The fatal human flaw, as Michael Peterson calls it, is alive and real in all of us. This human flaw resides deep within our psyche and soul, rarely surfacing, only in the few quiet moments when we are alone and in deep self-reflection.  The irony here is that we spend very little time in reflection, primarily because of the fear, of the fear, of the unknown.  More specifically we fear the truth. We fear what may rise to the surface, into our conscious mind, and once again remind us of all our past failures, mistakes, character flaws, insecurities, shame, guilt and unintegrated trauma wounds. 

We prefer to live in the illusion that busy-ness and productivity are the path to fulfillment and happiness.  We fill our time with every distraction imaginable, meaningful or not, anything to avoid looking inside ourselves to discover our true self, our true essence, our soul nature. We falsely believe the illusion that we have everything under control, despite the evidence. We emphatically deny the fact we don’t know who we are, why we do, say and behave the way we do. We hold on to the illusion that one day I will figure out who I am and discover my purpose in life and then everything will be okay. The only problem is, that day never arrives. We end up living the unlived life.  

How we think and feel about our self is reflected to us, through our relationship with self, others, and in our way of being in the world.  Our degree of consistent self-care is a direct reflection of our self- worth, self-respect and self-esteem.  Most of us don’t even realize that we are just puppets on a string with psyche as our puppet master.  It is not our fault.  We are just doing, being, acting, thinking the way we have been programmed to, just like our parents, grandparents and every ancestor before them.

To live the unlived life, we must overcome our innate human flaw so we can feel safe in our bodies, thus we can reconnect with love and authentic happiness. This is the alchemical process of individuation.