Psychologies Magazine No.97 Make a fresh start Back Issue

Storytellers call a new beginning an invitation,an invitation to embark on a ‘hero’s journey’, where
you get to open a door and go through to a shiny, new adventure. And this month, we invite you to begin your very own hero’s journey. We invite you to wipe the slate clean by engaging your beginner’s mind on page 38, and then commit, be bold, stop waiting and start your journey – right now. It’s OK to feel hesitant, resistant and scared. You may have to let go of a role you’ve been playing or a sense of identity that you’ve taken on. When we challenge or let go of that perception of ourselves, we can feel confused. We were perhaps defined by a role – mother/lover/rich man/poor woman/big cheese and now that title no longer fits and we don’t know who we are any more. Or at the start of a new era, we may just lack direction, guidance or a clue. Read Charlotte Mendelson’s excruciating account of her first explorations of the sexual landscape at school on page 66. Our sex expert Suzi Godson gives us a definite map of blossoming sexuality on page 37 and writes movingly of the adult experiences that Holocaust victim Anne Frank never got to enjoy. Whatever your new beginning – whether you want to find a new way of working (read the advice from the five career gurus who teach us about the skills you need to create your dream job on page 70) or you want to figure out how to face your fears even when ‘things might go terribly, horribly wrong’ (page 26), we’re giving you the tools to help you survive and thrive on this beginner’s journey – however bumpy it may be. But at the end of the day, there’s no substitute for action. For example, I learnt the theory of true contentment this summer at the Wilderness Festival. Sitting in theNow Eventstent where ourbrilliant Psychologies experts John Paul Flinto and Oliver Burkeman gave talks on how being in the present will make us happier and healthier, I nodded, took notes and agreed that ‘now’ is where it’s at.