question such as 'what do you do?' in terms of a job, and also articulate that job intertwined with the sense of I- I AM a Doctor, I AM a lawyer.

I am a wife, a mother, a father, a friend, this job role, but i have interests which i think define my personality. Im interested in this and that etc and that's how i know who i am ..............This is common, what i actually see is most people getting a sense of who they are by filling the roles of projections of others around them.

If you strip away those projections, and the job, the I AM defining physical, materiel, external validations, then who are you? Who are you in your mind? In your quiet space, where no one else has access to .............when you don't need to behave a certain way which meets the needs and expectations of the people around you or your job role...........

A lot of people can't answer that. I can't fully, i became aware that I couldn't answer it and highly aware of how much of my personality is shaped not only from the past, but also based on continually looping and fulfilling the roles I perceive are projected onto me. It was a head fuck initially to come to this realisation, and ultimately is why I am here blogging anonymously. My actual being, who I am when I go inside, when i listen to my self, when i experience my own emotions and not adjust them accordingly for other people, does not conform with the image my nearest and dearest have of me, most of my beliefs sharply contradict theirs, and most of our values are inherently different. Slowly I am learning to say no and act in a way which aligns with what I am unravelling to be my true self, instead of saying yes and going along with things I do not wish to really, to maintain your projections of me and not disappointing. Sorry if this is confusing, it just seemed like it fitted perfectly at the end of this.

Also with regards to the 3 'types'. I don't fit neatly into one, I have been each one at different times. We are not fixed, we are very fluid and we literally know nothing at all when it comes to the nature of existence. It's our subconscious and surroundings that keep us fixed because we allow them to, if you work to aknowledge them and work out when you really do want to say yes or really do want to say no, you start to get this weird sense of starting to know who you really are. At first I would just worry that I am hurting people or just being anti social. But over the last month or so, i feel much stronger in my sense of self, my intuition is speaking louder, I am sleeping better, i am able to be much more observant than reactive, instead of doubting my self, my ideas, my experiences, i am fully looking to them for guidance and trying to work out what exactly my role is here. Starting to notice the ripple effects.........got a long way to go but it's cool :)

Yes I know what you mean and I've also started noticing how we often define ourselves socially by our roles... It was actually something my husband got me thinking about. When people ask him what he does for a living, he often will reply with "I work as a..." instead of "I am a..." and sometimes follow it up with "but I also like to do this and that". Some people just raise their eyebrows and nod, but in other instances it's been a real conversation starter. I've started picking up this habit and noticing a difference, not just in responses but in how I view my self as well. The less I define my self by my job, the more I open my mind to the other things I love to do, and to passion. And creativity. I have a very technical and scientific work life without much room for creativity, so this has been a nice internal change.
It also made me really consider the power of words, especially the words we use with other people. You see all over Instagram and what not memes and things of people talking about the power of thoughts and words, but until I started playing with it myself and feeling the difference, it was hard to appreciate. Now it takes less practice and is more just fun experimentation. Haha
With really cool results!
Thanks for sharing, got me thinking at 6am.which is never a bad thing!