Let’s call him Fred. Fred is a quality individual. He applied himself in school, unaware that nearly all his education exercised the left side, rational, logical part of his brain, while mostly neglecting the right side. He launched a career in a profession or occupation generally respected by the mainstream culture around him. He married, had two or three children, felt energized by his life and all was well in his twenties and thirties.

By now Fred is 42 or thereabouts. His body has begun to settle a bit, as has his wife’s. The kids are grown up or soon will be. Fred is feeling a little low on energy and enthusiasm. His once interesting job now inspires little more than a yawn. Out of habit, inertia or simple bewilderment, Fred soldiers on. After maybe another year of stiff-upper-lipping-it, Fred begins to sink into depression. He is living on automatic pilot and barely notices his depression until his wife and friends start asking him if something is wrong.

At first, he just shrugs it off and deflects the comments but soon they become hard to ignore, especially when his boss begins to bring it to his attention as perhaps interfering with his job performance. Soon Fred finds himself willy-nilly in psychotherapy or spiritual direction or consciousness coaching.

What is wrong with Fred? Basically, he’s been climbing the “ladder” only to realize in midlife that the “ladder” is against the wrong wall. Like many good people, Fred unconsciously bought in to the assumptions of the mainstream culture. This means that the point of his education was to learn a lot of facts and how-to stuff, mostly utilizing the left side of his brain with little emphasis on the inspirational, artistic, intuitive, spiritual side of his psyche, which was largely left on its own. This is like lifting weights with your left arm for 20 years, while leaving your right arm hanging at your side. Now at midlife, Fred is grinding to a halt. His neglected right brain is demanding its due while Fred continues to live his life from his left brain until someone enlightens him. The right brain is taking energy from Fred’s psyche to keep itself functioning. This in turn is overtaxing the left brain and gradually draining it of energy. The result is depression.

Since Fred is unaccustomed to dealing with his right brain, he undergoes a longer or shorter period of ennui until someone intervenes.

A psychologist will make him aware of all this, may suggest that Fred reflect on his core values and reshape his life choices around those. A spiritual director will likely propose a daily spiritual practice, such as meditation, to engage the soul and they will likely discuss the here and now of the present moment. A consciousness coach will help Fred enliven his life by introducing higher levels of consciousness. All of these approaches will expand Fred’s imagination about life, including his own.

Bill O’Brien is a consciousness coach and shamanic practitioner. He and his wife Linda lived in Shepherdstown from 2005-2021, before relocating near family in Blue Bell, Pa. He can be reached at billobrienconsciousnesscoach@gmail.com.