We create a living hell

It occurs to me that the definition of hell might simply be living in constant fear.

We’ve conjured up images of a literal hell, a place of fire and torment, but from a depth psychology and symbolic perspective, perhaps hell is just a representation of what it feels like to exist in a psyche perpetually consumed by fear.

With that in mind, how many of your daily decisions are made through the lens of fear and diminishment rather than love and expansion? I suspect that many micro-decisions—so small we barely register them—are actually driven by fear. And until we bring that fear into consciousness, we continue constructing a life absorbed in it. We create a living hell.

From there, we find ourselves in hopelessness and despair. Some part of us wants more, longs for something beyond fear, but we don’t allow it to exist—because facing that fear feels unbearable.

It reminds me of a saying I love: "Hard is hard. There is no harder." It’s true.

We don’t live in a war zone. We are not in Gaza, fearing for our lives or facing the immediate threat of physical harm. And yet, we still struggle. That’s real. Our psychic pain is real.

So while we don’t get to shame ourselves for having problems, we do have a responsibility to address them. If we are privileged enough to live in safety, then we are also privileged enough to do the inner work.