Seeking: How Your Desire To Explore Can Benefit The Collective
3 Ways To Use Your Quest For “New” Supports Stability
Photo by Ashley Light on Unsplash
So are you someone who craves new experiences? The opportunity to explore and play?
Then you may be a bit of a seeker. The explorer/seeker archetype, according to Carl Jung, is categorized as a desire for new experiences and discoveries, and a likelihood to test boundaries. On the surface, this does not seem like a person who would do well in community with others. But I think that’s false. If we think about the need for community to grow and evolve, then a member who enjoys stretching the current guardrails and seeking new ways to do things is an asset to the collective.
The seeker needs to know that they can maintain autonomy while being a part of a unit. The inner call they have to start new things is what keeps them from being restless and complacent. While community can signal stability in a way that may trigger feelings of being limited, that stability can provide the opportunity for adventure with a safe place to land after you need a reprieve.
Let’s think about the gifts and challenges for a seeker as a part of an interdependent community with three specific examples. How would this apply to you if you recognize these aspects within yourself?
Tradition doesn’t have to be boring.
As a seeker, you crave newness. A constant diet of the same just doesn’t work for you and you need to find ways to fill this need while not creating chaos of what does work. Sometimes the monotony can prompt you to break what’s working. If the concepts of stability and tradition feels like repetition, let’s shift that perception for you.
What if traditions were built around the why versus the what? As an example, celebrating the Summer Solstice can be a time to create your personal and shared traditions. The longest day of the year is an opportunity to honor nature and to celebrate with dance, bonfires, ceremonies, and offerings. Choosing what to do each year can shift to honor where your community is and what nature has provided for you. But the energy will be the same regardless of the specifics of it. The tradition can be the celebration, and the fluidity of the specifics of the celebration can provide the newness that you desire as a seeker.
The spirit of a seeker can provide a spark of energy that allows traditions to stay fresh and not become stagnant and rote. The symbolic actions need to have the spirit present or else they’re just being done to check a box. Traditions are just one example of how variety can keep us actively engaged in large and small parts of life. Routine can become monotonous and can keep us from embarking on opportunities that are helpful. Allow the need for new energy to keep you tapped in and curious about life.
This brings us to another point…
Commitment can have a “little c”.
The thought of commitment issues usually brings up couples with relationship difficulties. People that can’t get along or agree on things together. But commitment can mean being committed to a group of people and a location in a way that feels limiting for a seeker. However, all interdependent communities need different roles filled to continue to thrive. Some of these roles may include finding new resources, connecting with other communities, or executing new ideas. All of these roles require you to be a part of the community unit but in a way that allows your need for exploration and evolution to thrive.
This kind of commitment doesn’t tie you down but it gives you a purpose for your desire to roam. It feeds your desires by giving them a larger motivation. Commitment in this way also allows the collective whole to be clear on how you want to be engaged with and what you will contribute so your role is understood. Your individual goals now have a collective benefit that is praised and valued. You are not a misfit for wandering, you are courageous as an explorer. Clarity and openness are what can make this mutually beneficial for everyone involved.
Let’s go with one more…
Exploration begets wisdom to share with the collective.
If everyone in an interdependent community chose to be still and never explore, then there would be an air of complacency and a lack of new knowledge. There needs to be exploration and information gathering individually and collectively. Also, being a part of a collective does not mean you lose your autonomy. A group of individuals can work together and still have individual interests and curiosities. This is what makes the collective rich when these contributions are combined.
You can and should continue to learn and bring your evolved self into the community you have chosen to be a part of. Also, there is the concept of belonging to more than one interdependent community (shocking I know). If you are a seeker and thrive from moving around then you will likely find more than one place that you call home.
Community is about clarity, understanding, and transparency. This means that if you are contributing as you said you would, then there is nothing that stops you from contributing within the means of what you have to give. This can create more connected energy and foster the sharing of resources amongst groups of people.
Interdependence is the competent counterbalance to dependence.
American exceptionalism is one of the greatest lies ever sold. No one does this thing called life all on their
Do you recognize any of these feelings or behaviors within yourself? If so, begin with the prompts above and explore where they take you next. Be gentle & patient with yourself, and ask for help if you need it. You don’t have to do this alone.
Erica ✨