Awakening from the Eternal Sleep: Are You a Sleeping Beauty or Preparing for the Journey?

What does it mean to be ahead of your time? Perhaps it’s a concept that doesn’t exist. Instead, are we sleeping beauties waiting for a prince’s kiss, or are we quietly preparing for the journey of our lives? The more therapists and coaches we encounter, the more we’re reminded of our uniqueness, agency (or dependence on fate), beauty, and strength—even in moments of weakness, which are entirely okay. We’re told we have the right to emotions, to tears, to our human experience. Yet we often remain trapped in an artificial, culturally modeled construct, an unhealthy creation from which we must liberate ourselves.

Perhaps now is the time to awaken from this perpetual slumber.

What if everything is one, and we are simply experiencing life in fragments? What if depression is a switch, a jolt that shakes us out of a worn-out rhythm—a scratched record playing the same tune over and over again? Perhaps there is no other way to wake us. And when the end comes, maybe it’s not early or late but precisely on time. Yet we dare to question its timing as if it’s ours to judge.

Could life be simpler than the tangled web we create through overthinking, dissecting, and analyzing? Do we frighten ourselves with thoughts of things that don’t exist and never will? I’m not dismissing planning or foresight (provided they’re not excessive), but are we ready and open to adventure? Or are we tethered to the safety of routine?

Our answers will differ depending on our temperament, our so-called “personality disorders,” and the narratives we’ve constructed. But maybe we are one, complementing each other in unexpected ways. A rigid rationality balanced by spontaneity and carefree joy, each addressing the other’s needs. Why don’t we see this unity? Why don’t we see ourselves in others beyond labels, names, diagnoses, expectations, judgments, affinities, and memories?

Can we “give this to ourselves” to forge a deeper connection? Can we dissolve into others, blend and blur the lines of our individuality? Are we ready to relinquish our distinctness, our carefully curated or neglected image?

Who are we, truly? Members of a political party, a church, a book club, or a sports group—defined by these affiliations? And what will we do with this realization? Will we take pride in it, encouraging others to try hiking, traveling, or investing? Will we cultivate a distinctness that defines us, or can we blur differences, seek commonalities, and find shared meaning?

If not, then this change is a breakthrough. It allows us to bury the hatchet, to bare our weaknesses and embrace them in others. To embody them, to notice them, to merge with them. Do we have these skills? Do we want them?

Such unity, transcending what we call life, grants a meta-perspective, a far-reaching wisdom. Each of us holds it, though it’s not always accessible.

The question remains: Do we want to wake up?