Another brochure in the mail: “Create the life you have always dreamed of! Make miracles happen! Have everything you want in abundance!” These brochures are always accompanied by an airbrushed photo of the coiffed facilitator looking highly “successful” and happy. Through affirmations and positive thinking they promise to show you the way to a new life.

Such brochures tend to generate one of two reactions within me. My childish ego says, “Oh goody, thanks. I’ll take an overseas holiday and a new house.” My adolescent cynical self wants to run amok and create some chaos because it can’t stand the neat, perfect life being described.

While there is nothing wrong with the techniques being taught, they only give half the story. They imply there’s something wrong with experiencing difficulties; that life should always be smooth and positive, otherwise you are doing something wrong. This attitude may encourage an avoidance of painful feelings, but it’s actually dealing with “negative” states that builds a stronger, wiser and more resilient self.

The healthy human system

Most of us understandably embrace feelings such as peace, happiness and confidence. We are a little more reluctant to face sadness, anger or fear. If we look to nature, however, we get a demonstration of just how important both positive and negative energies are. For example, there is the creation of new life going on (positive), but there is also death and decay (negative). But it’s death that makes way for and feeds new life. There is order (positive) in the social networks of a species but there is also chaos (negative) in the genetic variations that occur. It’s this genetic “chaos” that allows for new features to evolve within the species. We can witness lots of different forces at work in nature, not only those we would normally consider positive. All these energies are necessary to maintain a healthy, balanced ecosystem.

Natural systems are definitely not always nice and gentle. If these systems were all too perfect and controlled there would not be enough fluidity to allow for the incredible variety and adaptability of the natural world. Similarly, with human systems, we need access to all our inner forces, or emotions. They allow for growth and development and we ignore them at our peril.

The ancient Greeks understood how the emotions influence the lives of human beings. They described these forces and emotions as gods at work outside of the individual. They told stories and wrote plays about these emotions and warned people they were unwise to ignore them lest calamity unfold. The same is true today. The only difference is we now realise these gods are actually inside us as our emotions and desires. It’s up to us to work with these inner gods and demons. If we don’t, calamity results in ever-widening circles of influence. We see the consequences played out within the individual, within a culture and now on a global level.