In the myth of Sisyphus, Sisyphus is doomed to roll a very large stone up a hill. It requires a huge amount of effort and at the end of the day his strength gives way and so the stone rolls down the hill, leaving Sisyphus no choice but to start the process all over again the next day.

And so it goes on… day in and day out.

Little does Sisyphus know how close he was to getting to the top, and to the end of his toil.

Many of us can relate to this story, and many of us repeat this pattern endlessly throughout our lives. We struggle and struggle and then give up, little knowing how close we were to achieving victory. We applied our logical minds to the problem, believing like Sisyphus that this is the only way.

If you're anything like me, however determined and persistent you might be, the effect of living with the struggle gets us into a mind set that just perpetuates the situation and ultimately is deeply demoralising.

The truth is Sisyphus does not have the physical strength to roll the stone all the way up the hill, and to keep on and on rolling it day in and day out is draining his life energy and his potential to change the situation.

Are there things in your life that feel a bit like Sisyphus's stone?

Perhaps it's your battle with shyness or introversion?

Maybe it's that urge within you to express your creativity and yet creativity seems a luxury in comparison to the other problems in your life?

Maybe you feel weighed down with emotions, and fear that if you begin to let them out your life will fall apart?

Perhaps it's financial burdens, or your responsibilities to the people in your life, or never feeling that you have enough time to do all the things you want.

Maybe it's the unfulfilling job or the unsatisfactory relationship?

So keep on going, keep on coping in the belief that one day it will get better because surviving is what you know how to do?

But life is funny. Every so often it sends you a life line.

It may come through someone you meet, a leaflet you pick up, through trawling the internet, through losing your job or relationship that causes you to rethink what is really important to you. In Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey this is called “The Call to Adventure”.

What happens next is totally up to you.

Either you listen to the Call or you ignore it. Perhaps there are too many Calls and you don't know which one to listen to.

Perhaps you are like Jonah in the biblical story and you avoid the call because it feels too big or you know its going to challenge you or be uncomfortable.

And then you find yourself in the belly of the whale.

Are you in the belly of the whale right now?

How will you know?

It's a big dark space where nothing much is happening, it may even feel quite comfortable and there's a voice inside that says “if only you had…”

How often do you hear the call to take action about some area of your creativity or self expression and you ignore it. Once a year? Once a month? Once a week? Every day?

If you are hearing this voice on a regular basis I suggest it is time to take action NOW!

Perhaps you relate to Catherine's story. Catherine knew there was something calling her from out of the shadows, however much she ignored it or pretended to herself, she knew she couldn't continue to sell out on herself.

The truth is that once you take the first step, something seems to shift. It is never as hard as you think it's going to be, and/or helpers appear to assist you seemingly from nowhere. In Jonah's case once he makes the decision to go to Ninevah, the whale ejects him out of his belly onto dry land, and the task of preaching repentance to the people of Ninevah turns out not to be as hard as he believes. The opposite in fact. They repent gladly.

If your life feels like Sisyphus, maybe its time to stop. Stop rolling the stone, stop toiling and struggling. Maybe there's a creative solution you haven't yet thought of. And in my experience there always is. There is a gift lurking somewhere in the interminable struggle.

I'm not asking you to commit to anything now, but I'd like to invite you to take your shoes off and let the foamy surf rush over your toes, before you even begin to think of strolling out into that bluey expanse and take the plunge.

Claire's workshops were invaluable to me, the work we did helped to unlock parts of me that had been frozen for years.  I was able to find expression and move into places that had previously held so much fear for me.  My emotions were no longer barred off, they were out for all to see, and they were accepted and encouraged.  This helped me to move through and become more aware of a lot of issues and patterns that had been keeping me stuck. T.L.

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