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Living Myth

Episode 462 - The Child of Joy

Living Myth

Michael Meade

Philosophy, Society & Culture, Education

4.81.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode begins with the idea that all the troubles in the world at this time bring a great weight and pressure down upon, not just humanity as a whole, but also each individual soul. Since our souls are secretly tuned to the world, the widening divisions outside us tend to activate inner splits within us, specifically in the form of early life feelings of being abandoned, rejected and overwhelmed.

 

 

Fears of abandonment and overwhelm return each time we face great obstacles or the need to truly change, not because we are inherently bad or simply ill-fated. Rather, a genuine crisis will activate our early life experiences of rejection and loss in order that we find ways to heal our inner wounds and at the same time reveal our deepest gifts. Part of what seeks to become reclaimed as part of our natural inheritance used to be known as the child of joy, the source of natural buoyancy as well as inner resiliency.

 

 

Our innate connection to joy can be a meaningful antidote to the weight of the world and the increasing anxieties that entrap us. However, finding again this kind of soul connection requires that we work through the exact wounds that keep us from feeling fully alive to begin with. The problem turns out to be not simply that there was an original betrayal that leaves us wounded, but also that we keep betraying ourselves in the same way. Eventually, the issue is not simply who did what to us and why, but rather how we manage to stop abandoning ourselves each time we feel fearful, on the edge of overwhelm or stuck in life again.

 

 

Genuine change and renewal, on both individual and collective levels, require that we touch the original splits again and heal the wounds that separate us from the inner source of existence and the innate sense of joy that naturally attends the gift of life. For it is this soul connection and inner resilience that seeks to be found, that waits to be felt again and that wishes to be nourished, despite and because of the troubles that now plague the world.

 

 

Thank you for listening to and supporting Living Myth. You can hear Michael Meade live by joining him for three online events: "Living with Awe, Joy and Gratitude", a free event on November 20 and "Your Genius is Calling", an in-depth workshop on December 6 and "In This Darkness Singing" a free Solstice ritual on December 20.

 

Register and learn more at mosaicvoices.org/events. 

 

 

You can further support this podcast by becoming a member of Living Myth Premium. Members receive bonus episodes each month, access to the full archives of over 725 episodes and a 30% discount on all events, courses and book and audio titles.

 

Learn more and join this community of listeners at patreon.com/livingmyth

 

 

If you enjoy this podcast, we appreciate you leaving a review wherever you listen and sharing it with your friends. On behalf of Michael Meade and the whole Mosaic staff, we wish you well and thank you for your support of our work.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to the Living Myth podcast with Michael Mead, where this shifting, changing world is looked at from a mythic perspective.

0:24.5

This episode begins with the idea that all the troubles in the world at this time bring a great weight and pressure down upon, not just humanity

0:30.8

as a whole, but also each individual soul. Since our souls are secretly tuned to the world, the widening divisions outside us

0:40.2

tend to activate inner splits within us, specifically in the form of early life feelings of being

0:47.9

abandoned, rejected, and overwhelmed. A genuine crisis will activate our early life experiences of rejection and loss

0:57.4

in order that we find ways to heal our inner wounds and at the same time reveal our deepest gifts.

1:05.3

Part of what seeks to become reclaimed as part of our natural inheritance used to be known as the child of joy the

1:13.6

source of natural buoyancy as well as inner resiliency our innate connection to joy

1:19.6

can be a meaningful antidote to the weight of the world and the increasing anxieties

1:24.6

that entrap us. While I was preparing for an upcoming event on the emotions of awe and gratitude and joy,

1:49.7

several things came up that I want to address in sequence.

1:54.5

The first thing is the way in which all the troubles in the world at this time

2:00.6

bring a great weight and pressure down upon

2:04.1

not just humanity as a whole but also each individual soul. As each day seems to bring more

2:12.8

heart-rending news, the sense that we might just turn away does not in the end simply save us,

2:21.3

for the polarization and fragmentation that trouble the outside world are also felt deeply within

2:28.3

us. Our souls are secretly tuned to the world and the storms of radical change and upheaval that affect both nature and human culture easily become overwhelming waves of emotions inside us.

2:44.8

And as accepted patterns of all kinds dissolve around us, we become more vulnerable to feelings of insecurity,

2:53.1

anxiety, and fear, even if we live in relatively secure places.

2:59.3

A common refrain I hear from friends and even casual acquaintances involves a sense of constantly feeling the weight of the world,

3:10.3

and I hear from therapists and counselors how most, if not all, of their clients are on the edge

3:17.6

of overwhelm. So the first idea is that we are collectively experiencing both a greater sense of uncertainty

...

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