Adventure Into the Unknown
The Age of Inner Exploration
Welcome to the YouTopian Journey. Each week I will be sharing unique wisdom as well as a more in-depth overview of the artwork that is featured on the Instagram @youtopianjourney. This week we discuss why you must make an adventure into the unknown!
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IDLENESS IS HAZARDOUS
“Were it not for the leaping and twinkling of the soul, man would rot away in his greatest passion, idleness.”-Carl Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
The modern world offers us everything we could ever want. There is no need to struggle, no need to strain, no need to strive while a world of convenience is a single swipe away. But rather than using this technological edge to our advantage, we wallow in lethargy. We let the world go by as we scroll down the screen, exchanging our precious time for a convenient but hazardous idleness.
This is never a fair trade.
We become bored and passive. We lose the energy of today in the hopes that it will be used tomorrow, sacrificing the present for a future that may never come. We look toward the screen, hoping for readymade answers, hoping to find some meaning or quest, a crusade of our being. Surely, we will find something to put our energy toward. Why not? There is always something trending. There must be some opportunity for us out there. If only we can wait it out and remain idle until that sweet and golden opportunity arrives, then the idleness will be transformed into action.
Most end up disappointed.
“Boredom, passivity, stagnation: these are the beginning of mental illness, which propagates itself like the scum on a stagnant pond.” -Colin Wilson
We wait and the world moves on. Left to our devices, the mind wanders. We compare ourselves to others, to the strangers that we will never meet. We compare our original ideas to what is currently available, wondering if there is room for us in a crowded and noisy world. We evaluate ourselves, hoping to emulate what we deem “successful” in a world where we don’t realize that it is US who define our own success, not others.
Idleness is not something to be celebrated nor should one aspire to arrive at such a state. Laying on the beach may be relaxing for a week of vacation, but not for existence. We were made for greatness, to overcome obstacles, to break through barriers, to be something much more than what we are currently.
We were made for adventure!
Understand that idleness saps the soul, but the action of adventure provides the catalyst for action and greatness. This catalyst begins small, even marginal in the grand scheme of things. However, the greatest adventures often stem from the smallest beginnings, just as the tallest of trees begins life as nothing more than a tiny seed.
We cannot afford to remain idle, especially because the true adventure awaits. Not to some far-off land that pops up on your social media, but the adventure within. We all possess some inner desire that needs to be externally realized.
Deep within the abyss of the soul, far beneath the bone and blubber, is a small kernel. A seed that must be discovered and cultivated. Now some people, recognizing this innate quality, but lacking the ability to work hard for this potential growth and prosperity, spend their lives looking for the easy way out. They search for courses and classes that promise them wealth and prosperity. Or they spend their time shopping for clothing and other material goods that will give them the title of greatness, the aura of success. This is silly and because of this silliness, they remain mediocre. Greatness cannot be added to the cart and mailed to us with same day shipping. It cannot be learned from a get rich quick course. It can only come from pursuing what is within. Thus, the multitude fail to locate greatness. Yet it is there, always there. It is within the individual, within you. It is waiting for us to make the adventure within!