The Nothing: The NeverEnding Story and a Journey to Healing
Rereading The NeverEnding Story reminded me of how powerfully it illustrates a healing journey. ‘A’ healing journey is critical here since no one’s process looks the same. Of course, seeing it this way is my interpretation, and you may have your own. For me, the story tells of how Bastian, the main character, goes from the emptiness and ‘ the nothing’ of loss, depression, and disillusion to a life of connection, love, and vitality. And how he goes on to share his story and, through it, brings others back to life.
Many have experienced this sense of ‘nothing’ like a silent dread or a foreboding presence with no name. This feeling, or a lack thereof, is what many clients have come to me for help with. They want to understand what the terrifying ‘nothing’ is. To me, the ‘nothing’ is the indifference and apathy we can reach when we are deeply depressed, out of touch with ourselves, and conflicted inside. It often comes when we face the unfamiliar territory of change and don’t yet know what the future holds. It can arise when we can no longer use the narratives and scripts that have long kept us safe as our sole means to navigate our lives and inner world. It can point to how we are unfulfilled and need new meaning. In such times, it can feel like the rug has been violently pulled out from underneath us, and we have no ground to stand on.
Supporting and guiding people as they find their way toward the connection, love, and vitality they’ve lost has shown me the message of the ‘nothing .’ In The NeverEnding Story, we learn that what we are being called to do by the ‘nothing’ is to recognise the power within ourselves to give our story a new name. We can spend lifetimes telling the same story, i.e., following the same beliefs, patterns, and ways of being in the name of familiarity, fear, and self-preservation. In turn, we stunt our growth clinging to the stories we’ve outgrown and no longer serve us, failing to recognise we have the power to create meaningful and often necessary change.
If we can find a way to let go of the old story, grieve it, and recognise it for what it is (a story, not who we are), we will have space to create something new. Something we’ve always dreamed of. Even in the making of this new story, the old beliefs are likely to creep in. We may take many detours before we discover the things that matter to us. Bastian’s journey demonstrates the intense challenge of confronting ourselves and allowing ourselves to change.
Although the story is fiction, it depicts the struggle quite realistically, especially with the message that it’s a never-ending story. All of us are neverending stories, and our job is to rewrite our stories over and over again. We change the characters, the setting, the plot, and the title of the story. We end and start again. Life asks us, over and over, to be brave enough to create new meanings out of the experiences we’ve had.
Has ‘the nothing’ been growing in you? Are you clinging to an old story? Does it need a new name? Is it time for you to create a new story?
