Positively Wyrd
Positively Wyrd
Harnessing the chaos in your life
About the Book
This is a personal development book with a difference - quite literally a weird one. Starting with a new way of looking at an old word, it merges chaos theory with transpersonal psychology to create something that's highly practical and that gives new power and new direction to the everyday confusions of life.
In Nordic tradition, the word 'wyrd' - or 'weird' - meant much the same as 'fate'. Like fate, it describes the fabric of our lives; yet whilst we always have the choice, there's always a twist which changes each one into something we don't expect. It's those twists that give our wyrd its weirdness; yet the real weirdness is that these 'messages from the wyrd' are always there to help us. We can ignore them, and wait passively - fatalistically - for life to change: which it probably never will. We can fight against them, try to wrest control of our life from the Fates: only to discover that control itself is nothing more than a myth. Or we can learn to work with life's weirdnesses - and use their help to weave the fabric of fate into a new form of our choosing. That's our choice; yet there's always that twist...
It might seem a weird way of working with the world, but unlike so many others it's one that does work. With commonsense and clarity, with humour and humanity, and with a strong emphasis on practice and personal experience, this book shows how to develop an affinity for the natural weirdness of life - and to make life positively wyrd.
The sequel to this book - Wyrd Allies: Harnessing the chaos in your relationships - is also available here on Leanpub.
About the Author
Table of Contents
-
Preface
- Acknowledgements
-
Introduction
- Using this book
-
1 Living in the dark
- “There’s a whole in my bucket…”
-
2 A weird kind of fate
- In the hands of fate
- A subtle hint of weirdness
- Weaving a different world
-
3 The senses taker
- Choosing not to choose
- Avoiding emotion
- Beliefs, feelings, senses
- A habit of choice
-
4 Everyone is to blame
- “You can’t get there from here”
- Tyrant and victim
- Who’s to blame?
- No-one is to blame
-
5 I am what I am
- Whose life is it, anyway?
- The ‘silliness barrier’
- The ‘tall poppy’ syndrome
- Strengths and weaknesses
-
6 Affirmative action
- The curse of belief
- An affirmative habit
- Into action
-
7 Wants and needs
- What do you want?
- We all want more money
- What do you need?
- What do you want from me?
- What do you need from you?
- “I’m a substitute for another guy…”
- Take aim…
-
8 Control and other myths
- Fear is a four-letter word
- I want to be powerful
- A different kind of power
- New Age, new illusions?
- A time to trust
-
9 Time to let go
- Non-attachment, non-detachment
- “Nobody’s perffect”
- Let go of knowing
- An end to suffering
-
10 All the fun of the fair
- Riding the roller-coaster
- The hall of mirrors
- Walking the tightrope
- Bring on the clowns!
-
11 One step at a time
- A state of survival
- Facing frustration
- Panics and priorities
- Re-accepting self
- The process of change
-
12 Weaving the threads of wyrd
- A web of connections
- The ordinariness of wyrd
- Do what you will
- …but be sure that you will it!
-
13 My word is my bond
- Choosing our words
- A question of commitment
- Doubt and discipline
- The role of religion
-
14 It’s all imaginary
- Real or imaginary?
- Invisible images
- Watch the details
- Real imagination
- Inventing the real world
-
15 Divine coincidence
- Cause and coincidence
- Everyday weirdness
- As above, so below
- Prediction and paradox
-
16 Dancing with our selves
- Stance and dance
- A dramatic gesture
- The flow of the dance
-
17 The art of empowerment
- As the muse takes us
- The art of listening
- Drawing our visions
- Words on the wind
-
18 We’re busy doing no-thing
- Allowing ourselves to notice
- When less is more
- Time to slow down
- Do it consciously
-
19 Which ‘I’ is me?
- What – or where – is ‘I’?
- Caught in the web
- A choice of boundaries
-
20 Stretching the boundaries
- Reclaiming the balance
- The export of blame
- Facing fear
- A world without walls
-
21 Self and others
- The sound of silence
- Being selfish
- Being self-reliant
- A web of choices
-
22 Relating
- Soulmates and cellmates
- Happy families?
- Friends and other allies
-
23 Working in a weird world
- A world of connections
- A world of confusions
- A world at work
-
24 It isn’t easy being green?
- A sense of value
- A sense of place
- A sense of healing
- A sense of trust
- 25 A wyrd way of life
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Further reading
- Wyrd
- Self-exploration
- Philosophical perspectives
- Fiction
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