I just noticed your reply — thank you so much.

The article is just was I was looking for.

I will have a real reply for you later on.

But first, and please bear with me if this is all a bit silly and out of place, but since I imagine from your posts that your interest in this topic is not only academic but personal, I will share some things.

I have been having a very, very hard time. Maybe you are struggling too, and that's why you created this subreddit.

Lately I’ve been thinking approach vs avoidance motivation not in only clinical terms, but also in spiritual terms. Hubris vs. humility.

I have been thinking of the struggle between approach vs avoidance motivation as a mythic journey.

First, a denial of the call. The cal to reach/ embody god/ the higher self.

This process may last a while. It is a great struggle in itself.

Now, this is key: sometimes there is deep wisdom in avoidance.

Maybe there is a great and terrible prophecy. Subconscious, perhaps. What can happen with action and striving. We may annihilate the self. Or, sometimes, even more miserably, the very goal we wish to obtain.

So we keep our longings at bay.

I had been thinking this was a terrible mistake, this avoidance. That it was great cowardice. But then I realized, no, there was wisdom in it.

Second, the call overwhelms us to action.

There is ruthlessness here. This is the most painful part. Risking it all.

This may seem like the opposite orientation. Perhaps it is. But it is really just awareness of an equal truth. Equally important to honor. We are not just tender and careful. We hope to great heights. We gamble even with what we value most for a chance to reach god.

Third, the aftermath. Sometimes our most miserable secret suspicion, our greatest fear — it’s true. We’ve lost it all, in once having strived for it.

Sometimes this realization takes years, or even a lifetime, to come. Sometimes it’s so terrible, we’ll do anything to keep it at bay.

But finally it becomes clear.

Fourth, integration. A complete and utter lack of regret. Of course there was avoidance. Of course there was approach. I was born to do it. And born to suffer and grieve, like all others.

The avoidance was nothing other than a prophecy embodied instead of known. The approach nothing other than its necessary denial.

It was worth it.

All we can do is make art and do what little we can to ease the suffering of our fellow man.

The goal for me is integration, not one or the other. I want to honor both parts.